# Origin of political "wings"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 18, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-political-wings/322215 "2005-09-18T14:44:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-political-wings/322215/1 "2005-09-18T14:44:41Z")
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](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0874774241/qid=1127054307/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-4977681-5239854?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) 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? ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2005, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-political-wings/322215/2 "2005-09-18T14:58:18Z")
As near as I can tell, it started in France, and the story you mentioned is more or less correct. It has nothing to do with emotion versus logic. I believe, (being openly conservative) that we righties are more or less correct today. Nevertheless, many of the reasons we cite are not based in efficiency or logic but in terms of values, duties, and honor. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2005, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-political-wings/322215/3 "2005-09-18T14:59:20Z")
I always thought it orginated in Napoleonic France. Left and right wing usage is the same in the UK as it is in the USA. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2005, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-political-wings/322215/4 "2005-09-18T15:09:28Z")
France, yeah, that’s it. However: > [@smiling bandit](#): > > Nevertheless, many of the reasons we cite are not based in efficiency or logic but in terms of values, duties, and honor. Would you consider yourself to be righteous, upright, virtuous, and possibly aristocratic? If there is no connection to right-handedness (left-brained), the similarities are pretty intriguing. ---
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2005, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-political-wings/322215/5 "2005-09-18T15:39:34Z")
I’m a rightwinger. > [@](#): > > Would you consider yourself to be righteous, upright, virtuous, and possibly aristocratic? Righteous? LOL. Upright? ROTFL. Virtuous? ROTFLMAO. Aristocratic? Naw. I’ve gotten just as much crap from moonbats at colleges & urban areas as I have from fundamentalists on how I should think, feel, and behave. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-political-wings/322215/6 "2005-09-18T19:04:37Z")
> [@Dominic Mulligan](#): > > I always thought it orginated in Napoleonic France. Revolutionnary France, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Foaming\_Cleanser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Foaming\_Cleanser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foaming_Cleanser)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-political-wings/322215/7 "2005-09-18T19:16:46Z")
From [Wordorigins.org](http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorl.htm) > [@](#): > > Left Wing > > The 1789 French National Assembly seated the Third Estate on the left side of the chamber and the First Estate nobles on the right in the place of honor. The revolutionaries, of course, were in the Third Estate, hence the political term. > > The wing is a military term. Left wing meaning the geographically left side of a deployed army dates to 1707. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2005, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-political-wings/322215/8 "2005-09-18T19:18:33Z")
> [@Foaming Cleanser](#): > > From [Wordorigins.org](http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorl.htm) The seating arrangement stayed the same even after the National Assembly moved to Paris. The Jacobins were the first left-wingers, and the Girondins the first righties.