On Jan 22, 11:02*am, blake murphy > wrote:

> <http://www.politicalcompass.org/>
>
> frankly, i'm not sure how useful it is, but you are right that the
> single-line 'right' versus 'left' isn't terribly descriptive.

I retook the test. The last time I was at something like -9,45 on the
economic scale, and -4,5 on the social scale.

Now:

Economic Left/Right: -9.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.41

http://www.politicalcompass.org/prin...9.88&soc=-8.41

But the question is: what are they measuring and for who? If their
median is based on US opinions (which tend to be right wing on the
whole), then the inherent bias would naturally make opinions on the
left appear to be extreme.

The one question about Marx (from each according to his ability etc.,
is a fundamentally good idea) did not leave any room for
interpretation. It's quite clear that it would not measure the
opinion that governments should make this their basic statement of
policy. The use of the word "fundamentally" is intended to suggest
that they don't actually take this question seriously much like that
other nostrum: communism is fine in theory but it doesn't work in
practice. How would anyone know that? No political system based on
the work of Marx has ever been established nor is it likely that it
ever will be (and that was not the point anyway).

Anyway, FWIW, I'm even more on the left after eight years of Bush and
three years of Harper than I was before. I'm not one of those who
ascribe to the notion that we become more conservative with age, and
I'm 62. I have made arrangements to have the Internationale sung (the
long French version) at my funeral along with Tom Waits's Sea of Love
and The World is Green and Pauvre Rutebeuf by Léo Ferré, Red Flag by
Billy Talent (so much Eisenstein imagery from Oktyabr in that video)
and others...not about to veer right any time soon.