Brian Barder tries to explain why he is of The Left:

There is a broad left-to-right spectrum of values and priorities and most people can quickly see where on the spectrum they belong. The two ends of the spectrum may be summarised (in simplified form) like this:

  • Liberty, human rights >>> <<< Discipline, restraint, order, social responsibility
  • Compassion >>> <<< Competition
  • Concern for the underdog and the vulnerable >>> <<< Respect and admiration for the rich and successful
  • Belief in maximum equality, including equality of outcomes >>> <<< Belief in equality of opportunity and the need for inequality of outcomes for reward and incentive
  • The public service and government as principal agents for essential services, change and reform >>> <<< Minimum government, small public sector, maximum role for private sector and individuals
  • Taxation as means of financing public services and reducing inequality >>> <<< taxation a burden on private initiative, to be minimised
  • Responsibility of rich people to help the less well-off >>> <<< If most poor people worked harder they too could be rich and successful
  • Trade unions as a necessary protection for employees’ interests >>> <<< Unions often hamper managers in their responsibility for managing
  • Politicians as necessary and valued agents for change and reform >>> <<< Politicians meddle in business and the economy for ideological rather than practical reasons
  • Private sector and the profit motive generally equate to exploitation of the consumer and the employee >>> <<< Private sector the only creator of wealth, and the profit motive a necessary incentive
  • Society should promote the interests of those least able to help themselves >>> <<< Advancement purely on merit in a relentless meritocracy, and the devil take the hindermost

I have omitted a few. But you get the picture.

He of course crafts the spectrum in a tendentious way to explain why he is for all the first snuggly choices and virtually none of the second brutish ones.

Why is Compassion juxtaposed with Competition?

The main failure in his analysis is the truly Leftist absence of any idea as to how wealth is created in the first place, or any respect for human creativity and energy. Just why is it so bad that clever people create myriad new products and ideas from which millions of less able people benefit? What is the alternative?

Brian! Read this sliced bread piece and reconsider, before it’s too late.

That said, Brian’s thoughts on Wayda’s film Katyn are worth reading. Although it is worth adding that the ‘fiction’ of Nazi responsibility for the Katyn massacres was maintained in the West for decades from nervousness at confronting the Soviet Union with this biggest of Big Communist Lies.

Maybe one other spectrum item needs adding:

Belief that Stalinism was the right idea but badly implemented ….. belief that the violence and failure of Stalinism are inherent in the Marxist/Hard Leftist project