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Originally the Right was defined by its position on the Ancien Regime. Reactionaries wanted to reinstitute it; conservatives wanted to reform it; liberal wanted to replace it with a Republic, but with some respect and compensation for those displaced; and "Jacobins" wanted a clean slate, the smashing of the aristocracy and the Church, and declaration of the Republic. The rise of ethnic nationalism confused the issues, but was originally most associated with Jacobinism, by way of Rousseau. In Rousseau, the General Will is not determined through electoral politics, but through a kind of divination by the leaders of the underlying consensus, and of the people's needs. Thus, Robespierre embodied "The Republic" for a period of time, intuitively acting on its behalf, until himself struck down by the guillotine. Obviously, such a conception of "organic democracy" is enhanced if the people are of one blood, and therefore presumed to have a deep identity. Thus, the origins of fascism are, indeed, on the Left. However, as socialism rather than republicanism came to define the terms, and therefore everything rotated on the axis of "Egalitarianism", ethnic nationalism and its off-spring were moved Right, since they showed a certain hostility to ethnic minorities within their borders, encouraged rivalry with other nations, and accepted the class system, in some form, as natural, purporting to solve class conflict through the adjudication of interests within the context of organic democracy. Anyone who accepts that the Left is primarily characterized by egalitarianism in this century accepts the placement of fascism on the extreme Right..... |
