Most of the good feelings for life here expressed, were progressively vanishing from the scene of a fair society in the 80's.

This exodus of good intent and ambition of aspirational fulfilment of the working classes, slipped away with astronomical interest rate rises equating into unaffordable mortgages, only eclipsed by rising inflation and rising unemployment...and Paul Keating!

Then John Howard: Official Union bashing and encouragement to the flight of industry to China and other Asian destinations, and away with the emigration of the Australian Steel industry flew all hope of a normal Australian life...traditional style.

Yes Diver, this is a piece that was written, so it seems, from the Author's example right bank, like a sudden light of understanding Road to Damascus moment from the furthest reaches of a moving river of discontent?

If most folk like the middle then an appropriate analogy is that's the safest place in a lifeboat circled by starving sharks?

I dislike these never ending attempts to divide or render egalitarianism redundant; all while dabbing away the crocodile tears spilt for its loss along with the good natured irreverence that went with it?

There's but one Australia and just one planet earth and what happens elsewhere affects all else. Just as the election of extreme right wing Herr Hitler did in the thirties? Or the used labor party in Lenin's Russia, used like a stalking horse for Lenin's communists to grab unelected Power, only to be usurped by extreme left leaning Starlin!

We need to divorce ourselves from the nonsense of a them and us. There's just one lifeboat Australia! And those on the left or right need to man the oars and row together as a team if we are to avoid the Niagara waiting just a little further down the river of manifestly manipulated marginalization and discontent?

Of course the NDIS and Gonski are excellent ideas worthy of our best ideas, aspirations and a united people, united in a can do common purpose!

Enough with the Sergeant Schultz Syndrome, the endless hand wringing and it can't be done, we're just not up to it or just too dumb!

We can and should do so much better! Even where that requires an attitude adjustment, particularly by those who want to rest on the oars or row downstream, cause that the selling our heritage and economic sovereignty, easy coal fired way!?
Alan B.

It seems to me that this essay sums up why the old left versus right categories no longer apply in most parts of the world - especially in Western countries.
http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2016/august/1469973600/richard-denniss/message-was-clear

But where do the classic left versus right dispositions come from?
It certainly has nothing to do with the the French political chamber
It is far more fundamental than that.
It is an inevitable expression of the bipolar (yin-yang) nature of the world process, and more importantly the bipolar nature of the human body-mind complex - the left and right sides of the brain with their correlations in the play between the sympathetic and parasympathetic "divisions" of the nervous system, and in a more outwardly dramatic sense the applied politics of the left and right sides of the body.
Western politics and culture is essentially a manifestation of the left-brained masculine world view with its correlation in the right side of the body. As such it is inherently expansive, and even aggressively so at both the individual and collective levels.

It is also inherently suspicious of and antagonistic towards anything to do with politics and culture of the essentially feminine nature of the left side of the body. It is also suspicious of and suppressive towards anything to do with any kind of expanded right brained free psychic participation in the world process. Or anything to do with higher forms of Knowledge and Realization - as described here:
http://www.dabase.org/up-1-3.htm

This hostility towards "the left" runs hell-deep. The Latin word for left is sinister. The European witch burnings were essentially a systematic attack on, and the suppression and destruction of all forms of right brained (left side of the body) feminine forms of knowledge. This was an integral part of the process described in the book by Keith Thomas titled Religion and the Decline of Magic.
Historically anyone who was left-handed faced enormous cultural and "educational" pressures to become "normal", that is right handed.
And of course on "judgement day" all of the righteous ones would sit on the "right hand of 'God'" - wherever that could possibly be.

Don Aitkin is yet another commentator who pushes the line that the terms "Left" and "Right" mean nothing, because not every political or social topic can fit neatly into these terms. That is like saying that the term "bird" should not be used because penguins and emu's don't fly.

Don appears to be another one of those unfortunate people who need to think in terms of absolutes. Something must be absolutely right or absolutely wrong. Categories must exist which are entirely specific, rigid and unchanging. Everything must be either black or white, with no shades of grey.

Don apparently can con conceive world where terms like Left" or "Right" can be considered general terms which simply denote particular philosophies. To myself, the term "Right" equates with nationalism and patriotism. Which is why most people have been conditioned to accept that the nationalist and socialist state of Nazi Germany was a "Right wing" state, when it was in fact as left wing socialist as the USSR or Communist China.

It is true that most western people can not be neatly categorised because individuals may support causes on both the Left and Right. Some people may be intensely patriotic and still support left wing causes such as increasing social security benefits. But generally speaking, people who are patriotic and believe in democracy and free speech are far more likely to support those policies which could be regarded as "right wing." While those who support one world government and Internationalism support those policies which are traditionally seen as left wing.

Hi LEGO,

That's strange, I thought that Don was explicitly trying to get across the nuances of the terms 'Left' and 'Right', to demonstrate their multiplicity of interpretations: no black and whites.

I suppose we all have our mind-pictures of what is one or the other, that others would disagree with. For example, you suggest that

" .... the term "Right" equates with nationalism and patriotism. Which is why most people have been conditioned to accept that the nationalist and socialist state of Nazi Germany was a "Right wing" state, when it was in fact as left wing socialist as the USSR or Communist China."

But the USSR and present-day Russia and China are nothing if not 'patriotic' and nationalist, imperialist being perhaps a more appropriate word. As such, I would agree with you if you asserted that they too were extreme Right-wing, totalitarian and repressive. But they would represent a rather extreme form of 'Right-wing', nothing at all Left about them. 'Reactionary' would be an even better word.

If one is sceptical about the claimed benefits of change, does that make one 'conservative', or Right-wing ? Knocking around the fringes of Indigenous affairs for fifty years, I've heard some pretty idiotic suggestions for change, and seen some disastrous outcomes of brilliant ideas. I suspect that some of the suggestions for a Referendum fall into this category: Treaty, 'nations', sovereignty, for instance, dumb-arse ideas which would take decades to sort out within the Indigenous population and create ever-more endless feuds, and produce bugger-all even by 2050, while in the meantime so much else has changed for Indigenous people - and so much needs to change which nobody wants to touch: talk about those crucial life-and-death aspects and people move away.

If it ain't broke .... and if it's only broke a bit .... and if it's totally broke, for Christ's sake pay some attention to it.

Cheers,

Joe

In Britain it was clear to me at once that their politics, despite the apparent similarity of parties called ‘Labour’ and ‘Labor’, was not the same as ours.

Things of academic interest only. Whats worth knowing about the left and right is that its firmly entrenched in most countries. The purpose of which is give the people only the choices The Powers That Be want us to have. Two factions of the same party are plenty to divide and conquer the population.

The Left and the Right are just two sides of the same bird-of-prey.

We might elect the pilot but we sure as hell do not set the flight path.