Is capitalism a leftist ideal or a rightist?

[Anonymous]

Think about it, we know communism is an extreme leftist ideal, so, what is capitalism then?

Updates

+1 y

I'm seeing a lot of fallacies here in answers, please read up on political sides

[nightdrot]

Actually, if you are going to trace the pedigree of the idea, capitalism is a philosophy of the left. It having its origins in the 18th century Scottish Enlightenment, usually being pegged to Adam Smith's book, "The Wealth of Nations."

The idea behind the Enlightenment that there were certain laws in nature that governed politics and human relations. These paralleling the physical laws that had been discovered by Sir Isaac Newton and that had begun the "Scientific Revolution."

The assumption then being that man had the capacity to discern such laws and could harness them. If human laws were made in conformance with these natural laws, that peace and harmony among men would follow. In this, then, man was spontaneously social and that things like religion, ethnicity, nationality and community are extraneous to his nature. It was here that "rugged individualism" was born.

Capitalism then was a facet of this. Adam Smith, David Ricardo and others believed that they had discerned the natural laws governing human relations in the economic sphere. Thus, the famous "invisible hand." If men were left to interact according to his spontaneous instincts in terms of the provision of his needs, harmony and prosperity would follow.

CONT.

[nightdrot]

This greatly oversimplified the ancient's idea - seen in Aristotle, Plato, Aquinas and others and later, crucially, the father of conservatism Edmund Burke. These argued that man was a more complicated being than capitalism's homo econimus.

Burke called "The Wealth of Nations" the greatest work of ECONOMIC philosophy ever written. The modifier matters. Burke thought that Smith had discovered ingenious rules for economic relations but did NOT believe, as the classical liberals did, that these defined human nature and that the problem with such ideas was that they deprived man of the things by which he defined himself and thereby gave him a sense of identity and purpose and helped to shape him into a social being.

The future, however, was classical liberalism - and with it capitalism - but there came a reaction to that. Into this stepped Marx. In brief summation, he combined man's need for a sense of identity with a "scientific theory." He discerned a dialectic in History - with a capital "H" - in which economics and class was the source of man's true identity and that the clash of owning and working classes would result over time in a stateless utopia where man lived in fulfillment of his nature.

CONT.

[nightdrot]

Please note then that the split between Capitalism and Socialism is a split within the classical left. To oversimplify a bit, classical conservatism harked to an older tradition that defined man as a social being but whose social capacities and sense of identity was the product of nurture in a broader culture harking back over generations and not the result of laws inherent in physical nature.

The confusion then being in the contemporary definition that what is today called the right - this having its own problems - is actually classical liberalism. Marxism then being the product of a split in, and reaction to, classical liberalism. So, long answer to short question - in contemporary parlance, capitalism is a philosophy of the right, but in historical understanding it actually harks from what came to be called the left, before the left itself segmented and divided.

[nightdrot]

P. S. As an aside, the terms "right," "left" and so forth, are not terribly helpful. The usage comes out of the French revolution, when supporters of a republic sat to the left of the Speaker's chair in the National Assembly, while supporters of the Church and the monarchy sat to the right. While these are common usage in contemporary politics, they actually don't say very much and also muddle, somewhat, the answer to the question.

[Ceasar97]

Not at all. On the far "right" end of the scale is anarchy and on the far "left" end is true communism. Both of these are impossible to achieve due to the nature of humans and the nature of the ideology. Anarchy is impossible because you will always have the strongest rise up and become a monarch and true communism is impossible because it doesn't account for human greed. Capitalism is an almost perfect middle. We have government control and regulation to maintain peace and fairness, but we also allow people to make their own choices and make their own way. Capitalism Republic isn't a perfect government, but it is the best one I have seen and thought of. What do you think and do you have any other questions I can help with?

[Asker]

OK, ceasar, lol

[Cccgala]

I do not think a mere political dichotomy such as the Left and the Right would appropriately classify capitalism's place in the political spectrum. Being an economic system, capitalism has tremendously impacted the world economy and its dynamics, and such could not be outright attributed to any political ideology. An instance would be the Chinese (PRC) government—totalitarian (leftist) in rule yet fiscally capitalist in international trade.

People seem to attribute capitalism more to the right-wing side of the political spectrum, namely with conservatism and libertarianism. However, there are a lot of wealthy individuals (replete in capital) in the world who openly harbor "leftist" opinions, express disagreement with leaders deemed to be "right-wing", etc.

[JimboGB]

Communism is a leftist ideology because it is rooted in a rejection of Capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system, not a political agenda. Being right-wing doesn't mean you are conservative and support the upholding of the current system. I would argue leftists see capitalism as a means to an end, while ring-wingers see capitalism as a root out of poverty.

[Shamalien]

capitalism is a libertarian idea. It's a classical liberal idea. Modern liberals are lefties but that's not what liberal was defined to mean

[Asker]

Libertarian is a rightist ideologie, not a lefty. You're thinking of the green party

[Shamalien]

libertarian is center

[Asker]

right of center

[Shamalien]

think whatever makes u feel better kiddo, libertarian is dead center on any true spectrum

[Asker]

no. center is center. libertarian, is independent, that leans right

[1kink]

Neither as both have been successful at free enterprise.

[Bandita]

It is an economic system.

[stuntbrain]

Capitalism is an economic ideal

[Anonymous]

From what I have seen, it's rightist.

[Anonymous]

A bad ideal.

[Anonymous]

It's both