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Showing posts from October, 2010

Progress v Freedom

The 21st Century paradigm?   Left v Right was so 18 th Century. Collectivism v Individualism was so 19th Century Socialism v Capitalism was so 20th Century The cultural and political debates that are emerging in the 21st Century seem to be better framed in the related, but more informative, dichotomy of " Progress v Freedom", than the opaque, out-moded and blunt, " Left v Right ".  Labelling that tries to be  more descriptive of the political content of a person's ideas is more helpful than the arbitrary putative positioning of that person relative to  opponents. Admittedly there is a residual problem that "progress" is also merely a directional indicator , that on its own doesn't indicate a destination. This means it can be appropriated as a label by anyone who wants to takes us to a different place. "Progressive" is still used as a virtually inter-changable label for the Left today, even though the Left appear to oppose &q