Political Compass #35: Keep cheerfully busy when troubled.

Great Debates
1

Many political debates here have included references to The Political Compass, which uses a set of 61 questions to assess one’s political orientation in terms of economic left/right and social libertarianism/authoritarianism (rather like the “Libertarian diamond” popular in the US).

And so, every so often I will begin a thread in which the premise for debate is one of the 61 questions. I will give which answer I chose and provide my justification and reasoning. Others are, of course, invited to do the same including those who wish to “question the question”, as it were.

It would also be useful when posting in these threads to give your own “compass reading” in your first post, by convention giving the Economic value first. My own is
SentientMeat: Economic: -5.12, Social: -7.28, and so by the above convention my co-ordinates are (-5.12, -7.28). Please also indicate which option you ticked. I might suggest what I think is the “weighting” given to the various answers in terms of calculating the final orientation, but seeing for yourself what kind of answers are given by those with a certain score might be more useful than second-guessing the test’s scoring system.

Now, I appreciate that there is often dissent regarding whether the assessment the test provides is valid, notably by US conservative posters, either because it is “left-biased” (??) or because some propositions are clearly slanted, ambiguous or self-contradictory. The site itself provides answers to these and other Frequently Asked Questions, and there is also a separate thread: Does The Political Compass give an accurate reading? [size=2]Read these first and then, if you have an objection to the test in general, please post it there. If your objection is solely to the proposition in hand, post here. If your objection is to other propositions, please wait until I open a thread on them. (And for heaven’s sake, please don’t quote this entire Opening Post when replying like this sufferer of bandwidth diarrhea.)

The above will be pasted in every new thread in order to introduce it properly, and I’ll try to let each one exhaust itself of useful input before starting the next. Without wanting to “hog the idea”, I would be grateful if others could refrain from starting similar threads. To date, the threads are:
Does The Political Compass give an accurate reading?
Political Compass #1: Globalisation, Humanity and OmniCorp.
#2: My country, right or wrong
#3: Pride in one’s country is foolish.
#4: Superior racial qualities.
#5: My enemy’s enemy is my friend.
#6: Justifying illegal military action.
#7: “Info-tainment” is a worrying trend.
#8: Class division vs. international division. (+ SentientMeat’s economic worldview)
#9: Inflation vs. unemployment.
#10: Corporate respect of the environment.
#11: From each according to his ability, to each according to need.
#12: Sad reflections in branded drinking water.
#13: Land should not be bought and sold.
#14: Many personal fortunes contribute nothing to society.
#15: Protectionism is sometimes necessary in trade.
#16: Shareholder profit is a company’s only responsibility.
#17: The rich are too highly taxed.
#18: Better healthcare for those who can pay for it.
#19: Penalising businesses which mislead the public.
#20: The freer the market, the freer the people.
#21: Abortion should be illegal.
#22: All authority must be questioned.
#23: An eye for an eye.
#24: Taxpayers should not prop up theatres or museums.
#25: Schools shouldn’t make attendance compulsory.
#26: Different kinds of people should keep to their own.
#27: Good parents sometimes have to spank their children.
#28: It’s natural for children to keep secrets.
#29: Marijuana should be legalised.
#30: School’s prime function is equipping kids to find jobs.
#31: Seriously disabled people should not reproduce.
#32: Learning discipline is the most important thing.
#33: ‘Savage peoples’ vs. ‘different culture’
#34: Society should not support those who refuse to work.
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**Proposition #35: When you are troubled, it’s better not to think about it, but to keep busy with more cheerful things.

SentientMeat (-5.12, -7.28) ticks What…the…frig?

OK, I’ll tick Disagree. Denial is not a psychologically healthy state. There is a difference between mature emotional robustness and immature emotional cowardice. “Trouble” should be confronted and dealt with, not ignored or run from. We must be honest with ourselves before we can be so with others.

Quite what political relevance this has I genuinely struggle to ascertain. I suppose certain agony aunts with something of an authoritarian streak often dish out “pull yourself together” advice a bit like #35. Conservatives in general also seem to dismiss the idea of talking honestly about one’s troubles with a professional as some kind of irresponsible decadence, failure or weakness, no matter how helpful the person paying that professional finds it.

That’s my best guess - something to do with the absurd habit of some authoritarians of assigning responsibility for “lack of cheerfulness” or mental health problems with the person themselves. Any better offers?

2

“A gram is better than a damn.”

Disagree, for pretty much the reasons the OP listed. I would guess it does have something to do with authoritarianism. Sort of the like the one about not questioning authority.

Can we go on to #36? :slight_smile:

3

Mangetout ticks ‘it depends’.

Yeah, I know there isn’t such an option, but the question is far too broad; it would be a useless principle to apply generally (and so I suppose I’m ticking ‘disagree’), but there are some situations in which it is better to turn away and do something else, even if only for a while - typically these situations are those where the thing that troubles you has already happened and no amount of introspection and hand-wringing will make it anything but worse.

4

I tick diagree, but I agree mostly with Mangetout . Yes, problems should be faced, but sometimes they are either done deals or completely unconquerable. For example, keeping busy is a good strategy for someone mourning a death, but they should also take some time to express and analyze their emotions.

I think the question may have something to do with denying clinical depression and psychology. “Walk it off” is a steretypical macho/authoritarian thing to say, while touchy-feely liberals navel gaze, wallow in our pain, and engage in freaky therapy involving screaming at our patients, drums, and too much hugging. :wink:

5

Thanks; to expand on the thought; there is nearly always lots of stuff to do; we typically don’t face life’s burdens and tasks individually as a series and so ‘keeping busy’ could very easily just be defined as ‘getting on with some of the other, already-existing important things; the ones you can do something about’ - as opposed to postponing them because of obsessive worry over bad things we’re stuck with.

6

(3.38, -7.13) Also ticks Disagree for the same reasons otherwise mentioned.

I would also like to point out (because I haven’t seen it mentioned in the other threads) that a new question has been added. Second to last question on page 2 “A genuine free market requires restrictions on the ability of predator multinationals to create monopolies.”

7

I think its a good idea. When you’re trouble and you can’t do anything about the problem, then stop worryng about the problem. Take a nap then get up and go on. Besides, keeping busy itself tends to do productive or creative things, and that’s very good for people with worries.

If you an fix the problem of course, then so be it. But few people find answers by siutting at a table and worrying themselves to peices over their problems. You do much better thinking the other way…

8

If only that were an actual choice.

I think I went “strongly disagree,” not because it’s necessarily bad advice. Which doesn’t mean it’s good advice, either. When troubled there are times where it may be better to keep busy with more cheerful things - but it depends on the person and their temperment, what they’re troubled over, what the likely outcome of the trouble is, and a bunch of other factors. There are times when it’s absolutely not better to think of more cheerful things. And I probably had a knee-jerk reacton to being told what the best thing is, all the time, for everyone.

9

I think this is too much of a simplication, but for all intents and purposes I ticked in AGREE. For example, when my girlfriend broke up with me I forced myself not to sit in my room and weep. I went to the gym nearly every day, I went to the library, I stayed on top of school work, took up badminton, spent a lot of time with friends etc. This was especially important because I had a lot more free time without her.
Keeping busy and distracting myself was a great idea. Of course, trying to avoid things in some situations can have quite negative consequences. Really the word “troubled” is used too broadly. Troubled as in your grandmother died, or troubled as in you’re putting off your PhD thesis? The former I’d agree, latter strongly disagree.

FTR I was about [-7, -7]

10

-5.62, -5.49

I ticked “agree.”

If I let myself dwell on problems, I can find myself becoming gloomy and withdrawn. For me, it’s better to force myself into action, despite my inclination toward moping.

Of course, this might not work for everyone. I’d guess it’d be greatly dependant on individual personality. Some people get more irritated and depressed if they try to force themselves into doing something they don’t want to do.

11

You may be on to something there. Perhaps that’s exactly what the question was about.

12

Hmm, individualism in the face of what a majority might good-naturedly attempt to convince you of? I guess that might be where it’s coming from, I suppose. Anyone else?

(Thanks, Dr. Love - I hadn’t spotted that. They do amend the questions once in a while - I remember one about Jews which has long since been removed.)

13

Disagree

The way to solve ones problems is to face them directly and deal with them. Thinking happy thoughts is no substitute for confronting serious issues that you may be facing in life.