In the Examiner I reviewed a new book which argues that there is no ideological or philosophical basis for the distinction between "left" and "right" in America; rather, our identifications of ideas with those labels are driven by party association.
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Is there a succinct way of summarizing their rebuttal to the notion that the defense of hierarchy is inherent to conservatism, while advocacy for toppling inherited hierarchies is inherent to leftism?
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They claim it's based on circular reasoning - in fact liberals define "hierarchy" in terms of conservatism. Right-wing market economists take themselves as anti-hierarchical. And if hierarchy means standing against powerful actors, small government parties are anti-hierarchy.
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Further, far-left governments and social systems are often very hierarchical. There's no contradiction between dictatorship and leftism, so it's not clear why leftism would be identified with opposition to hierarchy.
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Personally, I've always found the hierarchy theory of conservatism to be pure intellectual opportunism on the part of liberals.
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You can definitely end up in "no true Scotsman" territory, given authoritarian communism. But I don't find the "small government" argument compelling. In an age of universal franchise, the ability to influence the state is more equally distributed...
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... than the ability to influence the decisions of the economy's most powerful private actors, who don't need to justify their allocations of resources to any mass public...
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Moving discretion over economic life out of a realm where influence is largely proportional to wealth -- to one where influence is, at least in part, distributed on an egalitarian "one-person, one-vote" basis -- seems anti-hierarchal to me...
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Okay, but it'll seem hierarchical to (some) conservatives. That's another point they make. What's hierarchical and what isn't is as controversial as the political issues themselves. No progress is made on understanding the issues or the sides by framing them in those terms.
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I think that last sentence is a very strong claim, and I'm not sure that you can validate it. How do you know that this frame sheds *no* light on understanding divides between left and right?
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It is just one anecdotal example, but it's noteable that Michael Brendan Dougherty found a lot to admire and affirm in Corey Robin's The Reactionary Mind, perhaps, the most prominent brief for the "it's all about hierarchy" thesis
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Yes, I think conservatives sometimes lean in to the "hierarchy" frame. It gives them a good explanation of an inchoate sense of what is missing in modern society. But I found Robin's book very silly myself.
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Let's just use one current example. Which side is more hierarchical: trans-inclusive feminism or trans-exclusive feminism? Does the question even make sense? Is demanding deference to experts on COVID policy a hierarchical move, or is it just pro-science?
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