Political ideology is a more complicated issue than one might assume. The more you study it, the more you begin to realise terms like "left wing" and "right wing" are not very well defined.
For example, depending on the establishment of the day, certain opponents might be labelled "communists" or "nazi's", and yet when you examine these labels in greater detail, they may contain no substance at all.
Having researched political ideology for a while now, I have come to the conclusion that there are many false assumptions which confuse the political spectrum.
If you take economics, you can broadly define the "right wing" as leaning towards the laissez-faire free market capitalism, and "left wing" as leaning towards a planned and regulated economy.
The confusion arises when the "social" aspect to ideology comes into play. Many on the "right wing" will identify themselves as being pro-family values, anti-immigration, opposed to the "decline in moral values" in society, tough on crime and of a socially conservative, religious outlook.
Many on the left are commonly percieved to be less religious, in favour of multiculturalism, tolerant of diverse lifestyles and so on.
But in my opinion, these aims and attitudes are the exact opposite of what each ideologies said economic system will, in practice, achieve.
I shall focus here particularly on right-wing ideology. It is my opinion that very Capitalist economic systems bring about a very social darwinist "survival of the fittest" type of society, as opposed to the religious values that social conservatives talk up.
The right wing talk of "family values" and envision a society where the nuclear family is the norm, where community life is abundant and national pride is strong, and yet they support an economic system which places "individualism" at its very heart.
"There's no such thing as society"- as Margaret Thatcher once said. How can you develop strong community relations in an economic system based on constantly competing with your neighbours?
Surely for family life to flourish people need to spend time together- not all of their time working. People need to have enough money to afford to live in a decent home. And yet those on the right wing will oppose such measures as maternity and paternity leave and oppose the minimum wage and so on.
Those on the right continually talk about immigration. And yet it is the very capitalist economic system they support which encourages mass movement of people. Such phrases as "British jobs for British workers" are meaningless in a capitalist economic system. Globalisation can and does result in jobs going overseas and in migrant workers moving in to compete for local jobs. Measures to restrict immigration are bad for big business.
I do agree that our welfare state needs to look after our own people first- otherwise it is simply unsustainable to have large numbers of people not paying into the system sponging off of it. But many on the right use the fact that there are foriegn and domestic "spongers" as a reason to ABOLISH the welfare state altogether.
I do not feel that Captialism encourages a more "moral" society by any means. Just take a look advertising used by businesses to sell their products. Businesses encourage us to feel that without their product, you are socially unacceptable. They do this by saying their product will make you smarter, younger looking, more sexy ect ect, and the implication is that without it you won't be quite as sexy and cool as everybody else who does own the product.
"Sex sells" is a well known saying in business. Just take a look at our celebrities and modern movies. Do any of these things set good examples for children? Most movies now are full of sex and violence- because that is what "sells".
And yet - those on the Right wing continually complain about the moral decay in socity, despite capitalism playing a very large role.
Capitalism is all about self interest. Big businesses don't CARE about family values, or doing what is for the good of society, or in national interest. As long as they can make a profit- they will do it. If that means bringing in multitudes of immigrants to the country because these people will accept lower wages- they will do it.
If that means making men and women work all hours of the day on a low wage so they barely get any family time together and can barely afford the nicer things in life- they will do it.
It doesn't matter if encouraging alcohol consumption 24/7 in pubs, clubs and at football matches leads to anti-social behaviour if that's what makes a profit.
Doesn't matter if encouraging young teenagers to dress in a sexually provocative manner is "bad for social values"- because it's making a profit.
It doesn't matter if families are destroyed, communities are divided, moral values are destroyed and national identity is eroded, as long as they make their money and it benefits their selfish interests- none of that stuff matters.
So when right wing politicians promote capitalism and "social values" in the same breath, I honestly believe they are speaking in very contradictive terms.
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