Right-wing v. Left-wing

There has been many attempts to define right and left politics.  Taking a historical perspective on what these things mean,  I'm going to chime in.  An ideology which is right-wing is that which seeks to protect the establishment, the crown, or religion of the contemporary authority.  The left-wing is then taken to be that which is opposed to the establishment.  It is clear then why historically right-wing ideologies do not bring about societal progress.

The common thread among right-wing ideologies is inherent respect for established social hierarchy, deference to hierarchical power structures, and respect for authority for its own sake.  Put another way, it's the idea that human's require hierarchical authority to function, and that power structures are to be respected on the basis of tradition rather than a more objective justification.

Left-wing ideologies center around establishing more equality among human beings, belief that they are capable of self-management, that this self-management is a desirable goal, and that authorities must be justified and established for a particular purpose.  Authorities are only respected when they are useful in providing for the common good, otherwise they cease to be authorities.

Let us first differentiate between economic systems and governance systems, then I'll categorize them.  Capitalism, socialism, communism and fascism are economic systems.  Dictatorships, plutocracies, and democracies are governance systems.  Some economic systems difficult if not impossible to separate from a governance system like communism and fascism because they are command economy based.

Some systems of governance lend themselves to right or left wing thought.  Dictatorships, monarchies, oligarchies, plutocracies lend themselves to right-wing thought since they reinforce the social hierarchy required.  Democracies lend themselves more to left-wing thought, especially direct-democracies where the people are directly involved in governance and legislative action and referendums.

Looking at economic systems, communism (specifically Stalinism and Maoism) and fascism would be right-wing ideologies due to their establishment of a enforced social hierarchy.  In practice, the strength of statist control in these systems, despite free elections and other apparent democratic tendencies, leads to an entrenched strong hierarchical authority.  In the case of Stalinism there is even anti-semitism present.  We continue to see the influence of these power structures in Russia from the Soviet era.

More examples of right-wing ideology are Italian fascism where we observe the strong desire to establish traditional values and social and societal order.  Yet another is racist nazism in Germany, a nationalist ideology desiring to return the country to some former greatness combined with the blaming of societal ills on undesirables (Jews, mentally ill, handicapped, homosexuals, etc.)  These desires to reestablish some idea of former "greatness" or emphasis on "tradition" while blaming societal ills on certain classes of people, generally "outsiders" lacking the establishments backing, is tell-tale of right-wing thought.  Sadly, these are often signs of a failing society, which is why people cling to these ideologies in troubled economic times.

On the other hand we have left-wing thought.  The most prominent example of it is the US in its founding years and throughout most of recent history.  During this time the establishment loyalists would have been the right-wing (establishment) of the early union.  Indeed, even after the defeat of the British much early debate occurred between authoritarians that wanted to establish a more traditional government, and the constitutional system that was eventually established.  Even then the left-wing ideas of a representative democracy, which were highly radical at the time, were highly egalitarian.  Contemporary social democracies such as Australia and Canada are modern established examples of left-wing governments.  They seem to be the trend as society moves towards a more equal and just form of governance, direct democracy being probably the furthest left form of governance.

The basic battle between right and left define the human struggle that has been going on for millennia and is anything but a modern phenomenon.  One is clearly on the wrong side of history.  Societal progress will never be brought about by any right-wing ideology, because by definition it is inherently opposed to it.

It is cynical, demonstrates an utter lack of theory-of-mind, and is cognitively dissonant to believe in one's own ability to self-manage, while simultaneously believing no one else can.  It is wrong to believe that authorities need not be established for a particular purpose, nor require they justify themselves and their purpose--this mentality brought us slavery.  It isn't smart to adopt an ideology that goes against the progress of human beings and has shown itself to be on the wrong side of the entirety of human history.  For these reasons I consider myself unabashedly and forwardly left-wing and liberal.