On Wed, 24 Mar 2004, graywolf wrote: > Excellent description Anders. The only thing is I think it is more of > a circle with the left and right at less than 90 degrees and the Ultra > left and Ultra right between 90 and 180 degrees. The thing the Ultras > seem to have in common is a very strong believe in authoritism (to the > point of, "do what we say or we will kill you").
Yes, many people think that the one dimensional left--right scale is too limited to describe the wild variety of ideologies that exist nowadays, and I agree, but I'm not so convinced that a circle would be better or that the ultra left and ultra right would meet "at the far end" (save for beating up each other, good point there Lasse). A two dimensional scale is what I favour, with economical freedom on one axis, and personal freedom on the other axis. Economical freedom is measured by the responses to "am I free to do whatever business with whoever I wish?" and personal freedom is measured by the responses to "am I free to have sex and live together with whoever I wish?" I find that this measurement system is quite good at pinpointing the ideologies of the 20th century, but it misses some other factors, like environmental issues, so it's not perfect either. anders ------------------------- http://anders.hultman.nu/ med dagens bild och allt!
