| Here's
a new version of the popular "Nolan Chart," also known as the "World's
Smallest Political Quiz". David
Boaz of the Cato Institute (who popularized
this "who should decide" approach in his book, Libertarianism:
A Primer) thinks it's more appropriate than the other ones, and
helps people think better, with a wider perspective.
It's
just a quick self-help guide; its purpose is only to help you find out
for yourself where you stand on the real political spectrum, as
opposed to the ancient "left-right" political spectrum which was developed
when the world was still feudal, made up of only "givers" and "takers,"
or "taxees" and "taxers". That old "left-right" spectrum was really
only good for medieval societies, when there was mostly compulsion (forced
transactions or by-permission-only transactions), long before there
was any large entrepreneurial, or "middle", class which engages in trade
(mutually-agreed-upon transactions), which we enjoy today.
Nowadays
when that ancient "left-right" spectrum is used, most people try to put
fascists on the "right" and socialists on the "left" (as if they trampled
peoples' lives any differently), and then trap you into swallowing the
bizarre and evil notion that freedom is in between them, as some
kind of fuzzy "compromise" between two allegedly "opposite" totalitarian
extremes! How ridiculous can you get?
It
should be emphasized that your answers should
not..reflect
your opinions on the topics themselves, but rather your opinion,
simply, of who should make the decisions..on
them.
The
quiz is in two parts; the first ten questions concern personal freedoms,
and the second ten concern
economic freedoms.
On
each issue in the tables below, place a mark in the column for who you
think should make the decision for that issue. Then, in the "score"
column, give yourself 10 points if you think YOU should decide,
0 points if you think government should decide, and 5 points if
you are unsure. Then add up the score columns, and put a dot on this
diamond chart where the two totals meet. That's where YOU are right
now! Have fun! |