From: James Ormond <jimo@astea.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 17:12:16 -0800 (PST)
To: Sandy Sandfort <sandfort@crl.com>
Subject: Extreme Left/Right
Message-ID: <Pine.HPP.3.91.961118184355.23458G-100000@hpg60.astea.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Sandy,

I always had trouble understanding what people meant when they used the 
terms "extreme left" and "extreme right".  Then, about 4 months ago, I
saw a guy define the "political spectrum" the way (he said) it used to be 
defined before the definitions were corrupted (by whomever wants to 
divide - and conquer - the people).  It made sense to me.  A spectrum 
afterall, at least when we're talking about colors, starts with one type 
of color and graduates to other, DIFFERENT colors.

He defined the "political spectrum" as follows:

< ------- LEFT                                                 RIGHT ------->

            Monarchy      Oligarchy      Democracy      Republic      Anarchy

Rule by:      ONE            FEW           MANY           LAW           NONE

Examples:   Dictator,     Communist,      Lynch Mob     Constitutional
            King          Fascist State                 Govt (US before
                                                        1930's)


So, according to this definition of the political spectrum, a true 
"leftist" would be a person that supported the government's usurpation of 
individual rights, property rights, human rights, privacy rights, etc.  
Obviously we don't look at it this way.  The government only takes away 
our property (eg. through income taxes), etc. when it's FOR OUR OWN 
GOOD AND THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRYMEN!!!

Sadly, this can only be done (in this country) by violating the US 
Constitution, and it has been done and it is being done.  

Unfortuneately, the people that support and seek to defend the Constitution 
(according to the political spectrum you see above) are on the right 
(those that support the Republic).  It's not politically correct to call 
yourself a "rightist" these days.  

Of course, there are not too many Americans (including people that call
themselves "leftists" or "liberals") that are willing to publicly admit
that they are opposed to the US Constitution.  I dare say that most 
leftists would actually say that they SUPPORT the US Constitution.  Many
of these people are very concerned about the deterioration of our 
liberties and spend a lot of time and energy educating themselves and 
others about how this is being done.  I know this because I used to 
consider myself a "leftist" (although I was never too fond of applying 
such labels to myself); after all, I had to be SOMEWHERE!!!  My political 
"education" started during the Reagan years.  Since that administration 
was considered "right-wing", I knew I didn't like that (because of the 
BAD things that it was doing) so I must be the opposite.

When I used to listen to a certain "leftist" radio station broadcasting 
out of New York City, they would talk about "left-wing", communist 
dictatorships and "right-wing", fascist dictatorships.  A dictatorship is 
a dictatorship!!!  The "wing" that it comes from makes no difference!!  The 
way the media defines these things makes no sense; you can't have a 
dictatorship on BOTH sides of a POLITICAL SPECTRUM no more than you can 
have YELLOW on both sides of the COLOR SPECTRUM.

Maybe I'm totally wrong in my thinking.  If I am please try to clarify 
things for me.

I bring this to your attention only because I notice that you often use 
these terms in some of your e-mails.

I think that most "leftists" and "rightists" want many of the same 
things.  We can't get together because the language we use has been so 
corrupted.  


Sincerely,

Jim.