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Entry: Why the Right Moves Left Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/why_the_right_moves_left#12948 Post contents: Could we not move away from the 2 dimensional model? There are those things of a man that reside within the walls of his manse, his family, his private behaviour. There are those things that he does within the public sphere, his job, his politics, his visible religious preference. There are many who wish the state to regulate that which is private and those who believe that the state has no authority within the family. One dimension, left or right. There are those who profess to believe that what a man does in his public behaviour is the property of the state to regulate and determine. Public speech, public entrepreneurship, public labour. Another dimension ( call it up and down ) Map your beliefs. Is it important to you that others not practice in private the worship of Trees? Is it important to you that certain organs on other people's bodies may only meet in certain ways? Is it important to you that no one work for less than a mandated hourly wage, Is it important to you that the consequences of actions should be paid for by the actors involved and not the uninvolved? In small things one may discern big things. Some years ago at a televised debate one of the candidates was asked his underware preference. Given a binary question ( Boxers or Briefs ) he accepted the frame and answered. Would you in the same situation choose either a or b or would you say: "Not really Your concern," or maybe "neither." The private man has been demonized. To have answered "Not really your concern." would have been to label himself an elitist a private man. To have answered "neither" would have labelled him a Scotsman or a condescending swine. To have had the temerity to ask the question labelled the questioner as just an ordinary American with ordinary concerns. The private man is passing into history. With that passing the two dimensional left right model will be all that remains. Sent at: 2008 07 20