By Jonathan B. Wight

I’ve been incommunicado for several weeks while traveling in Asia (some blogs may eventually appear on what I learned). 

Meanwhile, I saw an interesting graphic on determining one’s political compass.  These surveys and tests are probably meaningless, but for fun I took it (link here).  In the interest of transparency to any readers of this blog, here it is: 

No surprises—I’m generally pretty confused!  What is a left-leaning libertarian? 

To me I think it means I’m a pluralist.  I’m not satisfied with simplistic answers, but rather always try to overcomplicate things.  That’s both a negative and a positive.   In terms of ethics it means I am not an absolutist, so I wouldn't make a good Kantian.  At least as I understand it, Kant would require you never to lie, even to the madman who comes to your door wanting to find your father to kill him.  

I tend toward libertarian ideals but like Adam Smith have pretty big exceptions. Smith, for example, favored financial market constraints--he didn't trust financial markets to allocate capital without causing too much risk for society.  

Readers—where do you fit in?