Left-wing, Right-wing? I'll take a leg.

What with the fuss over the BNP party DK argues that they weren't, as everyone decries, a Right-wing party they were in fact a Left-wing one.

This isn't a direct response to that (he's smart enough to understand), but does excite enough anger for me to want to shout Stop It! No seriously just stop with this right-wing, left wing crap; there's no such thing.

Take Person A, Person A believes in capital punishment and a free health service. But one is a right-wing belief and the other a left-wing one; they're contradictory. No they're not - what's the connection between punishment and health? There isn't one they're only contradictory because the two notions have been commonly associated with opposing systems.

Okay what the hell is it with this species that we just have to classify everything, label it and assign it to its 'correct' place? Okay rhetorical question, but at least let's recognise the primitivism of the concept.

There are no left-wing policies there are no right-wing policies they're simplified tools used to band people into groups so you can deal with them as a whole and are concepts that have been eagerly seized upon by both the politicians themselves and the media to stunt your thought processes. Because once you apply a label to something you don't have to think about it any more.

So are there any truly opposing states of mind; how about anarchy and statism? In the former no-one has control over what you can do, in the latter the state (or someone) has completely control. But even there 'contradictions' can arise. What if you believe that the state should have no control over the markets, but that the state should have a monopoly over the judicial system? Fine a contradiction only arises if you think that the market should be both free and completely controlled by the state.

So examine your politics and for each 'topic' ask Do I think the state (or someone) alone should be in control of this or do I think no-one should be in control then mark your point and you can say that you're inclined towards the anarchist/statist standards.

So Person A - capital punishment set by the state - statist. Free health service - statist; add in free market economics - anarchist. No contradictions it's perfectly possible to be anarchist on one-topic and statist on another.