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recognize the left versus the right. What? Yeah, let's do it. 00:09 So we want to study, and understand, and comprehend the entire world. 00:14 But how? There's so much going on with complex events 00:19 unfolding and happening all over the world, every second of the day, day to day in new and different ways. 00:24 We aren't omnipotent. 00:25 We can't be everywhere at once to personally experience and interpret "the truth" of every situation in the world. 00:33 So how do we do it? Answer-00:36 We rely on information presented to us from others. 00:40 Others? Others like who? 00:42 Others like books, textbooks, magazines, newspapers, news reporters, new shows, 00:48 radio talk shows, radio talk show hosts 00:51 political and economic analysts, teachers, college professors, fellow world travelers, 00:58 family, friends, tweets, IMs, blogs, 01:02 Facebooking?? Whew. 01:04 There's a whole lot out there, and 01:07 all of these shows, publications, stories, sources of information are produced by people. 01:15 People like me and you. People who have different opinions and different viewpoints about the world. 01:21 And thus they all to a greater or lesser extent 01:23 have some sort of bias about what they're telling you--or not telling you by the way. 01:28 It's not bad or good. 01:30 It's just they way it is. We're humans. That's how we do it. 01:35 For our world exploration, it is important to recognize these differences. 01:38 Different takes, different biases that exist when reporters are reporting on news events when 01:44 politicians are debating solutions to societal problems, 01:48 or when anybody expresses personal beliefs in interpreting a situation of something that's unfolding. 01:52 You need to understand where they're coming from so that you can decide for yourself where the truth lies. 01:59 Okay, so what are these biases or major ideological

02:03 approaches to problem solving, reporting events, and understanding our world? 02:07 Obviously there are two major camps of thought here. 02:10 The liberal left versus 02:13 the conservative right. 02:15 And of course there's great spectrum of opinion across these two major ideologies from 02:21 extreme, extreme, extreme far left to 02:24 extreme, extreme, extreme far right. 02:27 There's lots of stuff in between in the middle. They may be in great opposition, 02:30 but most folks are somewhere closer to the middle. 02:33 Maybe just center left on this issue, 02:35 maybe just centerr right on this issue, and some people are dead in the center all together. 02:39 They're called "centrist", and they use ideas from both camps 02:43 to form opinions and solve problems on an issue-to issue-basis. 02:47 Now, you've heard these names and labels thrown around all the time 02:52 in the news and radio and everywhere else. 02:53 And mostly a lot of name-calling in this country 02:56 You've heard of a leftist guerrilla group in Colombia or in politics in America. 03:01 All those right-wing nuts who are saying that the president's a leftist pinko commie 03:07 slipping the country into leftist socialism. Yeah, I mean that happens all the time. 03:11 Let's get to the root of these issues, the root of these names. 03:16 What are these approaches all about? 03:19 And to do that, let's actually take a look right at the names right off the get-go. 03:22 What these words mean. And we'll start with the conservative right. 03:28 Just look at the root of the word itself. 03:31 We on the conservative right 03:34 like to conserve, that is to keep the same. 03:39

Conserve tradition, conserve political power, 03:41 conserve economic power in the hands of those that already possess it. 03:46 We're all about the old school and the old ways. 03:49 Let's keep it the same. 03:51 And then what about the liberal left? 03:55 On the liberal left we want to 03:59 liberate, or free everything 04:01 To free ourselves from static tradition 04:05 by incorporating current perspectives, and new knowledge to change the old ways and 04:12 free economic and political power up for everyone to share. 04:18 Free, liberate, whee! 04:21 And what is their life take on how things ought to be? 04:27 The conservative right hankers back to the good old days when everything was simpler and better. 04:34 We want to maintain those traditions of our forefathers and apply them and 04:38 duplicate them in today's world. 04:41 The liberal left thinks that maybe the good old days 04:42 actually weren't all that good. And even if they were good for you, or are good for you now, 04:48 that doesn't necessarily mean they're good for everybody in the society. 04:52 Lots of others may not have it so good. And there are new realities, new information, 04:57 new technologies that should be incorporated as we change our world for the better, 05:01 at least we want to try to. 05:03 And faced with a debate about the shaping of government policy or 05:08 interpreting a news event or offering solutions to problems. How would they solve it? 05:12 Where would these two ideological approaches go for answers or for guidance? 05:17 We look to the historical texts and ancient documents to answer questions even in today's world. 05:24 The Jewish Talmud, the Christian Bible, the Muslim Quran 05:28 Vedic texts in the caste system of ancient India,

05:32 ancient Confucian thought in China still applied in today's world, 05:36 and of course the constitutions of the States themselves, 05:40 the founding documents. 05:42 They reinforce tradition of the old ways. The answers are all there. They could still be applied to today's world. 05:49 It would incorporate new scientific knowledge, 05:54 sociology, psychology 05:55 biology, technology 05:58 new facts and new ways of understanding our world that make for new realities. 06:04 Today's world is so much different than it was in the past, even a hundred years ago. 06:08 We must have new, fresh solutions to what's happening today. We must change things to make them better. 06:14 We embrace change. Change is good. 06:17 No, no, no, no! Boo! Change is bad. 06:21 Now, these broad ideological approaches can be applied to a host of different topics like 06:28 economics, finance, your personal finance, politics, government systems, religion, social issues. 06:35 But at their core they do have certain distinctions, which set them at odds with each other. 06:40 What distinctions I'm I talking about? Guys, you tell them. Right? 06:44 We on a conservative right are all about preserving that tradition, 06:51 preserving societal structure and preserving societal stability over all other things. 06:58 That's our number one priority--stability. 07:02 In that respect, we support a strong central government in its capacity 07:05 to maintain that order, meaning we are pro-military, pro-police, pro-law-and-order. 07:13 We're also pro-big business because it's the businesses that build the economy 07:18 which bring wealth and prosperity and therefore stability to the society. 07:22 We are also pro-religion in all facets of private, but also public life, 07:29 as religion provides structure and order and rules 07:32 for our ethical and moral lives and establishes the proper family values for us to follow. 07:39

So we're pro-military, pro-police, pro-establishment, pro-law-and-order. 07:42 We are the establishment. And that's typically why you associate overtly religious people with the conservative right, 07:51 richer folks who want to conserve their wealth, 07:55 or older folks want to conserve the traditions of the way they grew up, 07:57 but also police and the military etc., etc. 08:02 And on the other side of the aisle? 08:04 We on the liberal left respect the rights and liberties of the individual in society above all other things. 08:13 The individual should be totally liberated in such a ways to make the most out of his or her 08:19 individual existence, in the best way they see fit for their lives. 08:23 And we use the experiences of the modern world and the modern knowledge 08:28 and modern interpretation of things to change and shape the world of today 08:33 which is why we are all about pro-individualism, pro-choice, 08:38 pro-equality, equal rights, equal pay, universal suffrage-08:42 that's the right for everyone in the society to vote for their government that's going to rule them. 08:47 Therefore, everyone has a voice and we favor a strong central government 08:51 that uses its power to make all these things equal politically and economically for all of its citizens 08:58 which is why we also support things like public education 09:02 social programs like welfare or unemployment insurance, 09:05 because what good is political freedom if economically you'll have no power at all? 09:08 We are also pro-labor. 09:11 We like to stick up for the individual workers and their rights 09:14 and thus we're kind of anti-big business and even anti-big government 09:18 when either one of those entities becomes too intrusive on the rights of the individuals. 09:24 Individual freedoms trump political, government, or economic power. 09:29 Individuals first. 09:31 So we're kind of anti-establishment, anti-corporate, anti-"the man", 09:37

when "the man" gets too powerful or oppressive. 09:40 Pro-individual expression, pro-equal rights, pro-economic and political equality for all, 09:46 which is why we normally associate the left with poorer folks, oppressed peoples, 09:53 minorities, actors, artist types who are expressing themselves any way they want, peace mongers, 09:59 environmentalists, hippies, young individualistic college students who want to go out and change the world, 10:05 and even overeducated liberal college professors. 10:08 What? No, man, I'm a centrist. I think you see how these differences in approach can quickly polarize any debate, 10:15 especially when the extremes of these approaches come out to play 10:19 as easily evidenced in the manifestations of the far right 10:23 versus the far left folks in the world like... 10:27 Dirty damn hippies living in a commune and--"commune" like communism-10:34 Country clubber elitist 10:36 They want to redistribute my wealth to pass it around to the poor masses who don't work. 10:43 Corporate fat cats hoarding the wealth. 10:47 Dope-smoking heathens 10:50 Fundamentalist religious nuts and zealots 10:54 Those left wing nuts are revolutionaries intent on overthrowing the government and/or the police. 11:00 Pillagers of the planet 11:03 Slippery socialist sliding into communism 11:07 Polluters 11:08 Flag-burning 11:10 Ultra-conservative fundamentalist freaks 11:14 Anti-law and establishment anarchist. 11:17 They're suppressing my individual freedoms and expressions. 11:21 Tree-huggin' 11:23 Fascist 11:24 Buddy-kissing environmentalists that are damaging the economy

11:28 White color oppressors 11:30 ARGH! 11:34 Whoa, whoa, whoa there fellas! 11:36 Chill it out! 11:38 Those are certainly the extreme 11:41 fringe of both sides, but not everybody's on the fringe. 11:45 In fact, not many are on the fringe. 11:46 Most are somewhere closer to the middle of the spectrum of belief. 11:51 We can see these ideologies at work in tangible ways 11:53 in everyday life and decision-making too. 11:56 Some examples from across the board may help here. 11:59 For example, 12:01 religiously the left versus the right. 12:03 How do you guys feel about 12:05 having---I don't know--a woman as a priest in your church? 12:11 Especially you Catholics and Jewish folks and Muslims. How do you feel about women as priests? 12:16 Nope, nope, nope, nope. 12:18 Not part of the traditional ways in any of the religious texts. 12:21 Has always been role for a man. 12:23 That's the way it's always been, that's the way it should be. They wrote the stuff a long time ago. 12:27 It still applies in today's world. No women priests. 12:31 Certainly we would support that! 12:33 Times have changed in the last couple thousand years. 12:36 We now accept women as equals in our society. 12:39 So why wouldn't they have the opportunity to hold a leadership position in a religion? 12:43 They are just as pious and just as competent as their male counterparts and for a religion to do that 12:49

we would call them a reformist or reformed religion. 12:52 Or economically, should your government place big taxes on businesses 12:58 or heavily regulate multinational corporations? 13:01 No, no, no, no. 13:03 Get the government out of the way of the business. 13:06 As soon as government gets involved, they're screwed with business. 13:09 They're gonna mess things up. It's gonna damage the economy. 13:11 No-go. Don't tax them. Don't mess with them. Don't regulate them. 13:15 Absolutely yes, we would support that. 13:19 Big corporations have way too much power over the individuals that work for them 13:23 and way too much power in society at large. 13:26 They need to give back to the society in terms of high taxes 13:30 And without government regulations, 13:32 companies and corporations would totally screw over their employees, 13:36 pay them pennies on the dollar, have unsafe working conditions, 13:39 and would openly pollute the environment. They need to be regulated. 13:42 Or politically, would you favor a change to your country's constitution? 13:47 Absolutely not! 13:51 That is the founding documents written by the Founding Fathers. 13:56 They're gold standard, man! Don't mess with the Founding Fathers or their words. 14:01 They wrote a long time ago. It was awesome then, it's still awesome now. 14:05 Jefferson rocks! Don't mess. 14:07 Yes, again! New times, new problems call for new solutions 14:12 which sometimes means that even the great Constitution of our country needs to be 14:18 tweaked from time to time as circumstances and societies and attitudes change. 14:23 Let's make it real for the Americans viewing this. 14:27 How do each of you feel about...let's say

14:29 the Patriot Act passed during the Bush administration, 14:32 which allow for government spying on its own citizens 14:34 so that they could root out, find, and destroy terrorists in the society? 14:39 But of course! 14:40 In times of war, 14:43 or disaster, or threats to the country 14:46 the individuals must relinquish some of their 14:50 individual human rights and privileges 14:52 to the big government so that the government can have the power to stabilize and protect us and keep us safe. 15:00 With no questions, not a problem. 15:03 No, no, no, no, no. Bad, bad, bad, bad government. 15:06 Intruding into individuals lives, and taking away individual liberties-15:11 that's a very slippery slope when a government starts invading individuals' personal lives 15:15 in the name of national security. 15:17 That's how dictatorships start. 15:20 Ha, ha, ha. And socially speaking, seriously, how do you guys feel about gay marriage? 15:25 [Shouting] 15:27 No way! 15:28 I know historic text. 15:30 No religious text says that that stuff is okay. That's against tradition, 15:34 it's against family values in the traditional family sense. 15:39 Absolutely not! 15:41 It'd be the end of days, Sodom and Gomorrah. 15:43 Hell yeah! 15:45 Individuals making choices about their own lives in these new and modern times, yes! 15:52 Pro-choice, baby! 15:54

Have an abortion, legalize marriage. You wanna get married to whoever you want, 15:59 be as gay as you wanna be. 16:02 [Laughing] I knew that last one was a loaded question. 16:07 But I brought up those particular political social issues 16:11 in the United States to make a very important point 16:14 that you need to understand in order to get the outside, exterior, rest-of-the-planet world. 16:20 And that is this. "Asterisk, asterisk, asterisk." 16:23 Virtually all distinctions between the left versus the right in the United States is based on social issues. 16:32 Almost all of it is based on social issues. 16:34 Issues like gay rights, prayer in school, 16:37 abortion, tax rates, gun control. 16:40 Those are all social issues that divide the United States 16:43 and polarize the United States, sometimes terribly so, 16:49 But this is not the case for the broader spectrum of left versus right in the world. 16:55 The world that we're going to be talking about all semester, 16:59 where the political left versus the right on the global stage means the difference between 17:05 ultra-concentrated power on the right, which would form a fascist or Nazi state, 17:10 versus an ultra liberal distribution of political power, 17:14 which would be something closer to democracy or communism. 17:16 That's a big difference. Do you get that? 17:18 Or even economically, the left versus right economically in the world means the difference between 17:24 on the right, wide open, free market, no rules or regulations capitalism 17:27 versus full-on socialism bleeding into communism. 17:31 That's some significant big difference on the global stage. 17:35 Maybe if we put up this chart, 17:37 I can make it more real for you to understand the difference between the US and the world. 17:41 If we were looking at the entire

17:42 spectrum of logical thought across the planet, 17:45 look at the extremes. The extreme left you have 17:48 anarchists who want no government at all, power all to the people, 17:51 or dirty hippies living in communes, 17:54 and of course "communes" means they want to be communist 17:56 or revolutionary leftist guerrillas who wanna overthrow the government, 17:59 versus on the extreme right 18:01 Nazis, religious fanatics, military dictatorships, right-wing fundamentalist nut bags. 18:09 Those are the extremes of the spectrum. 18:10 But if you drew a line right down the middle 18:13 you are a centrist here on the world stage. 18:16 You'd see that as you went a little to the left and progressed leftward from center 18:22 you'd see that the real focus here is on 18:25 more individualism, more power to the individuals, and more so the further left you go, 18:30 more freedoms, more free-ness to the peoples, 18:32 less control by an overarching big government or multinational corporation, 18:37 and if you were to progress from 18:40 center to the right, you'd see that 18:43 just to the right of center would be a little less focused on individualism as your primary concern, 18:48 a little less free, a little less freedoms, 18:51 more and more and more control as you progress further and further right 18:55 to full-on Nazi power. 18:57 Now, if we were to superimpose 19:00 the ideological differences here in the United States onto this-19:03 let's say the liberal Democrats versus the conservative Republicans-19:06 here's where they would fall out on the world stage. 19:09

Ka-blammo, ka-blammo! 19:10 Yeah, that's right! 19:11 They're right beside each other on the world stage. 19:14 There's not a dime's worth of difference between these two groups ideologically, 19:18 except for those social issues 19:20 which they bicker about incessantly and 19:23 rant and rage and scream at each other and act like it's the end of the world and 19:28 "Oh my gosh! We can never get together and the country's going to die if the other groups in charge!" 19:32 Whoa, chill it out. 19:34 They're just center right and center left in the bigger picture. 19:38 Neither the Republicans or Democrats 19:39 nor leftists or rightists in America are seriously arguing for a move to 19:45 communism or Nazism. 19:47 It's simply not the case. They are debating about social issues almost exclusively in the U.S. 19:53 Don't mistake that for when you hear those terms on the global stage, okay? 19:57 Okay. Whew! 19:59 So, we see these big differences in approach to understanding our world. 20:04 So who's got it right? [Laughs] 20:07 Who wins? Well, that's up to you decide. 20:10 But here's the real deal, the Boyer deal. 20:13 Both. 20:14 Both ideological lines of thought are valuable tools 20:18 for understanding issues and shaping policies which affect our world. 20:21 How so? 20:23 Well, let's defend them one at a time. 20:25 What's so great about the conservative right or conservativism in general? 20:32 Well,

20:33 not all change is good. 20:35 Not all ideas are great. Not all new ideas are going to work. 20:40 I mean look at the idiots that thought liberal/equalizing communism 20:46 was...