The Washington Post describes the discovery of the subatomic Higgs boson particle as “thought to create a sort of force field that permeates the universe, imbuing everything we see and touch with the fundamental property known as mass.” There is also a basic particle that permeates the universe of human nature and, thus, of politics, imbuing everything that happens with the fundamental property known as power.
From birth each individual exhibits a basic nature which exists throughout life. Even as it is shaped some by nurture and experiences, that basic nature is dominant. Those natures fall along a continuum from stubborn control of self and choices of environment to stubborn control of others and their choices of environment. In the political sphere these natures fall along a right to left continuum. On the right is a tendency toward individualism and creation of an environment that is based on the freely combined choices of other individuals. On the left is a tendency toward imposing a collectivism that is based of unifying others through power over their choices. On the right the role of government is important in protecting those free choices, including those of minorities. On the left the role of government is essential to aggregating power to enforce visions of the collective good, regardless of minorities. Most people are along the continuum, by nature, by choice, and by circumstance tending toward one end or the other.
Extremists of individualism are of the right.
They differ in which facet of behavior is most critical but seek a society of maximum self-choice. Extremists of ideologies and of organized religions are of the left. They differ in their utopian visions but seek a society of uniform adherence or compulsion. In the battle for dominance the extremists clothe their visions in appeals that will influence those along the continuum toward their ends.
It is usually not the most extreme who are in control but it is usually the most extreme who set out a vision that is used by those more practical to gain control. Alliances are formed that serve the self-interest of those along the continuum. The contending alliances may often make for seemingly strange bedfellows. With the passage of events, successes and failures of the dominant vision, and consequent shifting of self-interests, some may jump into bed and others fall or be pushed out. At root is the self-interest of individuals in their survival, usually primary, or their power over self or others.
Monarchies were made up of chieftans allying to control others and create their power of wealth. Organized religion usually combined with monarchies to effect their power over individual choices and create their power over wealth. It was a grand alliance. The Enlightenment’s intellectuals and artists sought to expand knowledge, which required the freer exchange of ideas and the lessening of barriers and empirically false ideas. Out of this grew the concept of democracy, a political system that worked freely to choose who would serve in control, with the emphasis on serve not rule the choices and freedoms of individuals. The concept of natural rights, those that may be surrendered only temporarily and may be recovered at any time, whether those of majorities or minorities, is the binding foundation of democracy. In sum, this is classical liberalism, the voluntary combining for agreed common goods restricted by the rights of individuals. It is a voluntary giving of self for agreed common goods that is limited by individual choices.
These concepts took flower in what became the United States. Our Constitution lays out our form of democracy, primarily limiting the power of the servers. No list can contain all the natural rights of individuals, but certain core ones can be, as exemplified in our Bill of Rights, the first constitutional Amendments to further delimit the power of the servers. This new nation was a decided shift away from the left and toward the right, and a global inspiration.
Today, organized religions are a shadow of their former selves, retreating into voluntary moral codes. State powers have increased through small accretions and large leaps, accelerated by the choices of those with self-interests to see their wealth increased through the state. Organized religions often join in to ease and strengthen the sway of their usually beneficent moral codes. In short, this has been a move back toward the left of ideologues, ideology being the surrender of self to a vision that must be imposed. Ideologues of the left have largely replaced traditional liberalism’s freedoms with appealing visions supposedly for the common good to form alliances of self-interests. It is a voluntary giving by some of self for visions of common goods that is not limited by individual choices. It is, in effect, a forced taking with few if any limits.
Today’s political conflicts in the US, as past ones, are the battle between the left and the right. The Higgs boson of nature and, thus, of politics is power, whether will dominate the power of individuals to make their own choices or the power of those who seek to control others’ choices.
