I've been scribbling away for weeks on a post about left and right and why such a one-dimensional measure is never going to work. I'm still scribbling, but while you wait, this from Ophelia Benson at Butterflies and Wheels about the question of self definition is interesting - and will probably delay me finishing the post - again - by throwing up more questions.
My argument, when I get it straight, is that broadly we place ourselves politically, and I guess morally too, with reference to a whole complex of dimensions, which are personal, messy and not properly distinct one from another. Left and Right are external categories and when we describe ourselves in that way we are attempting to map that internal self image into a common language. There will be an inevitable conflict between that internal image and the common language.
I'm thinking about how we might get that internal image into the light of day in a format that can be understood by others but without the gross simplification inherent in left/right. I know of the Political Compass (you can see my score in the About section) and the Political Survey but they still seem to impose an externally defined model.
Watch this space...
Addendum:
Rereading the notes for the Political Survey, I think I've probably misrepresented their approach. I'll come back to that in the promised post.
