Reactionary Alignment Chart
As you probably noticed, I decided to update the style on my site; hopefully this looks a lot cleaner and less cramped, the old one looked good back in 2008, but time and technology holds still for no man.
I’m still ironing out the bugs, so this is partially a test post; it’s also an image I put together for a bit of fun. You need to know both reactionary political theory and the Dungeons and Dragons allignment system to get it, which I figure is about 15% of my audience. Tell me what you think:
I feel like my ideology is closest to libertarianism or Randianism, but I like to think of myself as being a little more lawful than them. I guess that makes me a pagan?
I like the new layout. Easy on the eyes.
I’m an atheist but I have a love for pre-Christian religions/thoughts. I’ve never labeled myself as chaotic anything, but I’m seeing that a bit. interesting. I had to brush up on both subjects to understand this completely. I dig the new layout. I do most of my blog reading on my phone and your old one was a pain.
I’ve been procrastinating because I knew it was going to be a pain. Wrecked the site at one point by using a “/*” where I shouldn’t have. You know that cold sweat you get, when you realize that you might have just turned your car into an oversized paperweight?
Yeah, had that.
Fun, fun, fun!
(And if this comment actually posts… holy shit, I can comment on my own blog, finally!)
So up/down is good vs evil, and left right is chaotic vs lawful? I like it. I hope I’m right in assuming down is evil and left is chaotic? If so, then your placements of the various groups seems pretty good. I’m sure some from those groups would explode into flames if they saw their placement. I can only hope.
That’s half the fun; I’m sure most Libertarians don’t think of themselves as Chaotic Good (though aren’t they basically a bunch of Robin Hoods?).
Don’t take it too seriously, though; some of the groups may be seat fillers.
Like the redesign, and yes, Chaotic Good for libertarians. ESPECIALLY the anarchist style ones.
For me, “neutral good” is a better fit.
Hmm… it seems like groups on the left want to change the status quo, while those on the right want to preserve the status quo.
Catholics are members of one of Western Europe’s oldest surviving institutions and are bound by doctrine to stay as they are. Pagans buck the current religious paradigm, but they are attempting to revive the pre-Christian religious traditions of Europe. Randians want a major shakeup of Western culture and politics, but in order to expand the ideals of Western Civilization.
Universities spout ideas that are hostile to Western Civ, but wish to keep the status quo because they hold power. The US government’s policies weaken Western Civ at every term. Modern Marxists want to upend Western Civ as we know it entirely.
Do I have the right idea of it?
You’ve got it.
I find that, in the real world (as much as a simplification like an alignment chart can apply in the real world) I can deal with anybody from Chaotic Good, to Lawful Evil – they’re at least consistent in their actions, and not particularly corrosive to society. In this case – Libertarians occasionally step on their own dicks, and the Universities aren’t nearly as scientific as they claim to be, but I can play ball with them.
Over at pure Chaos, you’ve got the Anarcho Tyranny – horrible place to live, but as long as your name isn’t K., or L., or M., you’ve got a decent chance of surviving, then at Chaotic Evil, you have Thanatos as the only urge being pursued by society.
Neutral Evil is more of a suicidal urge (though often you want to bring everyone down with you).
I wonder if the D&D paradigm isn’t skewing things a bit.
If you haven’t already, I suggest you pick up the game “Illuminati” and give it a spin (or a hundred) to get a feel for the political interaction going on here.
It may not may your chart any better, but it’s a hell of a fun game.
I never played D&D but had friends who did, so I’ve seen alignment charts before. I bet some “Randians” would freak about their placement in the chart but not me. Speaking as someone who owns nearly all of Rand’s published works as well as those written by her close associate Peikoff, I’d say you should have Randians and Libertarians swap places. Libertarians as a group are less ideologically homogenous than Randians (or Objectivists, which is the term I prefer). In fact Rand actually wrote an essay repudiating the libertarians as a bunch of hippies and anarchists. For her it was more important how you came to a particular viewpoint rather than what your actual view is. So you have religious libertarians, left libertarians, right libertarians, and so on, which you simply don’t see in Objectivism. Usually with them you get schisms.
Well politically I’m definitely a Libertarian, but theologically I’m pretty much straight evangelical (minus the creationism stuff)
Wouldn’t “anarcho-tyranny” be a coalition between Lawful Evil and Chaotic Evil, rather than Chaotic Neutral?
And I agree with Spitty about the placement of Randians and libertarians.
In my view, Anarcho-Tyranny is “Chaos for chaos’s sake” – on “Lawful” you get the understanding of the intent of the law, whereareas on Chaotic they obsess over the law, but don’t know what it’s for. Law for its own sake, no sense of a more fundamental, or more eternal order.
Anarcho-Tyranny isn’t downright evil – it doesn’t necessarily reject the concept of Good – the harm it causes is a side-effect, not a goal.
And I agree with you and Spitty, Randians are definitely more internally consistent than the Libertarians, they should swap places (I still have the photoshop file, I’ll probably do that and re-up it at some point).
I am Catholic. And lawful good.
But not always, since the Dark Side calls to me……….(evil laughter)
Where do you belong if you like Robert Heinlein’s Starship Trooper society? The top-left?
Somewhere between NG and LG, I’d argue; Heinlein was a product of his times, after all, when the American Republic was still going strong. As such, he supported a number of values which – as we have seen – led to the degeneration and general Liberalism of modern times.