Wednesday, October 7, 2015The Axis of Good and Evil | ||
As you can see from my astro-political classification system, political ideologies reside in what can be depicted as a three-dimensional matrix of planetary energies. But while it can be helpful to view the Pallas/Ethics axis as a one-dimensional scale, we can more accurately describe it as a two-dimensional graph with separate axes for "Apollonian" energy and "Dionysian" energy as indicated by astrological patterns. Crudely drawing such a graph and then mapping it roughly to the libertarian-authoritarian scale, we then have something like this:
We can split the graph into four approximate categories: Weak Apollonian - Weak Dionysian: "Unconcerned" These folks are generally not interested in political or ethical ideology and are not particularly criminal, either. They don't wind up as "front page news" as often as the other types and are not common in politics unless they inherit political dynasties. George W Bush fits here (Dick Cheney probably ran the W presidency). Weak Apollonian - Strong Dionysian: "Criminal" We find a lot of non-political, "small-time" criminals in this category. Persons residing here often don't have the foresight or the discipline to rise to political power... unless heavily backed by a political machine pulling strings from behind the curtain. Barack Obama lives here: he seems primarily interested in his own power and in courting the parties that will give it to him. He shows few signs of possessing an ethical compass to those able to see beyond the thousand-watt smile. Strong Apollonian -Weak Dionysian: "Libertarian" The strictly ethical and the uncompromising of principle live here. Libertarians and peaceniks are the political wing of this group, including Ron Paul and company. Strong Apollonian - Strong Dionysian: "Statist" While not as "fully evil" as the second group, members of this last category are potentially the most destructive. They have the the Dionysian drive to destruction but also enough Apollonian intelligence to build large structures for bringing this drive to its fullest fruition. These types usually also have goals which are themselves based on "Apollonian" ethics, but also possess the Dionysian willingness to suspend ethics entirely in pursuit of their goals. This group is extremely well-represented in politics and includes most of history's mega-murderer political "strongmen" including Mao, Stalin, Hitler, etc. In the imperfect moral/ethical classification system of the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game, the Unconcerned group of this chart might be "neutral", the Libertarian group might be "good", the Criminal group might be "chaotic evil" and the Statist group might be "lawful evil". In the real world, very few consciously identify as "evil" and virtually all self-identify as "good". We would do well to not take anyone at their word (especially persons in power) but judge them by their actions. The usual disclaimer applies: while "good" configurations nearly always indicate persons who won't willingly do harm, "evil" configurations only suggest a potential for wrongdoing, Write to me at "alan" + "@" + "zot.net". Weblog Index Home |
