miami_thomas
VIP Member
- Jan 20, 2011
- 1,019
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After a discussion yesterday I realized that some dont really know what right and left truly mean. So I decided to do a little explaining to help those that dont really know.
Both the terms right and left come from the French revolution. The nobles sat to the presidents right and the commons sat to the left of the president. So born were the terms left and right. Of course the terms dont mean that the right wants noble rule and the left want citizen control. Actually it is that the right is conservative or reactionary and the left wants radical reform.
Reactionary meaning they want things the way they were before. They dont want change as they think things were good the way they were. And conservatives meaning wanting either no or minimal changes to society as it exists today. So in the sense of the French they wanted to keep noble men and stay the way things were. In the US they want to stay with capitalism the free market. They want to keep with what the US was.
Radical reform meaning they want things to change. They dont want what we currently have. They are interested in change. So during the French revolution they were the ones wanting to go away from the noble leadership and move to a new form of government. So in the sense of the US the revolutionaries from Brittan would have been considered the left. Today those on the left want to reform the US system from what it is today so changing from capitalism or the free market.
You can probably see why it is confusing since the definitions really changes depending on what is current. The fact is the right wants thing the way they were before and want little to no change and the left want reform or radical change. I hope this helps with those that were confused.
Both the terms right and left come from the French revolution. The nobles sat to the presidents right and the commons sat to the left of the president. So born were the terms left and right. Of course the terms dont mean that the right wants noble rule and the left want citizen control. Actually it is that the right is conservative or reactionary and the left wants radical reform.
Reactionary meaning they want things the way they were before. They dont want change as they think things were good the way they were. And conservatives meaning wanting either no or minimal changes to society as it exists today. So in the sense of the French they wanted to keep noble men and stay the way things were. In the US they want to stay with capitalism the free market. They want to keep with what the US was.
Radical reform meaning they want things to change. They dont want what we currently have. They are interested in change. So during the French revolution they were the ones wanting to go away from the noble leadership and move to a new form of government. So in the sense of the US the revolutionaries from Brittan would have been considered the left. Today those on the left want to reform the US system from what it is today so changing from capitalism or the free market.
You can probably see why it is confusing since the definitions really changes depending on what is current. The fact is the right wants thing the way they were before and want little to no change and the left want reform or radical change. I hope this helps with those that were confused.