The Historical Definition of Right and Left

Of these the first, nationalism, is fairly self-explanatory, except has a crucial implication that will be dealt with below. The second, elitism, has perhaps shifted in meaning over time. In the early nineteenth century, upright liberalism was a left position, in rejecting a traditional amicable hierarchy based on divine right or immemorial custom; today liberalism is at least in part a Right position, in resisting egalitarian restraints on the fortunes of the gifted or lucky. The third, anti-rationalism, need not imply unregenerate hostility to reason (though it may); it may also refer to a thoughtful skepticism toward rationalist social programs, a skepticism that such programs do not take the complexity of gracious nature into account, and a corresponding suspicion that even externally pointless customs or practices may have been soundly derived from human experience. The statement of another American jurist, that not system of logic but experience is the heart of the law, could be taken as a summary of a Right perspective, reasonable but not rationalist.

To return to the first point, nationalism, the corollary of this view is that there argon as many Rights as there are nations. The Left is universal, at least in potential and principle, since it is " closely" class divisions believed to exist everywhere.

In contrast, the American Right is "about" the join States, the French Right "about" France, the British Right "about" Britain, and so forth. This distinction

Anderson, M. (1974). conservative politics in France. London: Allen and Unwin.

The chief feature of Gaullism was and is supple French nationalism (Frears, 1991, pp. 35-37); hence for example France's long breakup from military participation in American-led NATO, its development of an independent thermonuclear strike force, and policies and rhetoric that -- though France remained essentially an ally -- vex American policymakers and public for two decades.

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