News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

[Sorry, but I couldn't resist posting this for the humor value.--DC]

http://tinyurl.com/yw5hgx
Is the Political Spectrum a Circle?
February 22, 2008

[...]

RUSH: Control over you, take away from you. Damn straight. But why do
you think I coined the term "feminazi" to describe the most fervent
pro-abortion women in this country? Well, I mean what did the Nazis do?
[The Nazis banned abortion. Rush labels feminists "feminazis" because
they disagree with a Nazi policy that Rush agrees with.--DC]

[...]

RUSH: Right, but, you know, here's the thing about these labels. Is
the only thing that convinced you that the Nazis were not right wing was
the fact they had socialist and workers in the name of their party?

CALLER: No. No. That wasn't the only thing. It was more of, when I
look at it, I look at it as, you know, right wing versus left wing, it's
big government versus small government. Everyone says if you go far
enough right and you go far enough left you end up in the exact same
spot, which is a dictatorship. But if you use that line of thinking,
then where do the anarchists work into the political spectrum? There's
no room for them.

RUSH: Where do the anarchists, in your diagram, fit?

CALLER: I would say they are extremely far to the right. Because I
look at it as more of a --

RUSH: Wait a minute. Let me ask you a question about this. How old
are you, do you mind if I ask?

CALLER: I'm 23.

RUSH: Twenty-three.

CALLER: Yeah, I've been listening to you since I was six or eight years
-- I remember when you were on TV way back.
[I remember that, too. I even saw Rush's funniest joke ever, when he
called a thirteen-year-old girl a dog.--DC]

RUSH: That's great. No, I appreciate that. Define "anarchist" for me
as you mean it here.

CALLER: Well, I would say anarchist as in no form of government.

RUSH: No rules?

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: I would say, you know, very, very --

RUSH: Libertarians.

CALLER: Well, no --

RUSH: I'm just kidding. I couldn't help it. I'm just kidding. Don't
get mad at me, Libertarians. You're already mad enough because I don't
support your boy. But anarchy is a temporary thing. It never survives.
Anarchy is the result of protest, it's the result of dissent, and it's
usually the result of what?

CALLER: The breakdown of society?

RUSH: No, it's the result of too much totalitarian control, and if the
anarchists have the ability to do something about it, such as if they're
armed or something, they will say screw this, to hell with you guys and
they'll go live their lives and they will do whatever they can to stop
the totalitarians from impacting their lives no matter what they have to
do. In no population of people, in no group of people, if you want to
have a civilized group, society, population, will anarchists be a viable
political entity that are as competitive for people's thoughts and minds
as are, say, conservatives and liberals.

CALLER: Oh, no, and I agree. I think that if you go far enough --

RUSH: But the point is where they are in the spectrum really doesn't
matter because you're always going to have liberals, you're always going
to have conservatives, sadly we're always going to have communists,
sadly we're always going to have socialists, we're always going to have
totalitarians. But anarchists, they want to change to something, they
want to change the status quo, but they don't want to live that way.

CALLER: Yeah, I agree. I don't think -- because everybody says if you
go far enough right. I don't think you really can go -- if you go far
enough right, I don't think you're going to end up in the same place.

RUSH: Okay, so, if I understand you, the circle theory, rather than a
straight-line theory to diagram ideological locations doesn't work
because for it to work, both liberals and conservatives have to end up
meeting somewhere in the circle, which is dictatorship?

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: And for people who believe, as we do, in less government and
smaller government, your theory is it's impossible to get from that to
dictatorship?

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: Interesting theory. I'm sitting here, the little gray cells, the
neurons are flashing rapidly here.

[...]

--
Dan Clore

My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://tinyurl.com/3akhhr
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

Skipper: Professor, will you tell these people who is
in charge on this island?
Professor: Why, no one.
Skipper: No one?
Thurston Howell III: No one? Good heavens, this is anarchy!
-- _Gilligan's Island_, episode #6, "President Gilligan"