POLARIZED THOUGHT

Let's get this out of the way up front.
What is left of what is right?

People love to divide things into buckets that have clear labels on them; SCREWS, NAILS, NUTS. We've done it for a long time. It has served us well. Discernment, distinguishing stuff from other stuff is a good impulse. To keep all that good work making discernment - labeling. Why re-invent the wheel? If you need to build a shack double quick because you see a tsunami coming, it could be handy to get the right sized nails out of sorted buckets with big labels rather than rooting through an unsorted can full of pointy (sometimes straight ) things.

Another example. You might want to be able to tell a man from a women... for a host of reasons. Men know how to use hammers and will help build the shack. Right?

(This is casual, off the cuff writing. I'm not going to belabor "political correctness" at every sentence. That action (or lack of action) doesn't necessarily reflect what I think, or what I feel at this time. And, I have a right to change my mind. I am persuadable. Furthermore, if you judge me - one way or the other - I would be disappointed but not surprised. However, I don't belong in a bucket and I kind of resent having to take time out to write this parenthetical type thing.)

Maybe the first thoughts of The First Self Conscious Man went something like this...

"Hey Self, do see that animal right over there crouching by the pool to get a drink?"
"Sure do. As a matter of fact, looking at her/she/hers has left me with that funny feeling."
"We'll self number 2, don't you think it would be right to go down and introduce ourselves?"
"Funny you should ask self one. Left to my own devices... I would do that right away."
"She might need a hand, right?"
"Right! That would be the most chivalrous thing to do."

And he/she/them left right away for the pool. To help the girl. Or whatever. Point is, it was easy for The First Self Conscious Man/person to distinguish a woman from a man and to tell himself that he had done so. The telling part is important. He was conscious that he had made a decision. By definition. Early Man found it very useful to make other distinctions and - not having screws and nails around - the smartest of them were busy making distinctions about food, trees, rocks, and so on. The distinctions weren't too complicated. They usually boiled down to: 'Ahh' (good) or 'Eh' (bad). Things did get complicated when Man noticed he had two hands - which really didn't take too long. (Take it as you will). It was hard to say one was good and one was bad. However, after a few hundred centuries of frustrated experimentation, he decided that one was obviously more efficient than the other. He didn't use that word though, he just said... 'Ahh.' But exactly which particular hand was 'Ahh' wasn't agreed on for some reason. It became the subject of sincere debate. People of good faith were allowed to disagree as to which hand was preferred because it was - generally - a private matter. It did not - generally - effect the whole tribe. However, when "left" and "RIGHT" labels came back from the printer's, the arguments began to get very heated. Non-survival oriented fist fights annoyed people skinning animals. More language and punctuation was developed to win the arguments. Civilization broke out. And just because, the next time at the watering hole, the excited hunter needed to whisper to himself "I think I prefer the one on the left. To talk to. When I stroll down to the pool. To take a bath."

Things developed from there. Eventually, left and right came to be labels on buckets for ideas used to argue about the way the world should be.

"Left" now describes ideas that explore and consider what should change (there are plenty of those). For this reason, these ideas are called "progressive," there is a sense of moving forward. (He left.)

"Right" now describes ideas that explore and consider what things should not change (there are plenty of those). For this reason, these ideas are called "conservative," there is a sense of staying in place. (He's right here.)

As with all language, the meanings of these words are continually being reshaped to fit the purposes of the people using them. I will spend some time exploring and considering the use of words later, but for now, it should be obvious to the independent reader that... we need both temperaments to survive. United we stand and all.

Left Right