I'm quite encouraged by the response I have so far received to my request for readers to email me their coordinates on the map as plotted by the political compass. At this point (11/19/07) there is a fairly tight group of we (13) anarchistic, sympathetic bloggers in symetrical opposition to all but three of the politicians who're promising to serve us!!! Riiiight.
Please visit Political Compass and email to me the results to be added for a fuller picture of this not so unexpected anomaly. I am leaving this post at the top for the rest of the year for easy access and better dissemination of the idea to casual surfers. I will update it every week or when three new plots need adding, whichever comes first. Make me busy, people. ;°}
I must add that although the politicians plotted here are running for US president, the political compass is quite applicable to any society's concerns, so no matter where you are from, it matters to this survey. Thanks.
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NOTES ALONG THE WAY:
11/15/07 —— The grouping along the diagonal from elite rich to the common bond of self reliant individuals seems to be a transition from an exploited perversion of the golden rule to its true meaning and reminds me of logarithmic plots that would magically appear to chart straight lines when applied to human's reliance on comparison to establish value.
I am also tempted to preemptively mention my lifelong suspicion that the majority of the eligible voters don't vote because the politicians are this separated from where they think they aught to be that they are irrelevant to their lives. But then, these are early returns and may only be an indication of how like minds and kindred spirits recognize one another without politics ever entering into it except as an indication of it.
11/18/07 —— It is getting pretty ridiculous, this crowding of my nine respondents so far so far from anyone who might represent them. There is quite a bit of birds of a feather factor in this grouping which I hope to see thin out as time goes by, but has only led to a more densely packed clot as yet.
For individual candidate identification
use the chart in the 11/7/07 post.
use the chart in the 11/7/07 post.
3 comments:
oh wow - what a COOL gif !!!! i must say i was pleasantly surprised with my result. i truly thought i'd end up blue (no pun...) - maybe because of the suburban bubble i live in ...
it was heartening to see my "true" self be revealed. now to remain true to myself.
xxx
red
I found the majority of the questions on the survey to be of the "do you still beat your wife?" structure. I had difficulty answering most of them without wanting to edit their implications :)
Greg,
Thanks for finding a way to use the political compass in the blogosphere. I use this compass with my students who have been intentionally confused by a system that continues to conflate democracy and capitalism. Students take it for granted that they are all unavoidably capitalists and that they live in the greatest democracy! Scary!!!
Not surprisingly, from the last class that took the test, 100% of the students (from supposedly socially and economically conservative Montana) were located in the bottom left-hand quadrant. I say "not surprisingly," because their politics--like the majority of people in this country--are grossly misunderstood (ahhh the sweet, blissful release of anti-intellectualism!). This further confirms why there is such a huge and obvious gap between public opinion and public policy.
Leslie,
I was frustrated to have had to answer the question that asks if I believe that "true free market capitalism means having no restrictions." Of course removing restrictions means freeing up the market, but that also means disastrous consequences! I didn't want to have to answer that question on the test but like you I wanted to edit it or make some comment.
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