Being that I’ve recently decided to immerse myself in the world of art, I’m reading Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. In this book she discusses how the right brain controls the left side of the body, and the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body.
She goes on to state that the left hemisphere controls functions such as language, math, and logic, while the left side control spacial perceptions, emotions, and intuition. Now my girlfriend, who is a psychologist, says that the research doesn’t entirely support this conclusion, and things aren’t quite that simple. But be that as it may…
Most often the right side of our bodies are the dominant sides, indicating that the left, logical side is in control. Most of us are right handed, and even today many parents and school teachers force children to use their right hands when writing. I won’t bother to list the many ways in which the notion of right-handedness has expressed itself as morally correct in our language. I’m sure you’ve all read about this many times.
But be THAT as it may…
Edwards goes on to claim that the notion of the rigid, logical, and practical right and the intuitive, artistic, creative left have found their ways into our current political nomenclature. Hence Right Wing and Left Wing.
This contradicts what I have understood to be the case–that in the gathering of some political body–Congress, or Parliament, or the House of Commons or something–that it was merely a case of where politicians decided to set their lazy butts one day. The conservatives favored one side of the room and the liberals the other. From there, tradition took over. And I understand that in some nations (Hello, England? Learn to drive! 
) this is actually reversed.
So which, if either, is correct?