I, Socialist Libertarian

I have rarely bothered to evaluate where I stand politically.  I am "independent" on my voter registration, which, by the way, is the best way to go.  Here in Oregon, you sacrifice the ability to vote in the primaries, but it's all worth it when you can vote for whoever the hell you want on the main ballot.  I voted for Obama in the '08 election, but I also voted to reelect Gordon Smith.  I voted for Chris Dudley in the Oregon gubernatorial race last year, but voted to reelect Ron Wyden.  It's awesome!!

However, for a class I am taking this term at OIT (Media & Democracy), I have to take this political standing quiz online as part of an assignment.  It's the Political Compass, which is available for free at http://www.politicalcompass.org/ .  It's rather fun, I recommend taking it if you're curious about where you stand politically versus a sampling of famous world leaders.

How it works is that after taking the quiz, you are scored based on a 2D plane spanning the range of -10 to 10 on both axes.  The X axis represents views on the economy, with Socialist on the left and Capitalist on the right (the actual analysis labels these points as Communist and Neo-Libertarian, but I'm sticking with my wording).  The Y axis represents views on social policy, with Authoritarian on top and Libertarian (Anarchist) on the bottom.  The quiz you take to even get this far is pretty long, and is full of loaded words and difficult choices, but it's worth it.

My score: Socialist Libertarian (-3.88, -1.95).  I share this quadrant with Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and the Dalai Lama.  For comparison's sake, Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand were extreme Capitalist Libertarians, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong were Socialist Authoritarians, and George W. Bush and Gordon Brown are Capitalist Authoritarians.  Hitler, interestingly enough, shares a quadrant with Bush and Brown, but resides more towards the middle on the Capitalist-Socialist plane.

Being that I am a big Buddhism fan, it's intersting that I ended up not far from the Dalai Lama.  However, I'm closer to Pope Benedict XVI, who is a moderate Socialist Authoritarian.  I've strived, through my voter registration decision and many other factors, to be as "true neutral" as possible, and according to this I've almost succeeded.  To anyone still reading this, take the damn quiz.  You might be surprised to find where you stand.