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Entry: Heil Hillary? Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/heil_hillary#15463 Post contents: Red Phillips wrote: "As Dr. Gottfried correctly notes, fascism was a right-wing movement with respect to the rejection of egalitarianism and by looking to the past for social models, but it was leftist and modernistic in it’s view of the nation state. " For the most part I agree, and this just further points up the futility of trying to conduct political science in terms of a non-existent political "spectrum." There is no such thing. Political theories are sets of propositions which their adherents take to be true. As such, the various theories are not like points on a line, but like discrete pieces of (for example) fruit. You've got an orange here, an apple there, and a grape and a coconut over there. The existence of similarities between different fruits no more implies the existence of a "fruit spectrum" than the existence of similarities among political doctrines implies a political spectrum. Again, physicists have put forth various theories regarding the weird world of quantum physics. Yet no one talks about there being a left-right spectrum of quantum theories, even though in form the theories of physical science are no different than the theories of political science. Why not? The obvious answer is: because such a spectrum does not exist. Fascism has qualities in common with several other political theories or doctrines. But to attempt to pin the sins of fascism's adherents on the adherents of other philosophies is as misguided for us as it is for anyone else. It can make for a useful weapon in the short-term to wield against one's political enemies, but in the long run it only A) robs us of the language and formulations proper to political science, and B) deceives us into thinking that we are actually talking intelligently about reality when we are really only floundering in a sea of misconceptions. Nevertheless, good article, Dr. Gottfried. I learned quite a bit from it. Sent at: 2008 05 16