In Defense of Anagorism

political economy in the non-market, non-state sector

Lee Ideology Sorter

Written by

Lorraine Lee

in

Introducing the Lee Ideology Sorter

Like the Kiersey Temperament Sorter, only calibrated to ideology rather than temperament, and devised by Yours Truly. This is a very rough, very early draft. Some of the subjects about which I ask are somewhat abstract. Links are provided which hopefully explicate some of the more technical concepts. Oh, and scoring has not yet been implemented 🙂 For now, I’m seeking suggestions as to questions to ask, and suggestions as to how they might be scored. Appropriate questions are those questions that lend themselves to agree/disagree responses on a sliding scale, and which do not engage in package-dealing, or implying that two ideas are equivalent (further explanation, with examples). Questions should also be free of value judgments; avoiding words with strong positive or negative connotations, etc. Kudos to and kind words for Clarissa for helping me find a round tuit for this project.

<!–

Name:

–>

Strongly
disagree		 Disagree
somewhat		 Neutral,
or no opinion		 Agree
somewhat		 Strongly
agree
Section 1: Beliefs about Human Nature
Left to their own devices, human beings will slaughter each other.
Self interest is an inherent feature of human nature.
Self interest could be realized against others’ freedom.
There are no inherent features of human nature, i.e. there are as many types of human nature as there are humans.
Territorialism is a component of human nature.
Section 2: Beliefs about Power
There is more Power in government than there is in business.
That which is not 100% coerced is 100% voluntary, and vice versa, i.e. there is no in-between—every action is one or the other.
Human social groups are inherently hierarchical.
Section 3: Beliefs about Authority
Authority is the ultimately the last line of defense against Power.
There is no such thing as legitimate authority.
Legitimate authority is a matter of expertise—the bootmaker is an authority concerning boots.
Section 4: Beliefs about Economics
The potential wants of individuals for economic goods are limitless.
The Economic Calculation Argument of Ludwig Von Mises is accurate.
All economic actors (including the government) are price takers—there is no such thing as a price maker.
All private entities are price takers.
Economics is a human invention.
Some parts of human experience are outside economics.
Section 5: Sex
There are some contexts in which fair competition between humyns of differing sexes is impossible.
The phenomenon called biological sex imposes hard constraints on knowledge and experience.
Section 6: Identity, nationality, social groups, etc.
Dunbar’s number is a hard constraint on the size of consensus groups.
The Law of Fives is correct.
People from underprivileged minorities need to be offered advantages to compensate for their underprivileged status.
Section 7: Religion
Without widespread belief in the truth of some religion, life would be very unsafe.
There are aspects of reality that are truly transcendent.
Section 8: Human development
Some childhood imprints are so deep as to be immutable.
At least in the eyes of the larger society, the transition from childhood to adulthood should be instantaneous.
It takes a village.

Comments

14 responses to “Lee Ideology Sorter”

  1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
    bloggerclarissa

    I hope there will be a section on sexual morality. Also, one on religion. It’s always good to spice things up. 🙂

    Reply
  2. bloggerclarissa Avatar
    bloggerclarissa

    Really liking the !!! after sex. 🙂

    If more sections are needed to refine the search, I could suggest: social safety net / welfare, censorship, nationalism / patriotism. People often find their central ideological sore points around these issues.

    Reply
    1. n8chz Avatar
      n8chz

      Safety net seems to fall under economics, and censorship perhaps under authority, although “information” to me is a very political subject (as they say, information is Power) and might merit a heading of its own. Nationalism/patriotism seems to fit in the general category of “identity politics,” a subject about which you seem to have much to say, and hopefully can supply some questions.

      Reply
  3. bloggerclarissa Avatar
    bloggerclarissa

    For identity politics: people from underprivileged minorities need to be offered advantages to compensate for their underprivileged status.

    Reply
  4. David Gendron Avatar
    David Gendron

    “The Economic Calculation Argument of Ludwig Von Mises is accurate.”

    My answer is “strongly agree” for criticizing statist socialism, but this argument is not applicable to socialist anarchism.

    Reply
  5. David Gendron Avatar
    David Gendron

    “Self interest is an inherent feature of human nature.”

    My answer is “Strongly Agree”, even if I’m not a Randian egoïst. I support Stirnerian egoïsm, which is different. I suggest to keep this affirmation but add this another affirmation: “Self interest should be expressed against other’s interests.” or something better than that.

    Reply
  6. David Gendron Avatar
    David Gendron

    Or better is this: “Self interest should be realized against other’s freedom”

    Reply
    1. David Gendron Avatar
      David Gendron

      Or: “Self interest could be realized against other’s freedom”

      Reply
  7. n8chz Avatar
    n8chz

    I’m still working on this thingie. Right now I’m sort of taking a crash course in PHP. Within a few weeks I expect to take this survey live. Still undecided as to how to do scoring and reporting of results. First scripted draft will probably be to collect people’s filled-out forms (anonymously, of course) followed by some statistical analysis to identify clusters. Sort of keep it “agnostic,” ya know.

    Reply
    1. David Gendron Avatar
      David Gendron

      Your idea is promising.

      Reply
  8. New opinion survey instrument and political spectrum/landscape tabulator in beta testing | In defense of anagorism

    […] promised the Lee Ideology Sorter (with the new designation “Agnostic Ideology Sorter”) is ready to accept your opinions. […]

    Reply
  9. n8chz Avatar
    n8chz

    Naturally, visitors to AIS are disappointed that their inputs are not tallied into a “score” or something along the lines of “according to your responses, you are an X.” The good news is that I am closer to having something to offer along those lines. I finally figured out how to use the mdp.pca function which is provided by the python-mdp package, which I can use to squash the 27-dimensional plot of each user’s responses (to the 27 survey items) down to two dimensions, so any day now that feature will be added to the survey website.

    Here are x and y coordinates for the first 30 survey participants:

    apathy 0.995887 -0.169441
    My own 4.223772 3.413769
    anagorism -1.784399 3.183075
    a form of anarchism -1.075477 3.023811
    [ideology #5] 3.167429 -0.156532
    Scientific Method-ism 0.894437 1.575817
    scientifically existential but spiritual -0.610558 5.441262
    Anarcho-pragmatism -7.453418 -1.605741
    Anarcho-pragmatism -7.950199 -1.240808
    anar12 -8.044710 -1.123891
    appresent -6.095322 -0.015725
    [ideology #12] -1.205375 2.107343
    [ideology #13] 0.030675 0.843055
    Populist Paleo-Conservatism 1.460594 -2.314156
    [ideology #15] 0.176581 -1.367185
    [ideology #16] 1.686290 -3.331719
    Moderate 1.376917 2.247787
    [ideology #18] 0.995887 -0.169441
    [ideology #19] 0.004063 2.568823
    awesome 1.962063 -1.642584
    open minded 2.062894 -0.888627
    [ideology #22] 3.034882 -1.773689
    utilitarianism 1.645822 -2.247058
    Liberalism 3.287084 -1.768130
    [ideology #25] 1.488372 0.704766
    Humanist Centrism 1.131395 0.247345
    [ideology #27] 0.940726 -5.252754
    idk-ism 1.647592 -1.899922
    [ideology #29] 0.995887 -0.169441
    discordimarxservativatarianism 1.010210 1.779992

    The next step, of course, is to render this graphically. Unless I come up with something more elegant, I think I’ll be using the .text method of the ImageDraw class, once I figure that thing out. Give it a couple weeks at most, unless the shit hits the fan or something.

    Reply
  10. n8chz Avatar
    n8chz

    The same dimension-crunching analysis can be performed on the questions. This would perhaps shed some light on what it means to inhabit a particular quadrant. I find that negative numbers in both columns seem to what are conventionally thought of as conservative propositions, but I don’t see any pattern of social conservatism and economic conservatism tending negative in a particular column. Readers’ insights on what patterns, if any, are seen here, are of course appreciated in the form of comments.

    Left to their own devices, human beings will slaughter each other. -4.238131 -1.657324
    Self interest is an inherent feature of human nature. 6.154499 -0.856880
    Self interest could be realized against others’ freedom. 1.782389 -5.145892
    There are no inherent features of human nature, i.e. there are as many types of human nature as there are humans. 2.203405 5.795296
    Territorialism is a component of human nature. 0.056574 -4.125712
    There is more Power in government than there is in business. 0.388351 3.044662
    That which is not 100% coerced is 100% voluntary, and vice versa, i.e. there is no in-between—every action is one or the other. -7.212530 2.826638
    Human social groups are inherently hierarchical. -3.180041 -3.761055
    Authority is the ultimately the last line of defense against Power.” -5.544665 0.772516
    There is no such thing as legitimate authority. 1.776962 6.054097
    Legitimate authority is a matter of expertise—the bootmaker is an authority concerning boots.” 7.138992 -1.164071
    The potential wants of individuals for economic goods are limitless.” -2.940659 -2.346574
    The Economic Calculation Argument of Ludwig Von Mises is accurate.” -1.079324 -1.388942
    All economic actors (including the government) are price takers—there is no such thing as a price maker“ 0.497257 2.818315
    All private entities are price takers. 0.778487 2.768530
    Economics is a human invention. 5.112607 -0.627342
    Some parts of human experience are outside economics. 8.409726 -2.932633
    There are some contexts in which fair competition between humyns of differing sexes is impossible. 4.597572 1.593614
    The phenomenon called biological sex imposes hard constraints on knowledge and experience. 1.238296 5.030633
    Dunbar’s number is a hard constraint on the size of consensus groups.” -3.338856 -0.907458
    The Law of Fives is correct.” -3.065437 -1.494311
    People from underprivileged minorities need to be offered advantages to compensate for their underprivileged status. -2.271988 -1.621332
    Without widespread belief in the truth of some religion, life would be very unsafe. -6.811569 1.756815
    There are aspects of reality that are truly transcendent. -0.378157 -5.135026
    Some childhood imprints are so deep as to be immutable. 0.184625 -2.766380
    At least in the eyes of the larger society, the transition from childhood to adulthood should be instantaneous. -5.352111 1.159263
    It takes a village to raise a child. 5.093726 2.310554
    Reply
  11. n8chz Avatar
    n8chz

    Getting a handle on graphics in python. Here’s the preliminary result:

    Plot of first 30 survey results

    Some refinements are in order, but in any case this feature will be added to the website, probably within 2 days.

    Reply

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