It's been a while since I did this test, much better than the political left/right distinction is the political compass, taking into account both social and economic factors... some of the questions are a bit odd, but it's fascinating and well worth taking the test: http://www.politicalcompass.org/questionnaire This is me: I'm still an anarcho-syndicalist
This is me: Economic Left/Right: -8.88 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.05 To be honest, I'm probably more authoritarian than that. If they'd asked me questions about nationalisation or the environment, I would have responded in favour of greater state regulation and, if necessary, particularly with regards to the environment, coercion....
Economic Left/Right: -8.50 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.82 So far, we're all well to the "left" of Gandhi. Hmm.
Economic Left/Right: -6.38 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.46 Hmmm am I still left enough for Hip Forums................
Economic Left/Right: -7.38 Socila Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.85 These profiling sites you put on get the curiosity and imagination going, or just your ego, they're really good all the same. It's nice to think that your political and social outlook sits with people like Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and the Dali Lama. I think it left enough, if we were scoring plus numbers we'd be something of an oddity on a hippy forum site.
Perhaps to make the comparisons with Mandela, Gandhi et al more realistic, they should include questions like "have you ever gone on hunger strike" or "have you ever been imprisoned as a result of your political activities". I suspect some folk reading this could answer "yes" to one or other of those, not me I have to admit.
But then some of us are not black and from what were regarded third world countries, nevertheless your own moral stance isn't any less valuable or 'unrealistic' because you haven't been imprisoned for your political stance or gone on hunger strike. What are we meant to respond to questions that make us right wing facists? It was the survey that put these people in not me!
Well, people have gone to prison in this country for politically-motivated activities, notably peace activists and in former times, suffragettes. And I do think that being prepared to risk imprisonment is to some extent a test of one's political commitment.
