EE PatronJul 21st 2023, 1:50:09
Originally posted by BlackHole:
Originally posted by DerrickICN:
You guys familiar with the Horseshoe Theory of political spectrums from Le Siècle des idéologies? It's an interesting read if you know French. I'm not sure if there's a good translation tho.
Anyways, it asserts that rather than there being a far-left and far-right in a linear fashion, that the spectrum is actually horseshoe shaped, and when you reach the end of either side, you're much closer to the extreme on the other side than moderates are too one another. The sides might even kiss one another a bit when you reach totalitarianism, authoritarianism, etc.
This debate, it seems, has a bit of a Horseshoe to it.
Anyways, it asserts that rather than there being a far-left and far-right in a linear fashion, that the spectrum is actually horseshoe shaped, and when you reach the end of either side, you're much closer to the extreme on the other side than moderates are too one another. The sides might even kiss one another a bit when you reach totalitarianism, authoritarianism, etc.
This debate, it seems, has a bit of a Horseshoe to it.
Does the book provide any modern day parallels? I find it an interesting theory, but I'd like to see some real life examples..
I wanna say it came out around the time I was in high school so it's written by a contemporary political theorist. The theory itself is widely not accepted by......anyone tho. Pretty much every response to the theory by anyone with a phD is just.....no. Still one of those things that comes up in political theory classes, particularly in higher ethics courses.
Generally in that, farthest left would be socialist/communist and far right would be a fascist. And there's very clear differences between those political theories, despite their shared authoritarian nature.
It's sort of like comparing a bad piece of meat to a bad piece of fruit and saying, "these foods are the same. They are both rotten." While they both might get you sick, they happen to come from very different sources. I think most differences in opinion have an ironic Horseshoe arc tho, and it's fun to point out instances of that theory's efficacy. This being one of them. The ol' reach around, as they say.