Retrieved 11.3.09 Acknowledgments to Political Compass.
I have just done the test on the highly well worth visiting Political Compass website. I came right where I was supposed to, which is a relief, given that just about everything I write or say within the Green Party seems to my paranoid mind to draw a hail of "friendly" fire.
Maybe it ain't what I say, its the way that I say it.
Anyway, the Political Compass adds another dimension to the old right-left fandango, as you see: the authoritarian-libertarian axis. This gives much more depth to political analysis.
I favour this kind of dimensional structure, because back in the early days of my being a psychiatrist, I was against (still am) against the diagnostic categories used by psychiatry, believing that a dimensional approach to be more accurate. Who knows, if I had spent the last 30 years exclusively making this argument, instead of galloping off wildly in all directions at once, I might be a famous psychiatrist by now? The categories I used were intraversion/extraversion and emotional expression/emotional control. Based on Eysenck. I had some interesting stuff on the dimensionality of psychoses too.But I digress.
There are FAQs on the Political Compass website for all the questions based around the fundamental query, "Why isn't this perfect?"
It is instructive to read about the journey of the Lib Dems from their proper quadrant (liberty and individualism) to the authority/individualism sector occupied by Tories and NuLab, where the three of them can indulge in political fornication and family squabbles. It is interesting that the Green position is diametrically opposed to this grey (or red/yellow/blue = Brown) area of politics, and also dimensionally opposed to the BNP. It also plots Labour's trajectory to the same area. We are heading for the US donklephant style of politics, where the parties' policies are all the same, th evoters just get to change the faces.
Greens' inclinations might be to add another dimension, along the lines of ecological realism - ecological denialism. But then we would, wouldn't we?
2 comments:
Unlike you Richard I had no preconceived ideas about “where I was supposed to be”, so I don’t give a toss where I am on the map or whether I’m anywhere near the party of which I am a member.
I refuse to be labelled, categorised, stamped or packaged into a stereotype.
I am me. If I am asked a different set of questions I may land up in a completely different point on the map. In fact, and I suspect like you, I probably have a presence on all point of the compass.
Let’s have a look at each individual answer and see where they plot?
No probs Weggis. The real question is whether humanity manages to overcome the global folly of imagining that we can saw off the branch on which we are sitting.
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