When I taught American history in public school I had a few methods to inscribe on adolescent minds the way political systems work.  My basic tool was to show a middle position on the blackboard as a mid-point line and work left and right of that line using attitudes towards “change” as the difference between left and right. My knowledge of the differences was that the left preferred change and the right was resistant to it.

Now this predisposition of mine was based on the idea that if you went to the far “left” you found revolutionaries who exacted nothing less than shaking the world as it was to put what was on top at the bottom and what was on the bottom on top.  Of course, the “right” opposed this for they had a stake in maintaining the world as it was.  The far right, like the far left, was willing to go to war to prevent any change at all and some of those on the far right, the counter-revolutionaries, the “reactionaries” or the radical right were willing to change the world to go back to an earlier time when slavery and women were tied to a patriarchal system.

The spectrum of political belief tied to this analysis could be pictured as follows:

THE “LEFT”                                                                                                 THE “RIGHT”

            Pro Change                       THE MIDDLE                  Resist Change 

  Revolutionary – Radical – Progressive – Liberal – Conservative – Reactionary – Rad Right

The Poor–Working Class–White Collar-Suits–Managers–Lawyers/Ac’ntnts-CEOs

A new formulation of the above can be constructed in view of adding attitudes

towards elitism and religion to it.  Here is one sample:

THE “ELITIST” LEFT                                                 THE “RELIGIOUS” RIGHT

Anti                           Pro                             Pro                                     Anti

   Bushies, Vouchers,   Public Education        Govt Support of Religion    Gays/Abortion/

                                        Gays/Abortion                War w/Iraq                                 Women

It is not as easy as it once was to draw the lines.  I don’t think that I’ve gotten it quite right.  I have had to leave a lot out in order to simplify how it looks on paper.  I think that the left and the right are mutually antagonistic.  They meet somehow in the middle with one or the other side drifting so that one wins in elections.

This is not just a description of a political spectrum.  It can be once again a description of people’s attitude towards change.  For instance, you can put democracy up on a scale also.  Please look at the following:

LEFT                                                                                                                      RIGHT

Anarchy – totalitarianism – plutocracy – aristocracy – theocracy – monarchy – self govmt

This, too, is a simplification, but it has meaning for me if I were to teach it again. The nuances are great and the subject is immense when considering all the possible combinations and permutations. I shudder to think about one or the other systems being exported out to space colonies in the future.  Pity them, pity us.