Left-Right Liberal, Conservative, Clueless

Liberal, Conservative, Clueless

Patrick J. Finn 1700-1799 was a busy century. The Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution were newly under way and three powerful institutions were born: Capitalism, modern Social Class, and Citizenship. Capitalism and Social Class are systems of inequality; Citizenship is a system of equality. Modern concepts of Liberalism and Conservatism arose about the same time. Liberalism grew out of the Enlightenment which rejected the divine right of kings and churchly powers. Its chief belief is in the force of reason and the ability of people to create a society for the common good. Locke, Voltaire, Hume, Rousseau, Jefferson, Paine, Madison were liberal thinkers. The use of the terms left and right in politics originated during and after the French Revolution when liberals sat to the left of the chairman and conservatives sat to the right in various national assemblies. In American vernacular the words left and liberal are used interchangeably as are the words right and conservative. Liberals tend to think in terms of groups (classes) rather than in terms of individuals. They believe that unequal financial resources and status arise from the systems of capitalism and social class. They typically blame inequality on the rules of the system rather than bad behavior on the part of individuals in the system. Both liberals and conservatives are concerned about justice but they have very different ideas about how to obtain justice. Liberals have a tendency to Conservatives have a tendency to Believe that the status quo and its attendant social norms are the result of Accept the status quo as natural ever changing power relationships between and among groups of people and inevitable and about the (tradesmen, intellectuals, owners, faith communities, professionals, best we can do in terms of political party members, and social classes, for a random example). justice. Believe that the status quo and its attendant social norms have changed dramatically in the past and are always susceptible to change. Believe that it is the work of people in a democracy to be sensitive to injustice and figure out how to ameliorate it, arriving at a new status quo and its attendant social norms. Believe that the life of man can be nicely settled by correct social organization. Want to create a society where it is easy for individuals to be good. Love individuals and blame the system. Ask What in this system of education is making it hard for students to achieve? Believe decent standards of food, housing, education, health care, and legal representation are Social Rights. Accept the status quo as natural and inevitable. View resistance to social norms as disruptive and deviant.

Believe that the life of man can be nicely settled by good morals. Want to create a good society by making individuals good. Love the system and blame individuals. Ask, How can we fix students and families of students who do not achieve in this school system?

Believe that providing free or subsidized food, housing, education, medicine, and legal aid with tax dollars simply makes people dependent and rewards bad people for not trying. Advocate providing free or subsidized food, housing, education, Believe that if people cannot exercise

medicine, and legal aid with tax dollars. They think of these as Social Rights, and believe that without Social Rights one cannot realistically exercise Civil Rights (freedom of speech, right to assemble, for example) or Political Rights (the right to hold office, petition Congress, or even vote) Believe that fairness cannot be achieved when groups start out with unequal resources and advantages. The under-resourced must be given a boost and/or the abundantly resourced need to be constrained in the struggle for equal civil, political, and social rights. Embrace intellectual argument rather than certainty founded on scripture or religious thought. Are susceptible to the charges of being elite, arrogant, effete bleeding hearts who meddle in the lives of other people and who speak in a jargon that no one can understand.

their Civil and Political Rights because they cannot afford food, housing, education, medicine, and legal aid, they ought to get a job.

Believe that fairness is best achieved and maintained by a free-for-all struggle for power, status, and resources. By and large, winners deserve to win and losers deserve to lose. Tend to rely on scripture and religious thought as foundations for their beliefs. Are susceptible to the charges of being heartless, selfish, and vindictive, spiteful and unforgiving and simplistic.

Left (Liberal) and Right (Conservative) Views Are Reflected in Education

Believe learning is essentially a social phenomenon. Favor cooperative learning. See conferencing as mutual help and a preferred method of teaching/learning. Cognitivist. In reading instruction, favor a holistic, new literacy approach. Believe in emergent literacy. Vygotskian Progressive Comparatively messy and amorphous Believe learning is essentially an individual, psychological phenomenon. Favor individual instruction. See conferencing as cheating. Behaviorist. In reading instruction, favor an atomistic skill and phonics emphasis approach. Believe in reading readiness. Piagetian. Traditional. Comparatively rigid.

Good news and bad news (depending on your point of view) Americans who identify themselves as liberals tend to be younger, better educated, less religious, more urban, less married, and richer than the general public. The Clueless The best way to sustain the belief that status quo is natural and inevitable is to capitalize on the fact that most people tacitly accept it. (Lets just not bring it up. Theres nothing to discuss.) And, therefore many people (including teachers and students) accept conservative ideas by default. Bleeding Heart Liberals vs. Leftist Agitators Mother Theresa is an extreme example of a bleeding heart liberal. She probably made the lives of countless destitute individuals more bearable, but she did nothing to challenge the social arrangements that were responsible for much of the misery she sought to alleviate. Bleeding heart liberals are often very loving, hard-working, charitable people, but they are often considered excessive in their sympathy toward those who claim to be underprivileged or exploited, and they are, therefore, easily be played for patsies.

Paulo Freire is a famous leftist agitator. He was a Brazilian educator who was not interested in organizing charities to help Brazils poor; he was interested in making them aware that 1. Their misery was not Gods will. It was the result of a political and economic system that exploited them. 2. That system would continue to exploit them unless organized and fought against it through political parties, and unions. 3. Such action would require widespread workers literacy. Saul Alinsky is a famous American leftist agitator and community organizer. He believed in getting results through direct action: picketing, strikes, mass meetings, delivering votes, disrupting opponents meetings, and so on. Most liberals tend toward one or the other, but work both sides of the street. (1,139 words) DISCUSSION: This presentation was written by a self-identified liberal. Is it fair? How would you reword these paired statements in order to make them valid but perhaps more evenhanded?