30 years ago, while teaching the concept of political spectrum, I used the traditional linear alignment with Communism, Socialism, Liberalism on the left and Dictatorship, Fascism, Monarchy, and Conservatism on the right. Independents were scattered throughout the middle. Same analogy was used within a party; ie, on the liberal side ther…
30 years ago, while teaching the concept of political spectrum, I used the traditional linear alignment with Communism, Socialism, Liberalism on the left and Dictatorship, Fascism, Monarchy, and Conservatism on the right. Independents were scattered throughout the middle. Same analogy was used within a party; ie, on the liberal side there were radicals, traditional liberals and moderate liberals and on the conservative side there were reactionaries, traditional conservatives, and moderate conservative. I researched alternatives because I couldn't find a place on that scale for anarchists. But it did reflect the challenge for someone one the more extreme ends of the spectrum to look toward the center and beyond and see reasonable people. The radical looks to his/her right and sees fascists/the conservative looks to his/her left and sees communists.
To try to account for that, I created a circular scale that did not quite close at the top. The bottom were independents, the right was conservatives, the left liberals. The "circle" was. more like a Celtic torque-opened at the top. I used that space to describe the explosive effects of anarchists in the manner an electric spark was snap across that gap. It also establishes the concept that communism and fascism are not as far apart as we think, making the jump that Lenin and Stalin made to introduce Marxism to agrarian Russia most understandable as a jump from communism to fascism or ultra-liberalism to ultra-conservatism.
In short, I agree with your circular analogy.
I'd not seen anyone suggest anything like it, so I was on my own; but nobody seems to object to the graphic.
Sounds like you've seen someone or something that uses that circular spectrum. I'd truly like to read anything on that topic you can share with me.
I have nothing academic, just observations of people and the world. My observations were informed by study of Russian and Chinese history as an adjunct to travel- Soviet Union in '86 and China in '88. We were in Leningrad when Chernobyl blew up and Tianamen Square a year before the massacre. I think it's easier to see the loop when you get first-hand observations of how a government treats it's people.
Add that to college stuff where I could see my fringe friends looking very similar on the stridency and extremity of their arguments. Literally the same arguments, eyeballs and bulging veins: the similarities.
I've carried this theory for a long time and saw it reinforced when the Boogaloos contemplated their relationship with extremes of Antifa. I love your gap and spark analogy because it speaks to how those two synergize and release the every of violence. I've not seen many folks make the circular reference, but it's clear as a sunny day to me. If we all saw it that way, it would be easier to find the common ground. Especially when we all understood the hairy eyeball is reserved not just for the folks across from us, but also those behind us.
30 years ago, while teaching the concept of political spectrum, I used the traditional linear alignment with Communism, Socialism, Liberalism on the left and Dictatorship, Fascism, Monarchy, and Conservatism on the right. Independents were scattered throughout the middle. Same analogy was used within a party; ie, on the liberal side there were radicals, traditional liberals and moderate liberals and on the conservative side there were reactionaries, traditional conservatives, and moderate conservative. I researched alternatives because I couldn't find a place on that scale for anarchists. But it did reflect the challenge for someone one the more extreme ends of the spectrum to look toward the center and beyond and see reasonable people. The radical looks to his/her right and sees fascists/the conservative looks to his/her left and sees communists.
To try to account for that, I created a circular scale that did not quite close at the top. The bottom were independents, the right was conservatives, the left liberals. The "circle" was. more like a Celtic torque-opened at the top. I used that space to describe the explosive effects of anarchists in the manner an electric spark was snap across that gap. It also establishes the concept that communism and fascism are not as far apart as we think, making the jump that Lenin and Stalin made to introduce Marxism to agrarian Russia most understandable as a jump from communism to fascism or ultra-liberalism to ultra-conservatism.
In short, I agree with your circular analogy.
I'd not seen anyone suggest anything like it, so I was on my own; but nobody seems to object to the graphic.
Sounds like you've seen someone or something that uses that circular spectrum. I'd truly like to read anything on that topic you can share with me.
I have nothing academic, just observations of people and the world. My observations were informed by study of Russian and Chinese history as an adjunct to travel- Soviet Union in '86 and China in '88. We were in Leningrad when Chernobyl blew up and Tianamen Square a year before the massacre. I think it's easier to see the loop when you get first-hand observations of how a government treats it's people.
Add that to college stuff where I could see my fringe friends looking very similar on the stridency and extremity of their arguments. Literally the same arguments, eyeballs and bulging veins: the similarities.
I've carried this theory for a long time and saw it reinforced when the Boogaloos contemplated their relationship with extremes of Antifa. I love your gap and spark analogy because it speaks to how those two synergize and release the every of violence. I've not seen many folks make the circular reference, but it's clear as a sunny day to me. If we all saw it that way, it would be easier to find the common ground. Especially when we all understood the hairy eyeball is reserved not just for the folks across from us, but also those behind us.