Those who have faithfully followed the logical steps this far will eventually harbor a heavy sense of skepticism in their hearts. And that skepticism is entirely valid.
"If there is a Right that claims to want freedom yet approves of state dictatorship, and a Left that claims to want equality yet builds a one-man dictatorial regime, isn’t the very classification of Left and Right a scam from the start? If the Left cannot be fully explained by equality, and the Right cannot be fully explained by freedom, why on earth does humanity stuff these disparate, contradictory values into the same bag and call them ‘Left’ and ‘Right’?"
In the face of this eternal homework over which scholars drink and fight all night, we must make a confession: the words "Left" and "Right" we use are not scientific classifications. They are closer to a "political melting pot bag" where all sorts of disparate elements have become tangled up amid the rough waves of history.
Then, what is the single, hidden essence that pierces through these worn-out, contradiction-filled pockets?
The Single Hidden Essence: The Eye That Views "Hierarchy"
Trying to explain the Left and the Right through the words "equality" and "freedom" brings us face-to-face with a logical wall every time. At the very bottom of this mudslinging debate, modern political scientists fished out the real standard. It is: "How do you view social hierarchy (rank and inequality)?"
At the very bottom of the Right lies the belief that "hierarchy and inequality are natural and necessary." Humans are originally born with different abilities and intelligence. Therefore, they believe that the division between rich and poor, the split between the elite and the masses, and the existence of the absolute authority (rank) of the state are natural and beneficial for the stability of society. The reason fascism was far-right is also clear: they established an absolute hierarchy called "the race and the state" and made the individual submit perfectly beneath it.
Conversely, at the very bottom of the Left lies the belief that "hierarchy and inequality are artificial and must be overthrown." Ranks and the wealth gap in human society are not natural outcomes, but a tragedy born from a flawed system. Therefore, they believe that through solidarity and reform, we must constantly shave down and flatten the sharp tower of this ranking system.
Ultimately, it is a battle between "It’s natural for the world to have ranks (Right)" and "Why are there ranks? We must eliminate them (Left)." This is the largest and most solid philosophical backbone dividing the Left and the Right.
A Bizarre Collusion Created by the Storm of History
Then why did contradictory flesh like "freedom" and "control" stick around this clear backbone? It was because of a "perilous alliance" they formed at a certain moment in history when they encountered a common enemy.
In the early 20th century, a massive monster called "socialism (communism)" emerged in Western society. They shouted, "Let us strip the capitalists and aristocrats of all their wealth and divide it equally." Originally, the market liberals (entrepreneurs) and traditional conservatives (aristocrats) in Britain were bitter enemies, but when faced with the risk of losing their wealth entirely, they joined hands.
They agreed that to protect their property and vested interests (right-wing values), they would willingly tolerate the state mobilizing the military and police to heavily control society (totalitarianism). The monster born at the tail end of this collusion was fascism.
The situation was similar for the Left’s bag. Those who wanted an equal world chose the path of becoming monsters themselves to fight against massive capital and state power, arguing, "We, too, must first establish a powerful dictatorial state (totalitarianism) and fight in perfect order." That is the tragedy of Stalinism.
Left and Right are Directions, Not Ideologies
Ultimately, the Left and the Right are not fixed files where all contents are perfectly compressed. They are relative directional indicators, like "port" and "starboard" used when a massive ship navigates.
Regardless of whether capitalists and soldiers fight or workers and intellectuals debate inside the ship, they are merely lumped together roughly into "the side trying to preserve the existing rank and order (the Right)" and "the side trying to break it down and flatten it (the Left)" within the massive historical direction this ship is moving toward.
Therefore, there is no need for us to be disappointed by the contradictions of the words Left and Right and discard these concepts. We only need to strip away the miscellaneous decorations inside the pockets and pierce through to the essence of what attitude they take toward "hierarchy and rank."
If someone asks you for the definition of the Left and the Right, why not answer like this instead of using ambiguous words like equality and freedom? Those who accept the world’s inequality as a natural order go to the right, and those who view it as an absurdity that humans must fix go to the left. Only when we possess the eyes to gaze at the monsters standing at the ends of those directions will we finally be able to read the true script of the massive play called politics.
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