Joseph, Part 2: Wrong Wing

Happy Independence Day!

We've got several months before we get to the presidential election, but less than a week before opening night of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor® Dreamcoat."

I don't know if it is just me, but election cycles seem to get longer and longer. Now that we are finally down to the two party candidates (no offense to those running for president but not in the two major political parties), I would kind of hope for a lull. But we still hear about them every day, things like how left-wing Barack H. Obama is (or may not be according to this article or this one, or this interview discussing whether Obama and Hillary represent two left wings of the liberal party), and how (disappointingly) not right-wing John McCain is (as evidenced by this reluctant show of support or this article from early this year and even a surprising quote from his own mother found in this article).

Left-wing and right-wing get used a lot as synonyms for liberal and conservative. But do they mean the same thing? What do left-wing and right-wing mean?

My answer right now is, I don't completely know (I've noticed that others have tried to think about this as well). The dictionary I checked said that left-wing means something along the lines of "being of the liberal party, or of the liberal portion of a party," and likewise for right-wing. So that makes them sound like synonyms. But others, like this article that is only partially available for free on the Internet, make the case that there is a distinct difference between "liberal" and "left wing".

So what does this have to do with the musical "Joseph?" In the beginning of the second act, while Joseph is in a prison cell in Egypt, a new character comes to the stage. It is Pharaoh, the King, and presented as the Egyptian Elvis. The Narrator describes Pharaoh as "a powerful man with the ancient world in the palm of his hand." Further, "No one had rights or a vote but the King. In fact you might say he was fairly right wing."

Wait a minute. Think about some of the totalitarian governments in recent history. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro. All of these are socialistic, the liberal economic policy. So would it not be at least as accurate to say Pharaoh was "fairly left wing?"

I'm not at all happy that my children are merrily getting it hammered into their heads that "right wing" equals dictatorial. I suggested to the director that we sing "right wing" half the nights and "left wing" the other half. That way we could be equal opportunity offenders. I was overruled.