Left versus Right

 

It’s Alright With Me

It's the wrong time and the wrong place
Though your face is charming, it's the wrong face
It's not her face, but such a charming face
That it's all right with me

Is the left then wrong?

Left and Right to describe one’s politics only dates back to just prior to the French Revolution. At that time in the French National Assembly, the supporters of the King sat on the right and the supporters of the Revolution sat on the left. Left and right, a binary, is not how normal politics should be described. A normal distribution does indeed have a left and right side, but most of the views are in the center.

Unfortunately right in other contexts means correct. And right-handed is "normal", while left-handed is not. And left is known as sinister in Latin. Thus the perception that the left is not normal and is sinister.

Ever wish there were another way to describe political positions than left and right?  Would it be better to describe it as User Optimal, UO, and System Optimal, SO. That is Individuals versus the Team? And wouldn’t it be even better to describe it in three dimensions: UO vs SO; Nature vs Nurture; Truth vs Fiction. ( and that last dimension is not mean to be disparaging, to be a slam. I prefer Fictional stories over Non-Fiction, but I also know that WWE wrestling is NOT Truth). Maybe Truth, Justice, and the American Way, otherwise known as  Certainty, Mercy and Pluralism?