(I have been trying to come up with a way to re-imagine politics as something more than the tired and increasingly meaningless struggle between left and right for a long time now. And I think I have made some progress, and I want to share that with you tonight, as well as develop the idea myself by explaining it.

The following is the result of that search. )

Politics is far too complex for a single axis. Left wing versus right wing might have been good enough for the age of the stagecoach and the telegram, but today’s world simply cannot be represented in such a one dimensional metric. There are vast differences in outlook, in ethics, and even in basic fundamental worldview between groups of people on the same side of the dividing line and these differences are not represented by the current left-right system.

To fix this, I propose we add a Y axis to the existing X, and start talking about the up versus down axis. Some people are “up wingers” and some people are “down wingers”, and it’s about time we recognize this.

The fundamental defining factor of this new axis is progress. To be an up winger, you must believe in human progress on all levels, including (but not limited to) the scientific and technological.

You must believe that there are answers to fundamental questions and that these answers can be (but don’t necessarily have to be) derived via the rational accumulation of observed principles that comes from the pursuit of knowledge by intelligent people.

You have to believe that the human race is, as a whole, on the right track and that the future can be even brighter and better if we just keep our perspective focused and keep striving.

To be up-wing, you must be dedicated to the humanist endeavor, i. e. the betterment of all humanity, no matter what color, creed, or country. To the up winger, all of humanity is one, and all deserve a better life, a life which can be achieved by social, spiritual, and scientific progress.

Up wingers trust science, not implicitly but by default. They know that technological progress sometimes creates unintended problems but they also know that said problems can only be solved by science.

Clean living and prayer do not clean up oil spills.

If the up wing is defined by progress, it follows that the down wing is defined by regress. Down wingers have a fundamental belief that at some point, the human race took a wrong turn and the only solution is to go back to some previous point in history and start again, vowing never to return to our previous folly.

Thus, the down winger does not believe in progress. They think things have been getting worse for a considerable time and that the only way to reverse that trend is to abandon one or more forms of progress (social, political, scientific, and so on) and stop pursuing our own benefit entirely, and learn to be content with what we have.

They see the pursuit of progress to be humanity’s almighty hubris leading it to go where none should dare to tread and then suffering the consequences. Down wingers think there is a natural, correct way to live and that straying too far from it brings dire and terrible consequences.

Down wingers consider the fundamental questions of life and the nature of the universe to be either unknowable or foolish to pursue because there are some places humanity is simply not meant to go.

Down wingers inherently mistrust the urge for betterment.

Down wingers also mistrust science, and the more general pursuit of knowledge via rational means. They see that pursuit as dangerous because it so often leads away from what they consider to be the ultimate truths of life, which are emotional in nature, not rational, and thus not open to debate, discussion, or questioning.

As you can see, this new axis represents a layer of opinion not included in the traditional left-right division. A passionate animal rights activist and environmentalist might be surprised to find that they are on the lower left of the graph, whereas a rationalist libertarian conservative might be equally surprised to find themselves on the upper right of that same diagram.

It all depends on whether you think we should be going forward or backward. The left has their science hating regressives who want to return to a simpler and more innocent time before everything went wrong just like the right has their share of progress oriented rationalists.

And it may well be that thus new axis allows people to see what they have in common with people they previously thought of as enemies, and maybe even realize they have more in common with some people from the opposite side of the left-right fence than a lot of the people on what they have always thought of their own side of the fence.

This could ultimately lead to a profound political regrouping that leads to people allying themselves with people with whom they genuinely have more in common than that rusty old left-ring system ever could.

That is not, of course, the end of the process. Human life is extreme complicated and it might be that two axes is not nearly enough. So be it.

Once the idea of adding other dimensions when the current number has proven inadequate has taken hold, the sphere of opinion can expand and contract as necessary to represent the full measure of human politics.

Perhaps one day, someone could develop a kind of political Myers-Briggs test which can give people a shorthand for their political opinions just as the MBTI does for personality.

“Oh, you’re a GNUD? I’m a GNYU! We would probably vote the same on some things!”

And remember, if the people adopted a more complex and nuanced view of the world, the politicians will have to follow suit if they want to get elected.

Isn’t it time we made those bastards have to think for a change?