-ism

Humans love graphics. In fact, more people self-identify as visual learners than all other preferred methods combined. In the mysterious and chaotic world of politics, the best way to visualize ideologies and governments is a political compass.

A compass, to put simply, is four large squares divided into smaller quadrilaterals. These shapes represent all humanly ideologies: fascism, marxism, welfarism, and even anarcho-capitalism. In my humble opinion, this idea is ridiculous, yet, I have found myself stuck within a mildly-sized square on the bottom left, named social democracy.

Today, like all who have wasted time and energy familiarizing themselves with the arbritrary squares, I introduced the concept to another. He understood after watching a short video of mine, which ironically means the compass has failed its intended purpose: to establish a eleborate framework to classify complex political ideas.

In addition to an audiovisual lesson, he took a so-called test to determine his political position, which turned out to be left-libertarianism. In my humble opinion, these tests are no better than tarot cards; their takers answer a few dozen questions, which supposedly reveal their inner political views, which are expected to last for the rest of their life.

Everyone has slightly different political views, which means that, no matter its nicheness, no ideology will ever be entirely representative of its believer’s thoughts.

For example, the Labour Party of the United Kingdom, which calls itself social democratic, is a ripped tent filled with various factions sparsely situated on the negative x-axis. Some follow Starmer, others follow Corbyn, while the rest follow obscure leaders whom they loosely identify with. Based on this, one can confidently say that there is no unified ideology in any political party.

So why not ditch this broken system and its ugly byproduct, the political compass? Do we really need to but uniquely-minded individuals in restrictive squares, or can we return politics to its original nature: the expression of one’s own thoughts?

If there’s one square I squish myself in, it’s ismism.