My Political Compass: Almost an Anarchist!
I took the Political Compass test, and here’s my result:
Economic Left/Right: -7.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.08
It basically means I’m at far left when it comes to economic issues, and I’m a libertarian in social matters. Also, it shows my disgust for authoritarian regimes and right-wing ways of handling economics (whatever that really means).
More or less, I’m close to be an anarchist.
Ok, the graph doesn’t explicitly show these tendencies, so I ended up being on far left and moderately libertarian. But since I show disgust for most of the political ideas, I’m surprised I didn’t end up in a corner of the chart or something. I hate most of the political systems known to man, past and present.
As for anarchism, I do not believe in it, but I guess getting anarchism result is logical. However, I don’t really support anarchy; I don’t believe it could work, so you could said I don’t believe in it either.
Now, I understand anarchism gets a really bad reputation (and it’s not that I don’t get why). But anarchism, as a political philosophy, is not about violence, or destroying private property, OR listening Sex Pistols and wearing t-shirts with angry messages. The problem with anarchism is that it works much better as a social critique of other political systems, than an actual system that can work. Also, there are many different, even conflicting anarchisms, so it’s not like we’ll see anarchy at work any time soon.
Take the Political Compass test: politicalcompass.org
08 Jun 10 at 1:40 AM | Diary (Personal), Politics | 9 comments
Mariana
I’ve done this test some time ago. I don’t remember the exact result but I think it was quite similar to yours.
I don’t believe that anarchism or socialis is possible on this earth. I don’t believe that mankind is capable of anything like that.
I liked your POV on anarchism (more a social critique of other systems than a system itself) interesting. I never thought of it like this and I agree.
09 Jun 10 at 2:11 AM
zek j evets
i took the test and got pretty close to your score. here’s mine (in url form): http://www.politicalcompass.org/printablegraph?ec=-5.50&soc=-6.51
apparently i’m almost the same as gandhi — which actually makes me kinda happy, since he’s my hero and all.
as for anarchy, i agree that as a political philosophy it is more useful as social critque than as an actual means of governance. (i feel that anarchy itself is often a contradiction, and only works when added with other systems, such as anarcho-primitivism, etc.)
what’s interesting is how all of the cool historical figures are in our square! while all the bastards of history are in the lame corner. strangely, nobody was in the bottom-right… le sigh.
p.s. your link is broken.
09 Jun 10 at 7:59 AM
Mira
@Mariana
I don’t believe that anarchism or socialis is possible on this earth. I don’t believe that mankind is capable of anything like that.
True. Some ideas do look good in theory, but it’s impossible to be implemented in reality, because, well, humans are the way they are.
I liked your POV on anarchism (more a social critique of other systems than a system itself) interesting. I never thought of it like this and I agree
Anarchism can be taken as a good social critique, but it can’t work in reality. Still, it’s a good tool to measure other systems’ crapiness. In humanities, the same could be said for post-modernism: it’s an excellent paradigm for criticizing and re-evaluating what we already know, and it helps gaining a new perspective on things… But when it comes to building its own, new theories, it doesn’t work as well.
@Zek
You’re worse (better?) than me! I guess years living in socialism made my dot go a bit up. After all, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” is something I, obviously, still value.
as for anarchy, i agree that as a political philosophy it is more useful as social critque than as an actual means of governance. (i feel that anarchy itself is often a contradiction, and only works when added with other systems, such as anarcho-primitivism, etc.)
The other problem with anarchy is that it’s such a diverse social philosophy and different sub-categories of anarchism are often conflicting, which prevents anarchists to ever unite and try to make a potential revolution (which is not such a bad thing).
As for anarcho-primitivism, that would probably be my anarchism of choice (or maybe Christian anarchism). There are problems with both of them, but if I really have to choose…
what’s interesting is how all of the cool historical figures are in our square! while all the bastards of history are in the lame corner. strangely, nobody was in the bottom-right… le sigh.
Yes, that is interesting. It sure shows some kind of ideologies have a better chance of getting a mass approval (because that’s the only way any of these people get to be “famous”).
PS-Thanks for the link. Believe me, it wasn’t the only one- I managed to broke ALL of the links I posted that night.
12 Jun 10 at 1:36 PM
Jasmin
I took the test, and I’m in the same quadrant, but less extreme than those who have commented, which doesn’t surprise me, since I had very few “strongly agree/disagree” choices.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/printablegraph?ec=-4.62&soc=-4.92
13 Jun 10 at 7:44 PM
Mariana
Oh Mira! Post-modernism is so 90′s! LOL The new wave is the neo-post-modernism! (That’s the greatest joke I’ve heard in the university in ages…)
15 Jun 10 at 2:32 AM
SW6
Hi Mira,
It’s good to look in the mirror and see what’s there. To that end, I took the test. I was fearful of the results. I have been moving further and further right over past years. I became more disillusioned with those who identify as “left” as i saw all talk and no action on claimed beliefs. Also, I have seen human laziness in a variety of forms and it makes me weary of others sincerity in making a contribution to their life and social life. Do they want to contribute or just fake things and snag a free lunch?
Anyway, I’m still part of the left tribe. Hurrah! My results are in the upper right of the left/libertarian box. So to my fellow lefties that makes me a flaming Thatcherite. Ha!
I was vehemently against globalization. That, puts a definite frontier on my drift to the right on economics. I can’t stand nanny states nor kick in your door in the middle of the night states, so i was nor surprised to see i was far from authoritarianism.
Your POV on anarchism is super original/insightful. I think anarchism is remotely possible but critically depends on a new spiritual relation among humans. In the west we still talk/argue in the sex/economic/political sphere. The spiritual sphere is still too exotic.
If you want to see my results:
http://www.politicalcompass.org/printablegraph?ec=-2.62&soc=-2.72
15 Jun 10 at 6:55 PM
Mira
@Jasmin
Your result is not that different than mine, and I had many “strongly agree/disagree” answers, so I am not sure if this test is accurate. I don’t know anybody whose result is outside “our” quadrant.
@Mariana
I am sorry, I am still stuck in the good old postmodernism!
@SW6
Welcome and thanks for commenting!
Well, there’s nothing “really” wrong in right wing politics (except the things that are, well, wrong). What I’m saying is, as much as I’m not pro right and as much as I dislike it, left isn’t “really” that much better per se. A bad person (with harmful political ideas) can be find on the both sides. That’s why I dislike them both.
I don’t think anarchism is possible in reality- and like I said, it’s better that way because it would suck just like any other system (and it doesn’t go well with the human nature). Still, I do believe it can be used as a good tool for criticizing other political ideas.
16 Jun 10 at 4:23 PM
Eurasian Sensation
Mira, I remember doing this a while back on Facebook. I’ve got a similar result to you but slightly closer to the centre.
The test didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t know. I wonder if there are people who do this and say “Wow, it turns out I’m a far-right authoritarian; never would have guessed it.”
I co-sign with SW6 about some frustations with Leftism (while still being on the Left myself). One thing that frustrates me a lot is that people who dwell towards the extreme of any political persuasion tend to harshly judge anyone who is closer to the centre. What SW6 said about being regarded as a “flaming Thatcherite” by lefties is unfortunately all too true. When you hang around in circles where everyone is like-minded, you can easily lose perspective on what is “normal” mainstream opinion.
24 Jun 10 at 5:30 AM
Mira
I think all people I know got the similar result. Maybe the others are too embarrassed to proudly show their results?
To tell you the truth, I was surprised with my result. I thought I’d be lower and further left. I guess my childhood experience with the best possible way of socialism put my dot a bit higher. So it’s not like nobody is surprised with the result.
Now, I am not a fan of the left per se.
When you hang around in circles where everyone is like-minded, you can easily lose perspective on what is “normal” mainstream opinion.
And this is, unfortunately, very, very true.
29 Jun 10 at 1:00 PM