My leftist bias

Last month, Ergo received a letter from a reader complaining about the leftist bias of this paper. If in spite of the low turnout, the student union elections last year can provide any hint about the political allegiances of the student body, it seems clear that the number of students leaning to the left greatly exceeds the more conservative-minded students (I leave the party with most votes, Uppsala Universitets Studenter, out of the equation). This, however, is no excuse to exclude the opinions of those students who sympathise with the right. As a rule of thumb, political views should be measured by the merit of their arguments rather than by their colour.

In national politics, mainline political parties are increasingly competing for the political centre, doing whatever it takes to capture the vote of the middle-class. This has led several commentators to declare that the talk about right-left politics has become meaningless and out-dated. I am not one of them. In a time when Sweden has earned the dubious honour to become the OECD country in which the income gap has increased the most in the last decades, right-left politics could hardly be more relevant. As you may have guessed, I align myself with the left side of the political spectrum, but with a twist.

I will take this chance to mention two things of the democratic left that have troubled me through the years (I consider the undemocratic left to be beyond retrieval). One is the belief that the transformation of the political and economic organisation of society will solve most if not all problems of humanity. I am in no doubt that the fate of people suffering from hunger or war is not something written in the stars and that tackling those problems is a matter of political will. The most flagrant abuses can be stopped through politics but deeper issues ingrained in the fabric of our daily lives demand a change of heart much more than a change of system.

The second point that has bothered me has been the irresistible drive of the left to enlighten others. The leftist ideals appear so obviously superior that those who resist them must either be ignorant, wicked or stupid. We in the left lack some imagination at times. Although acting out of the best intentions, we have on occasion been patronising towards minorities and people in need, turning in the worst of cases wholesome human beings into helpless victims.

There is a lot I would have to say about what is troublesome about the right but hopefully someone coming from that side of the aisle will feel compelled to take upon that task in my stead. In a similar vein, I would like to encourage those of you who perceive a leftist bias in this paper to get involved and to put your ideas into writing. It should come as no surprise when I say that we in the left need you as much as you need us. nbsp;