Dickson Igwe. Photo: VINO/File

In Europe, and the West, there is a similar clash of cultures. The following narrative is first of a two-part article on the right-left battle for social, economic, political dominance in the West.

Underlying all political and economic debate in most Western democracies are two divergent arguments. First is the argument for the virtues of conservative right wing values and ideas. This is an argument that opposes the song to greater tolerance and acceptance of social and ethnic diversity, and differences. In fact, its advocates believe that ideas of social conservatism such as the protection of heterosexual marriage, placing limits on migration, the freedom to own guns, and the freedom of religion, are under siege. 

The second argument states the case for a social liberalism that sits left of the right versus left social and political spectrum. Social liberalism argues strongly for the protection of the rights of minority groups such as gays and inner city blacks. These rights are considered sacrosanct. The power of human rights as written into international law is the direct result of social liberalism and its global cadre of activists. Social liberalism pursues the cause of the underdog, and those vulnerable groups that are unable to protect themselves in the global jungle.

There is not much opposition to the idea of greater tolerance and acceptance of social and ethnic diversity in the west today. However, other parts of the world such as states in Asia and Africa are not so accepting of greater tolerance.

Interestingly, the economic arguments for or against the Austerity and Stimulus Models of modern economics have as a backdrop the right versus left political and social ideology. Putting it simply, the Right to Left Spectrum begins with pure capitalism on the extreme right moving to communism and complete state ownership of the means of production on the extreme left. Austerity and Stimulus sit somewhere along this sliding scale.

That right-to-left intellectual culture began with late 18^th and early 19^th Century philosophers, such as Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, and Karl Marx.  

Right versus left was an intellectual culture that sprang from the ideas of the Enlightenment Philosopher and his love of reason and rational thought. It had further roots in the struggles of the European and Russian peasantry against the landed and privileged.

It was a culture that would become entrenched in academic thinking as it evolved through the crucible of ideas of the 1800s and 1900s. It became fully manifest before and after the Russian Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, gaining strength during World War Two, and Cold War.

The notion of right versus left was influenced by both the Industrial and French Revolutions, even Renaissance, and earlier written history. The Right-Left view of society and economy would become the platform for the ideas of Capitalism, Communism, and Socialism. It would also define the trajectory of the social sciences in the Western Academia of the 20^th Century.

The Right versus left notions on economy and society would eventually lead to Cold War, and heavily influence post Cold War ideas of economic and social governance, especially in western Society.

The following story assesses an article of June 9, 2015, in the US Journal, The National Interest, titled, THE CULTURE WAR RETURNS, by the journal’s editor, Jacob Heilbrunn. It highlights a new and pervasive political correctness that has become entrenched in most of Western culture. It also points to a right wing reactionary response to growing liberalism.

Social and current affairs writers in the USA view the Ferguson and Baltimore riots from the perspective of US racial history. The same is true with same sex marriage. Both matters involve minorities. Both matters impact heavily on US social history and political debate.

The articles and essays of intellectuals, journalists, and commentators, provide the dividing line in modern thought between right wing and left wing ideas.

Writers and journalists highlight the whether or not of big and small government, of capitalist or socialist economics, and the protection of the rights of minorities through the spectrum of right and left.

For example, is the liberal’s support for gay marriage, liberal radicalism, political correctness, and the idea of going soft on black crime because of the “unique social demographics” in US inner cities, a valid argument to turn the other cheek, by the opposite conservative and white culture? The white culture remains dominant in the US power measure.

Or is the reverse the case? Should the dominant culture become less tolerant, and even reactionary? Has the liberal cause become too dominant?

According to Heilbrunn, there are signs that the dominant culture of the silent white majority is going into reactionary mode in the USA. Western Europe has seen a rise in anti migration politics. And right wing ideas and political organisations appear to be ascendant in Britain, France, and Germany.

In the United States, the Bastion of the Right, the Republican Party, has extraordinary soundings from Christian Evangelical Politicians preaching a return to family virtues, smaller government, and a more aggressive US global military posture.

The right is on the move once again. Is there a coming backlash to liberalism?

The next story in this two-part serial will look at that question.

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