NationStates Jolt Archive

*flaunts knowledges*

Anybody else wanna field this one, or should I show off?

*flaunts knowledges*

Anybody else wanna field this one, or should I show off?
Feel free to.
I'd *heard* it was a certain view of arrangement in parliament. I've never looked it up otherwise.

Yay!

When the Constituent Assembly met after the French Revolution, the radical Jacobins and Girondists sat on the left, while conservative nobles sat on the right.

Yay!

When the Constituent Assembly met after the French Revolution, the radical Jacobins and Girondists sat on the left, while conservative nobles sat on the right.*gracefully accepts applause from his/her rumoured puppetmaster*
Wasn't there an issue of enmity/separation also?

*gracefully accepts applause from his/her rumoured puppetmaster*
Wasn't there an issue of enmity/separation also?

I dunno, that's all we've learnt. There were moderates in the centre. I assume it was just a seating arrangement.

I dunno, that's all we've learnt. There were moderates in the centre. I assume it was just a seating arrangement.
Perhaps i'll look it up. I can't do much ATM - gotta sleep and all. Nighties.

The terms left and right come from the fact that we are symetrical beings. Starfish don't have a clue what we are talking about when we say, "It's on the left." Presumably starfish could become aware of the concept through the study of chemistry or mathematics but the concept wouldn't really mean anything to them on a personal level in much the same way we find it difficult to relate to the characterisitcs of quarks.

The terms left and right come from the fact that we are symetrical beings. Starfish don't have a clue what we are talking about when we say, "It's on the left." Presumably starfish could become aware of the concept through the study of chemistry or mathematics but the concept wouldn't really mean anything to them on a personal level in much the same way we find it difficult to relate to the characterisitcs of quarks.

You're a funny dude, man. :D

FYI, I occasionally have dreams about holding my brain in a glass jar. Sometimes I would fall and break the jar. As I sit in the corner crying, a voice booms. "Stop crying, silly boy. If that was your brain, then what is in your head right now?"

A question that I have pondered till today. With no satisfactory answer.

Weren't lefties supposed to be in league with the Devil or something?

You're a funny dude, man.

FYI, I occasionally have dreams about holding my brain in a glass jar. Sometimes I would fall and break the jar. As I sit in the corner crying, a voice booms. "Stop crying, silly boy. If that was your brain, then what is in your head right now?"

You're having dreams about Cartesian duality where the voice of God tells you that Decartes was wrong and you say I'm funny? Still, that's an intersting dream and I'm glad you shared it with me. Now you know how I feel with my brain in a tank, although lately I've had my tank updated to a calcium cement model. It's very snug, but I like it.

As for lefties being in league with lucifer, the Latin word for left is sinister. I'm not sure if the Romans thought lefties were bad or if the word sinister gained its sinister connotations later on during the fun fun fun dark ages.

Being left handed has been considered "evil" since people could differentiate between the two.

This is why we shake hands with our rights.

Hell, it could be thats why its called the "right" hand.

Being left handed has been considered "evil" since people could differentiate between the two.

This is why we shake hands with our rights.

Hell, it could be thats why its called the "right" hand.

What if being left handed was considered holy instead? Would people then be attracted to left handed people and sexual selection would cause left handedness to become the norm? Has this already happened? Is that how we ended up being mostly right handed?

I wonder if we can look at the wear pattens on stone tools and work out handedness in the past?

You're having dreams about Cartesian duality where the voice of God tells you that Decartes was wrong and you say I'm funny? Still, that's an intersting dream and I'm glad you shared it with me. Now you know how I feel with my brain in a tank, although lately I've had my tank updated to a calcium cement model. It's very snug, but I like it.

As for lefties being in league with lucifer, the Latin word for left is sinister. I'm not sure if the Romans thought lefties were bad or if the word sinister gained its sinister connotations later on during the fun fun fun dark ages.
I'd quote more of you, but I'm too lazy, and this is the most pertinent. Yes, the terms "left" and "right" come partially from the seating arrangement, but they were probably seated for the connotations associated with left and right, with the moderates in the middle to keep the lefties and righties from killing each other. For millenia, the "right" has always been a sign of favor in Western culture. Anything from the "left" was a sign of disfavor. Like when Caligula claimed Jupiter kicked him out of heaven with his right big toe: that was because Jupiter favored him but feared he was too powerful to keep around. And conservatives tend to appeal to religion/religious tradition, which makes them an irrationally favored party, so they get the right, while the liberals, who were often met with disapproval for their breaks with valued traditions in their official inception as political parties, were assigned to the left.

it relates mainly to the "poitical spectrum" (left being liberal or communist, and right being conservative or capitalists ect) along the spectrum is the economical scale, the right side being up with the rich and the left being more equal rights and so forth. The right side being prtrayed as the wealthy side most likely comes from the tradition that the most important person sits on the right of the person at the head of a table.

...leans back in chair with a smug look on face whilst swirling a glass of brandy...

You're having dreams about Cartesian duality where the voice of God tells you that Decartes was wrong and you say I'm funny?

"Does the body rule the mind, or the mind rule the body?
I still don't know"

Stephen Patrick Morrissey does Descartes.

Feel free to.
I'd *heard* it was a certain view of arrangement in parliament. I've never looked it up otherwise.


Sort of, the idea originates from Parliament, in which the government of the day sits on the right and the opposition sits on the left as seen from the Speakers point of view. But it is more complicated than that. The word sinister is Latin for left, and at some point between the old Roman Republic and modern politics the left side of most things has become interpreted as the side of chaos and the right is defined as the side of order. In part, it has to do with the majority of people being right handed and a superstition in northern Europe to do with witchcraft and evil being practiced by people who used the left hands, in part it has to do with the Roman Military coustom of eating exclusively with your right hand and using your left hand to wipe your arse with (which also exists in some parts of Africa to this day) and in part it has to do with Spartan and Athenian views that men are the right hand and women are the left hand of society (add misogonistic early Chritianity and you get Left = women, therefore weak, untrustworthy, sinister). Conservative governments refered to their liberal opponents opponents as the left side - following their Royalist predesessors who referd to the Parliamenty forces as left handed as an insult. Ironically, in Europe, what are refered to a right and left parties are invalid, even during the Cromwellian period because political ideas do not work in ranges and the modern left (which broadly most democratically inclinded people belong to dispite what they may call themselves or where place themselves on any spectrum) has taken the insult and converted it into a badge of honour.

Yay!

When the Constituent Assembly met after the French Revolution, the radical Jacobins and Girondists sat on the left, while conservative nobles sat on the right.


Close but no cookie.

The Jacobins on the left, and the Girondists on the right.

How many chimpanzees are right handed?

Close but no cookie.

The Jacobins on the left, and the Girondists on the right.

Not entirely true. The Girondists were on the left with the Jacobins initially, but once the royalists were gone, they became the conservatives and moved to the right.

Not entirely true. The Girondists were on the left with the Jacobins initially, but once the royalists were gone, they became the conservatives and moved to the right.

The seating arrangements of the National Assembly were not so constituded until after the incident you refer to.

The seating arrangements of the National Assembly were not so constituded until after the incident you refer to.

Say what? All I know is that the Girondists were initially on the left. It's in Wikipedia >_>

Say what? All I know is that the Girondists were initially on the left. It's in Wikipedia >_>

Check Simon Schama's excellent: Citizens - A chronicle of the French Revolution.

Added to avoid a 'bumpy'-post:
Basically, I give as much credence to online sources as I give to the Daily Sport. Dreadfully sorry. I only use 'em when I don't have paper references to work with.

From Wikipedia:

During the French Revolution, the definition of who was on the left and who on the right shifted greatly within only a few years. Initially, leaders of the Constituent Assembly like Antoine Barnave and Alexandre de Lameth, who supported a very limited monarchy and a unicameral legislature, were seen as being on the left, in opposition to more conservative leaders who hoped for a more British-style constitutional monarchy, and to those who opposed the revolution outright. By the time of the convening of the Legislative Assembly in 1791, their party, now called the Feuillants, had come to be seen as on the right due to its support for any form of monarchy, and for the limited franchise of the 1791 Constitution. By the time of the convening of the National Convention only a year later, the Girondins, who had been on the left in the Legislative Assembly due to their support for external war to spread the revolution, and strong dislike for the king, had themselves come to be seen as being on the right due to their ambivalence about the overthrow of the monarchy, their opposition to Louis's execution, and their dislike for the city of Paris, which had come to see itself as the heart of the Revolution.

http://www.modernsurf.com/spam/spamanm.gif

http://www.modernsurf.com/spam/spamanm.gif
Why the name Valdania? It reminds me of the name of a nation from a novel I've read.

Why the name Valdania? It reminds me of the name of a nation from a novel I've read.

It's a bit hypocritical for me to post in this thread again but it comes from an imaginary country I made up on a World Cup Football computer game in the 80's.

It's a bit hypocritical for me to post in this thread again but it comes from an imaginary country I made up on a World Cup Football computer game in the 80's.
That's creepy. Look in In Legend Born. Pretty sure that's the name of the foreign empire.

Being left handed has been considered "evil" since people could differentiate between the two.

This is why we shake hands with our rights.

Hell, it could be thats why its called the "right" hand.
So where does that put Flanders, prey diddley?

Being left handed has been considered "evil" since people could differentiate between the two.

This is why we shake hands with our rights.

Hell, it could be thats why its called the "right" hand.

Actually true, the word Sinister is Latin (and Italian) for Left, and that's where the word cam from, I believe.

But what this has to do with the French Legislative Assembly, I shall never know...

It was originally "right" and "wrong", but the liberals wanted the Church to stay out of the state.:p

Everyone talks about the seats in Parliment, but I've also heard that it's because the kings were mostly conservative and the persons they liked were probably of the same views. So they put the persons they were fond of on the right, the favored side, and those they wouldn't mind executing on the left, the unfavored side.

Not sure which idea is true.

It was originally "right" and "wrong", but the liberals wanted the Church to stay out of the state.:p And rightly so! :p

It was originally "right" and "wrong", but the liberals wanted the Church to stay out of the state.:p

Everyone talks about the seats in Parliment, but I've also heard that it's because the kings were mostly conservative and the persons they liked were probably of the same views. So they put the persons they were fond of on the right, the favored side, and those they wouldn't mind executing on the left, the unfavored side.

Not sure which idea is true.
You just reasoned out, like I did, why they were placed on the right and left, not where the terms came from. But once placed on that side, the terms developed as a natural result.

Huzzah for 9th grade Social Studies!

Huzzah for 9th grade Social Studies!
In Canadia maybe. I never learned that in Social Studies....but that might be because I taught myself everything I knew through that time with books and independent study, so I never paid attention in class. :p