Wednesday, May 11, 2005
A ramble on my political dithering and fence-sitting
I like categorising things, especially myself. Hence I have been trying to decide where I fit on the political spectrum (still!) and it is not going well.
Up until recently I was under the illusion that I was a lefty (sp?). I have no idea why I thought such a thing, but it has been quite disturbing to have my political self-image shattered. I now realise I am anything but a lefty.
I don't believe in equality, and I especially don't believe in enforced equality, which is what I think the left-side of the political spectrum (economic dimension) is about. Although I guess I could be completely wrong about that.
Unfortunately I don't like the right-side of the political spectrum at all. Why? Just because. I don't have to be rational about it...actually maybe that's it. I don't like it when people imply that rational is right and everything else is wrong. And now that I think about it, it is not just the right-wing that does this...people on the left-wing can also be militantly rational. I haven't thought about this properly yet, but I don't think rational and right are the same thing. Maybe it is related to my sporadic belief that there is no such thing as wrong. However, it will have to be a question for another day.
Maybe I am a centrist (aka fence-sitter). I can quite easily see how both sides are arguing "rationally" from their own completely different frameworks. It's like everything else in my life. I have a tendency to empathise and to whatever-the-intellectual-equivalent-of-empathise-is. It's why I am dithering. No one is completely wrong. Both sides make good points.
But I don't want to be a fence-sitter. That is not a satisfactory or appealing category. Maybe extra dimensions, like an apathy dimension, would be useful.
Anyway, I think I might be a Libertarian. I am going to investigate further.
Up until recently I was under the illusion that I was a lefty (sp?). I have no idea why I thought such a thing, but it has been quite disturbing to have my political self-image shattered. I now realise I am anything but a lefty.
I don't believe in equality, and I especially don't believe in enforced equality, which is what I think the left-side of the political spectrum (economic dimension) is about. Although I guess I could be completely wrong about that.
Unfortunately I don't like the right-side of the political spectrum at all. Why? Just because. I don't have to be rational about it...actually maybe that's it. I don't like it when people imply that rational is right and everything else is wrong. And now that I think about it, it is not just the right-wing that does this...people on the left-wing can also be militantly rational. I haven't thought about this properly yet, but I don't think rational and right are the same thing. Maybe it is related to my sporadic belief that there is no such thing as wrong. However, it will have to be a question for another day.
Maybe I am a centrist (aka fence-sitter). I can quite easily see how both sides are arguing "rationally" from their own completely different frameworks. It's like everything else in my life. I have a tendency to empathise and to whatever-the-intellectual-equivalent-of-empathise-is. It's why I am dithering. No one is completely wrong. Both sides make good points.
But I don't want to be a fence-sitter. That is not a satisfactory or appealing category. Maybe extra dimensions, like an apathy dimension, would be useful.
Anyway, I think I might be a Libertarian. I am going to investigate further.
// posted by suze @ 9:31 PM 
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I just read this post in relation to the recent What is My World View? post and now it all makes sense! Apparently I am Cultural Creative, and apparently that means "life has a meaning outside of the rational." Although, I should say that I take quiz results about as seriously as I take politics.
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