Political Compass
I saw this over at Digg, and decided to run through the test. I've always been just to the right of center, and have been fairly proud of being what I would consider a very balanced mind, politically speaking.
So of course, I was fairly surprised to see that I've moved to the left, occupying the same "Libertarian Left" quadrant of the compass at Ghandi, Nelson Mandela and the Dhali Lama.
How did this happen? I guess it's the times. I've felt like the Republican party has been moving further and further to the right, and in the past few years, I think corporate interests are becoming to powerful, and that personal liberty has been taking a backseat to "defending the country against terror". Thinking of these issues (and possibly the loaded nature of some of the questions) ended up putting me on the left of many issues I'd normally be on the right on.
I can't say that I didn't see this coming. I've been using the phrase "Now bear in mind, I'm a Republican" in many political conversations for a while now, so it's not that big a surprise. However, to see it mapped out in such a fashion is quite interesting.
The other rather interesting is seeing how similar some world leaders are in some respects, and how different they are in others. The phrase "it's all just a matter of degrees" never rang more true when Saddam Hussein and Pope John Paul II are in the same quadrant (Authoritarian Left) with each other, while another quadrant (Libertarian Right) is almost completely empty, save for Milton Friedman. (This is the quadrant I was almost sure I'd end up in.)
After seeing this clip where Noam Chomsky compared the US to Nazi Germany, it came as no surprise to see that Hitler and George W. Bush were in the same quadrant together (albeit with Hitler in a far more extreme position). Again, surprising how much things come down to just a matter of degrees. Just goes to show you that you should always be taking stock of your own beliefs and tempering those beliefs with tolerance.
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