01/10/2013
Ziel at the Your Lying Eyes blog seems now definitely back on track after Hurricane Sandy disruptions. Today he comments on Arnold Kling’s 3-D model of ideological space.
Conservatives view things along a civilized/barbaric axis, liberals along an oppressed/oppressor axis, and libertarians along a freedom/coercion axis. Conservatives will thus favor things that correlate well with (in particular, Western) civilization, while opposing things that correlate with poorly civilized societies or that would directly contradict salient features of civilization. Progressives, on the other hand, don’t care about civilization ? they care about defending the oppressed and opposing the oppressors. The "civilized" side can be the wrong side if it’s taking on the role of an oppressor. And Libertarians don’t see civilization or oppressors ? they only want to know if someone is being coerced to do something ? that’s the wrong side.
Kling’s original, which is about more than just the model, is worth reading by itself, with an intelligent comment thread. There’s some overlap with the model of moral attitudes given in Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind.
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