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The Wings of Political Ideologies (Part 1)

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Image Source : History Crunch

They are a group of left wing activists.
That is a right wing party.
His parents are conservatives.
She is a liberal. 

These are the terms most of us have used or hear someone else use almost daily in some news.
But what do these really mean?

What is left? What is right? How can ideologies be linked with some arbitrary direction?
Who are conservatives? What are they trying to conserve and who are liberals and what do they want liberation from?

The story dates back to 1789, during the time of French Revolution, when the people were fighting for their rights. Between the dates of June 13, 1789 and July 9, 1789, a group of people gathered together at the National Assembly to discuss.... Well to discuss a lot of things, but in due respect of your time, and  sticking to the topic at hand, let's focus on the positions of the people present there.

Just like in the a war, the two armies position themselves on the opposite sides of the field, in a very similar way, the people fighting in this war of ideas in the National Assembly also positioned themselves on the opposite sides of the hall.

There was a president of this National Assembly, who was in the middle of the room. The people that supported the king and the way things already were, sat on the right of the president. And the people that supported the revolution sat on the left hand side of the president.
This is hoe it was described by the people who were there, 

"Those who were loyal to religion and the king, took up positions to the right of the chair so as to avoid the shouts, oaths and indecencies that enjoyed free reign in the opposing camp"

 This story of the National Assembly and the war of ideas that took place in 1789, are the origin of terms right wing and left wing in our modern political lexicon.

Now as to why they're called Conservatives and Liberals, well.....That's a story for the next part 😄

Thanks for reading this far!
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Information and excerpts have been derived from the following sources  : 

  1. Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Assembly_(French_Revolution))
  2. Philosophize this! (www.philosophizethis.org/transcript/episode-50-transcript)


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