Political Compass
The Political Compass measures where you stand politically on both a left-right and libertarian-authoritarian axis. I remember doing this before, but I was ranting about something or other (housing projects), and yesterday I was ranting about something else (marriage amendments, abortion), and I thought I should go take the quiz again.
Here's where I land. Mmmm yeah. If there was such a thing as gasping in not-surprise, I would be doing it.
See, I try to have these coherent thoughts on politics, but my mind leaps ahead of itself, and I think I've said something profoundly meaningful, except I can't remember how I got there, and the usefulness of the thought is lost. Oh, I remember how the religious right came up, though. On Sunday some Baptists left me a card in the tip tray about how I'm a sinner who has committed adultery and murder in my heart, and I should accept Jesus into my heart.
What it comes down to is whether you believe that it is possible to have morality without religion. I know it is. Ask the ancient Greeks. I majored in philosophy, so you could say I have my moral construct pretty well laid out in my head. Furthermore, one of my favorite arguments is that atheism can give a person an even firmer moral basis than religion. The argument goes thus: Atheists do not believe in God. Therefore they do not believe in an afterlife. Therefore they have a more profound appreciation for life on earth. Therefore they respect other people's rights to lead their lives. Therefore they're not going to kill anyone or interfere with their ability to lead a full and complete life, because they appreciate the heightened meaning of that life (hey, it's all the life you get) and wouldn't want their life screwed with. The religious right can slink back to the rock from under which they came. Q.E.D.
This may be a proof that works only for me, but it's my moral basis, it took me a nice while and a lot of study to come up with it, and I'm sticking to it. Therefore I am grievously offended when people want to foist their so-called moral issues onto my life. In my morality, your rights end where someone else's begin. Think of it as a bubble of personal space around each person. Like these absurd "marriage amendments." (I am putting that in quotes because it disgusts me, and this is the literary equivalent of me picking it up between the tips of my fingers and holding it far, far away from me because it is slimy and smells bad.) This was my exact quote when Mike and I were talking about the "marriage amendment": Murder is bad. People can see that, because it could potentially affect their lives, and they empathize. Someone might murder you, encroaching on your personal bubble of rights, therefore you want to deter people from murdering. But no one is going to marry you gayly against your will. Sure, this is self-based morality. But what is more important and fundamental than the self and one's personal liberty?
Sigh. Oh, right. God. I'm such a sinner. Well, I for one am not going to gestate fetuses for the patriarchy. The religious right can do whatever they want, as long as they stay out of my bubble. Because it's my bubble.
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