wow i am more lower left than the dali lama and nelson mandela

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -9.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.79

the republicans back the rich and keep them rich, so they can remain in power.the democrates back the poor and keep them poor, so they can remain in power.

Quote from: Hypatia on December 07, 2008, 04:03:13 PM
A majority of those who took this test (not just here, but at the Political Compass site itself) are in the lower left quadrant. All of our leaders in the USA, and most of the foreign leaders too, are clustered in the upper right. Hel-LO what's wrong with this picture?

Leaders tend to be a certain type of person: Ambitious, greedy, quite selfish, often from a background of great personal or family wealth. Our systems - South Africa's too, kinda preclude people who aren't rich from getting to the top. What I've noticed about the very rich is that they live in a very different world from the rest of us, mentally. They are usually social Darwinists - survival of the fittest and strongest. And because these leaders know where their real support comes from - other rich people, they skew policy and stuff in that direction.

I think the rest of us though tend to be naturally more egalitarian and supportive of the idea of helping one another and of supporting each other's liberty.

I contend that humanity is actually a much more compassionate, socially-responsible bunch than they think - we're kept scrabbling around fighting each other artificially because of the social structures our leaders engineer.

~Simone.

Economic Left/Right: 4.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.03

You don't know the power of the Dark Side. 

EDIT: Well, it's actually the purple side.

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -6.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.38



I'm in good company with Kucinich, Gandhi, Mandela, and the Dali Lama, but I'm down more and a little closer to the corner.

Your political compass

Economic Left/Right: -5.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.74


Interesting.

Janet

My result :
Economic Left/Right: -8.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.44



Guess that's pretty much me ...  ...

Laura x

Quote from: tekla on December 02, 2008, 07:54:16 PM
And the Marx quote is a big gotcha
Well it is one of old Karl's Greatest Hits, so people thinkin that they be gettin' all political and that, ought to know it.  And even though he is an old rather boring economic writer (ok, really, really boring, yeesh) I don't think that he was all that far off the mark with that remark, but hey, a broken watch is right twice a day, right?

Agree on the boring I actually quite agree with the quote as well, but I was wondering if in the context of the test me agreeing or disagreeing to it refers to the corpus of marxist theory as a whole, to the vague principle itself or to known implementations of it.

There are big differences

Would you have preferred "The workers have nothing to lose but their chains"?  Or perhaps, "The other day I shot an elephant in my pajamas, how he got in my pajamas I'll never know."  Oh wait, that was Groucho Marx, the funnier Marx in so many ways.

A real Marxist (are there still such quaint things?  Kind of like flat earth or divine right of kings?) would never take a test like this I'm pretty sure.

Quote from: tekla on December 08, 2008, 08:06:18 AM
Would you have preferred "The workers have nothing to lose but their chains"?  Or perhaps, "The other day I shot an elephant in my pajamas, how he got in my pajamas I'll never know."  Oh wait, that was Groucho Marx, the funnier Marx in so many ways.

A real Marxist (are there still such quaint things?  Kind of like flat earth or divine right of kings?) would never take a test like this I'm pretty sure.

LOL good one. Indeed, what *is* a real Marxist? A Spartacist, a Maoist, a Leninist, a modern Socialist... a Tito communist? Look, it could be an Adam Smith quote and I'd still have the same issues. It's just too general

Indeed Groucho provides the funnier side of the Marx equation

When I was just a little kitty kat, and looking for trouble and finding it one good place to look was down by the university in Berkeley California.  There were having an ongoing fight over a 'park' or a 'parking lot' (this stuff continues too) and so, being the early 70's one of those little gatherings turned a bit, well, violent and riot like and property destruction and all that fun stuff.

So, once we were all arrested they stuck us in a high school gym where all these college types proceeded to subdivide into groups, all of whom were harping on the other groups.  Oh the Mao lovers hated the Stalinists, and the Young Socialists hate them both, and on, and on.  Had we all got together I'm sure we could have all just up and walked out of there.  So it goes.  And its why the left never wins.  They have much to good a time arguing with each other then with any real opposition.

Quote from: soldierjane on December 08, 2008, 09:03:43 AM

Quote from: tekla on December 08, 2008, 08:06:18 AM
Would you have preferred "The workers have nothing to lose but their chains"?  Or perhaps, "The other day I shot an elephant in my pajamas, how he got in my pajamas I'll never know."  Oh wait, that was Groucho Marx, the funnier Marx in so many ways.

A real Marxist (are there still such quaint things?  Kind of like flat earth or divine right of kings?) would never take a test like this I'm pretty sure.

LOL good one. Indeed, what *is* a real Marxist? A Spartacist, a Maoist, a Leninist, a modern Socialist... a Tito communist? Look, it could be an Adam Smith quote and I'd still have the same issues. It's just too general

Indeed Groucho provides the funnier side of the Marx equation

Q: What's a real Marxist?
A: A parent!

Think about it: "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." And so forth.

Isn't that a perfect description of a family? If you get down to it, doesn't a family run under Marxist principles? I think old Karl simply took the concept of a family, with everyone working for the collective good, and scaled it up to a society.

Lovely idea, but unfortunately it doesn't scale up. Most people will bust their asses, or even sacrifice their lives, for their kids, their spouses or their parents. Probably for their siblings. Maybe for their close friends. Occasionally you see it in close-knit communities, like the Amish. But very few people extend that sort of loyalty to total strangers. And a lot of people won't do that even for their own families.

Lots of stuff in life is a question of scale.  So sure a family runs on those principals, so do tribes, and other human gatherings, hell, even Burning Man is that to a degree.  It's not like Marx invented that idea.  Matter of fact, it was pretty funny watching my nuns and priest try to attack the Commies back in the 60s, when, in fact, they were living in a de facto commune.

I know people who live like that as a general ethic, even my work is like that a lot, we do what we do best, lead or follow as needed, and at the end of the day its about all of us doing it, not a who did what or how much deal.

Quote from: MarySue on December 08, 2008, 10:26:40 AM

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

SPOOOOOOCK!!!!

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!

Quote from: soldierjane on December 08, 2008, 11:30:08 AM
SPOOOOOOCK!!!!

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!

Hahahahaha!

~Simone.

Quote from: lady amarant on December 08, 2008, 11:39:35 AM

Quote from: soldierjane on December 08, 2008, 11:30:08 AM
SPOOOOOOCK!!!!

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!

Hahahahaha!

~Simone.

Sorry, I can't be trusted to keep serious for too long

Quote from: soldierjane on December 08, 2008, 11:50:36 AM
Sorry, I can't be trusted to keep serious for too long

Hence your signature 

Jenn

I'm another one of these

This test is not accurate. I, the ultimate liberal, seem to be economically moderate (zero) and socially normally liberal(four points down).

I was just annoyed that I lost my possibility to vote the  communist for second term in our city council. (He won the term despite of my missing vote)

Sadly, goingdown, here in the United States what's known as "liberal" is actually moderate at best, and what passes for "moderate" is actually quite conservative. Even Dennis Kucinich, who so many consider a dangerously out-there radical leftist, barely cracks the left side of the coordinates. We really don't have a left in this country at all, just shades of right...