Long Live the Radical Left

I used to have an ongoing debate with my brother. This debate lasted years and only ended with his death 5 years ago. With the rise of radical right wing activism, I think that were my brother alive today, my side of this debate would hold more sway.

This debate was on the question of the value of the radical left in modern society. I argued that though I believed that the most extreme radical left was excessive and wrong in much of what they think and do, that we should value their contribution to the big picture reality of where our society is today. And what is that contribution that I value so much? Balance. The balance that the radical left provides for the radical right.

The radical right has been active in moving the “center” to the right since the Reagan revolution. With the extremism of the radical right and their success at spreading their far right propaganda through the likes of right wing talk radio and and FOX News, the absence of an extreme left wing viewpoint moves the center to the right. So without the radical left, people, especially those who do not do a lot of personal analysis based on multiple sources of information, will see the center further to the right.

While I do not agree with the most radical left, without them my left-of-center viewpoints would be perceived as being far left wing. Using a bell curve as a visualization tool, and knowing how powerful the radical right is, without the radical left, a reasonable left wing is seen as being too far from the peak of the curve.

  

My brother argued that reason should be enough to sway opinion. I dream of such a utopia, but believe in reality.  I believe a sizable percentage of people locate themselves on the curve relative to the location of the “center” because they prefer not to see themselves as being too far from that center.

So, long live the radical left.