From: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Subject: Political terminology in USA
Reply-To: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 09:05:08 GMT

A repost from talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.elections,talk.politics.theory:

From: atfurman@cup.portal.com (A T Furman)
Subject: Re: Political Parties in the U.S. (was Re: Is this a socialist
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 92 00:32:46 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

>However the pejorative use of "liberal" in the USA seems to
>want to completely drown out the good meanings of "liberal". It
>is all very Orwellian - the aim seems to be to abolish the very
>word "liberal". If we have no such word, we have nothing on our
>vocabulary to attack the social right whose ugly face was
>evident at the Republican convention.

"All very Orwellian" is DAMNED BLOODY RIGHT.

But if you think the memory-hole redefinition of "liberal" to mean
economic police statist is being exploited by the right wing, you have
only half the story--the latter half.  The ORIGINAL motive was to
cannibalize peoples' respect for real liberalism in the service of
collectivist ideology.  People are now brainwashed from an early
age that there are only two alternatives (or a wimped-out average in
the middle) in politics: the left wing, which grabs your wallet, and
the right wing, which seizes control of your genitals.  "Liberal", or
conservative.  The very concept that the State should stay out of 
your pants altogether is BLANKED OUT once people's minds are securely
installed in this one-dimensional rut.  Can you say "false dichotomy"?

When bodily freedom and economic enslavement are fused in people's
minds (and vocabularies) into the social-democrat package deal, who
profits?  First and foremost, it is the SOCIALISTS--because in
people's minds, they have the MONOPOLY on opposition to "the social
right whose ugly face was evident at the Republican convention."

One of the most popular agit-prop technique among us libertarians these
days is a "political quiz" with two sets of questions about how much
control the State should have over people's voluntary, nonviolent
behavior.  One set gives a "personal freedom" score, the other an
"economic freedom" score.  These scores become an "ordered pair" that
locates a point in a square box--a TWO DIMENSIONAL POLITICAL SPECTRUM.

                           libertarian
                              /  \
                            /      \
                          /          \
                    socialist       conservative
                          \          /
                            \      /
                              \  /
                         Communist/Fascist

The personal freedom axis runs up diagonally to the left, and the
economic freedom axis runs up diagonally to the right.

Depending on the group, 15-40% typically score libertarian.  These
are thus prime prospects for recruiting into the libertarian movement.
But here is the subtle part: IT WORKS EVEN IF THE QUIZ TAKER DOES NOT
SCORE LIBERTARIAN.  How?  By showing that there are more choices in
political thought than the bogus one-dimensional mind-stunting (a la
newspeak) spectrum.  There is a choice that embraces liberty in a
consistent, common-sense manner, AND THERE IS A WORD FOR IT.  The first
step in choosing something is, typically, finding out what it is called.
In the case of human freedom, it was easier 200 years ago, when liberalism
actually had a meaning, and everyone knew what it was.


    Alan T. Furman         | VOTE LIBERTARIAN!!  Marrou/Lord in 92!!
---------------------------+----------------------------------------
  atfurman@cup.portal.sig  |   (800)682-1776 for more information
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa