View Single Post
Old 10-20-2009, 08:56 AM  
The Demon
Confirmed User
 
The Demon's Avatar
 
Industry Role:
Join Date: Apr 2003
Posts: 7,336
Quote:
Originally Posted by Libertine View Post
What an idiotic test.

A religious conservative who wants to strongly regulate both the economy and society as a whole could well end up getting a similar score to a classical liberal who wants to regulate society as well as the economy as little as possible.

Using even a slightly more accurate scheme, there are 9 different basic positions which are fundamentally different:
Social freedom, economic freedom => classical liberal/libertarian/anarchist
Social freedom, economic regulation => neo-marxist
Social freedom, economic middle ground => liberal (in the US sense of the word)
Social regulation, economic freedom => capitalist conservative
Social regulation, economic regulation => communist
Social regulation, economic middle ground => classical conservative/reactionary
Social middle ground, economic freedom => neoliberal
Social middle ground, economic regulation => socialist
Social middle ground, economic middle ground => moderate

That's why the left/right divide doesn't work

Of course, a more complete scheme would also include the difference between positive and negative freedom in both the economic and the social sense. And that's ignoring other hard-to-classify issues like the environment, the judicial system and animal rights, where issues such as responsibility for the future/sustainability, punishment vs prevention vs rehabilitation and extension of rights play a role.

Which is why anyone who mindlessly follows one political movement is a complete and utter moron.
You DO realize that classical liberalism, what this country was founded upon, is very similar to modern conservatism, while modern liberalism is pretty much a perversion of everything.
__________________
Greed is Good
The Demon is offline   Share thread on Digg Share thread on Twitter Share thread on Reddit Share thread on Facebook Reply With Quote