The right wing is the same around the world

Wherever you go in the world, whatever nation you're in or culture you experience, there is a constant: The right wing of that nation, that culture, that society, is all about "Mine! Mine! And fuck you!" It's all about selfishness.

Over four months after elections, efforts to form a new government flopped again Monday in an enduring spat between Belgium's Dutch and French-speaking camps that touches on the fate of the country as a unitary state.

Since the June 13 elections, half a dozen politicians have failed to form a government that would enact more self-rule for Dutch-speaking Flanders — Belgium's economically dominant north — and Francophone Wallonia in the south.

The latest failed attempt was lead by Bart De Wever, head of the New Flemish Alliance, Belgium's largest party, which advocates an "orderly breakup" of Belgium.

Gutting Belgium was long a dream of the far right in Flanders, and in recent years the idea of a breakup has become a mainstream politics among Flanders politicians.

Among the "reforms" De Wever proposed - besides one that would limit Francophone language rights in Flanders - was that

the regional governments of Flanders and Wallonia would raise half or more of their budgets through direct taxation, a job now done by the federal government.

But why? Is this just a culture war writ large? A Netherlands-France proxy fight? For some, certainly. But the real core can be found in the fact that

Wallonia would lose up to 70 percent of its revenue if that [taxation] proposal went through, said Elio di Rupo, the head of the Francophone socialists.

That's because Flanders

has 25 percent higher per capita income than Wallonia and half of its unemployment rate.

In other words, same as it ever was: It is the richer side saying to the poorer side, "I got mine, so screw you." The difference between right and left - the difference between "me" and "we," between selfishness and sharing, between coldness and compassion, between fear and hope, the clash of yesterday versus tomorrow - is universal.

I like the side I'm on.