Just Thinking

Years (well actually decades) ago I used to work doing statistical analysis, which included political party support surveys and such like. I found that the old political commentators method of doing two-party swing was not very good and came up with a better way that also worked for multiple parties. It actually had a similar form to chemical reactions because just as chemicals can convert between different forms such as H2O --> O- and OH+, people can convert from one party to another and the rate of conversion depends on how many people there are there that might convert.

Another thing that I did a little later was to make a 2D diagram of how the NZ parties fitted into a map showing which parties mainly competed with each other. Now I find that there is a web site called Political Compass (click the title to see this) that has a test that you can do that shows where you fall in a 2D diagram with the old left-right axis and another authoritarian-libertarian axis. The extremes of the axes can also be called communism----neo-liberalism and fascism----anarchism but that would probably upset people if they fall near the edges.

I did the test and you can see where I fall, about a quarter of the way between Gandhi and Friedman, or a third of the way between the Dalai Lama and Angela Merkel. Sounds about right to me.

Important suggestion - do the test before exploring the site.

I just noticed also that I fall about a sixth of the way between the Dalai Lama and George W Bush. This is ironic, because I share a birthday with both of them! I also share the Chinese sign of the Dalai Lama, so it is appropriate that I am nearer him (if you believe in that sort of things which I don't). I now see that I have been being unfair to Bush calling him a fascist, he is actually a neo-liberal fascist and I am an almost anarchist.