Political Thermodynamics

Challenging The "Spectrum"

“Left wing, right wing, same bird.” - Anonymous

I’ve heard this punchy, pithy phrase uttered many times — usually by moderates, centrists, or political misanthropes — as a way of uniting two disparate and opposing political forces into one cohesive oppressive hegemon. What’s more, there’s an undertone that not only are the two actually one, but the one is evil and should be dismissed and distrusted.

It’s clever and easily memed, but it misses the point.

The truth is there are people who can be identified as left wing and right wing who, in fact, proudly describe themselves in these terms. It’s also true that the Left and the Right are terms with distinct socio-political meanings, connotations, and philosophies that can be correctly or incorrectly applied. The main problem with this phrase is that it uses the imagery of left wing and right wing, but it intends to target Democrats and Republicans. And while it is fair to say that by and large the Democrats are “left wing” and the Republicans are “right wing,” they are not, in fact, synonyms or interchangeable.

If the phrase were “Democrat, Republican, same political machine,” I really wouldn’t bat an eye at that. There are differences, yes, but they are both beholden to similar systems, regulations, voting mechanisms, and processes. Ideologically, they’re much more alike than left wingers and right wingers are.

Left wing and right wing are far more closely related to liberal and conservative than they are to Democrat and Republican, at least the way I see it, but even still, something has felt odd about the horizontal visualization—the “spectrum”—of political categorization. For the past few years, I’ve spent some time thinking about why this felt off to me, and I’ve landed on a visualization that makes much more intuitive sense to me and helps me not only see things from both perspectives but actually identify with both positions, though not simultaneously.

I call it Political Thermodynamics, and I’d like to share it with you.

Political Thermodynamics starts with a 90-degree rotation of the political “spectrum” such that the “right” or “conservatism” is on the bottom, and the “left” or “liberalism” is on the top.

The next step is to imagine a cylinder around the system with an open top, and inside the cylinder is the set of all socio-political action in our country represented by particles, like sand or marbles or really any combination of objects. It’ll become clearer later.

The third step is where the thermodynamics come into play. Apply equal parts heat, gravity, and entropy to this system and watch it evolve. What do you see?

I’ll tell you what I see. Settled at the bottom of the cylinder, I see a layer of tiny particles packed closely together like grains of sand—boring but stable. Near the top, I see a lot more space, punctuated by streaks of light and energy, sparks and flashes, and fireworks—brilliant and chaotic. Towards the middle, I see turbulence, particles of different shapes and sizes colliding and vying for space, gaining and losing energy, rising and falling with gravity.

This is the socio-political system as I see it. It is a living system where people and ideas compete. Where old ideas that are tried and true settle to the bottom over time and become traditions, norms, and customs—in other words, conserved—and where new ideas are liberated in the space above, fizzing, popping, and banging around the system until they either exit the system or matriculate down through the middle layer, trading energy for stability along the way.

This visualization demonstrates two concepts that the typical “spectrum” completely misses. First, it highlights the unique pros and cons of liberals and conservatives. Conservatives are stable and value what works at the risk of ossification and unwillingness to adapt, whereas liberals seek change and progress at the risk of disturbing that very order and stability around them. Secondly, this visualization presents both the left and the right as two phases of an otherwise unified system where they are defined as being in relationship to one another, not as opposition.

Is this a perfect visualization? No, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the “spectrum.” It helps me to recognize when I’m behaving like a conservative—“Kids these days”—and when I’m behaving like a liberal—“Fuck it.”