Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Extreme Right = Extreme Left

The Extreme Right and the Extreme Left are substantially identical in their ultimate states, both being the same totalitarian beast with different colors. National Socialist Germany and Marxist-Leninist Soviet Union were both totalitarian, brutal, oppressive regimes with mechanisms to control every aspect of human life under their authority. National Socialism had its Fuhrer and Leninism had its General Secretary. Even the regimes' tastes in art and music were similar, as were their propaganda tools & secret police.

Current political dialog uses "extreme right" to refer to political groups who want to use state authoritarianism to control social & cultural aspects of modern life, while "extreme left" is used to refer to those who want to control economic aspects with positivist government power.

Being both socially "liberal" yet preferring minimal government economic power (minimal, not zero) makes me hard to classify. I'm definitely not a moderate. I tried "libertarian populist" once, but learned that "populist" seems to have evolved to refer only to disreputable elements seeking power. I'm still seeking a "label".

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