Low Score on the Physics GRE

CPT · Post by **CPT** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 1:36 am

Interesting question rjh, maybe we could look at values on the political compass?

On my standing, political compass wrote: Economic : Left/Right: -6.13
Social : Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.82

ie. basically Left Libertarian.

rjharris · Post by **rjharris** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 1:49 am

Mine was

Economic : Left/Right: 0.25
Social : Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.85

Although, really, that test was utter hogslop. Whether abstract art that means nothing is art or not is not a political question. Still, somewhat interesting.

CPT · Post by **CPT** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:11 am

rjharris wrote:Although, really, that test was utter hogslop. Whether abstract art that means nothing is art or not is not a political question. Still, somewhat interesting.

The abstract art question is just one of the meaningless questions. So many of them rely on context-specific issues, which make no sense unless everyone you're interviewing is from the same local area facing the same political issues. But anyway, what more do you expect from a standardised test which reduces complex ideological and political views and beliefs to an ordered pair of real numbers? (Quite a nice analogy for what GRE does I'd say)

Nonetheless, it gives you a rough idea of where we lie, innit?

I'd say the whole McCarthian "commie" stigma still persists, pushing most Americans to the right of the spectrum, so you'd usually expect only non-Americans to have leftist leanings.

rjharris · Post by **rjharris** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:17 am

well, there is certainly a stigma for being a communist, although i don't think it originated from the mccarthy era. i believe that membership in the CPUSA and other socialist-leaning parties in the US had declined seriously by after WW2 but before mccarthy came along.

that said, i could be wrong, and that wasn't really the point of your post. and it is true that the united states is one of the most conservative countries which is also a democracy/republic.

CPT · Post by **CPT** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:27 am

Possible, definitely possible. I might be plenty wrong, keep in mind that I'm just a simple Physics student, so all my theorising about societies and politics shoould be taken with a pinch of salt.

My main point though, is that, free markets and capitalism, should be looked upon as a means to achieve the ends of general well being and high standards of living (for which they have indeed been very succesful) and not as an ends unto themselves. In my opinion there is a cause for alarm, when free markets and globalisation are demanded, based on the latter. There must be a constant need for reevaluating the results of economic policies, to see if they are indeed delivering or not.

schmit.paul · Post by **schmit.paul** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:26 am

rjharris: you better be careful grouping economists with the rest of the humanities scholars, I know many at my school that would take umbrage to such a label, including some of the physics majors that are considering bailing on science and moving toward a more lucrative career while trying to have their career maintain some semblance of mathematical-involvement

I'll admit, though, it is fun to see the look on their faces when you call them applied sociologists...

tnoviell · Post by **tnoviell** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 8:34 am

Lol @ what I've started as a joke...

But I took that test:

Economic Left/Right: -8.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.28

artist · Post by **artist** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 6:38 pm

here's my score:

Economic Left/Right: -8.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.82

tnoviell · Post by **tnoviell** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 6:50 pm

Wow you're worse than me

braindrain · Post by **braindrain** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:08 pm

Mine is:
Economic Left/Right: -5.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.03

Being in the same quadrant as Ghandi can't be too bad as long as we
dont' have to stop eating

.

braindrain · Post by **braindrain** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:31 pm

The abstract art is a political question because I think it relates to censorship. I saw a documentary on that once which talked about the scandelous Mapelthorpe photos and art which defaced religion. Some senator said no federal funds from the National Endowment of the arts for this because its not art and it thus kicked off the debate. The response from liberal people was just because its not art to you and me doesn't mean its not art to someone else. They talked about censorship in art and stuff like that.

rjharris · Post by **rjharris** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 5:57 pm

hmm.. well, as a somewhat economic rightist, i must say, what is the federal government doing funding art? science i can see (of course, as i'm a physics major) because of the practical benefit of science as applied to technology (or, for astronomers, whatever bs reason we put in proposals). but art?