The first post should define who I am, and more importantly, why I am who I am. The following piece is a paper I submitted for a class. It was about political socialization, and who and why I am who I am. The paper was written about the results of a test that I had taken about poltical typology. Feel free to take it yourself here, and find out where you are, it's very interesting. I hope you enjoy, let me know what you think.
Karl Marx once said “the human being is in the most literal sense a political animal, not merely a gregarious animal, but an animal which can individuate itself only in the midst of society.” We are all political animals in one sense or another, but the questions always arises: Why? There can be many reasons for a given person to think they way he or she does. The following paragraphs will analyze myself in terms of several different factors which are: family identity, social economic class, religion, education at all levels, peer groups, media, occupation (prospective), and the major events in my life. Before we begin to analyze, we must know how I define myself. The answer is simple, but very complex with underlying meanings, and that is a Democratic Marxist.
Another issue that must be addressed before we begin to analyze is that of where I am placed, at least on an issue to issue level, in the main spectrum of political ideologies. According to the online typology test that I was assigned to take, I am a Liberal (people-press.org). Honestly, nothing surprising there, however there are several key things to note about the definition of a liberal; two things that I found very interesting, and at least for now both describe me very well. The first is that of being secular, I guess I just never really put any thought into the idea that liberals tend to be secular, but it’s true, and I thought it was an interesting factor to note. The second fact to note was that nearly thirty six percent of liberals do not get married. Now obviously, I’m to young to be married (maybe not in the state of Utah, but else where, more then likely), but just the fact that one third of all liberals don’t get married, was astonishing to me.
And finally, before we begin, you may ask yourself, as I often do my self: What exactly does Democratic Marxism entail? The question is a tough one indeed, but the answer comes down to a few key characteristics of both Marxian theory and the ideals of a democratic system. Here, some key themes to stress are those of equality, opportunity, and class struggle. Marxists believe that everyone should be equal, and that there should be no class divisions, and that the ideals of the working class are those that are best for humanity; whereas, under Democracy, the key factors are the right to vote and participate in the political process. Specifically some key characteristics, at least from my vantage point, to note about democracy is the equal opportunities of everyone, and the role of the government to just govern and regulate business and not interfere with individuals lives unless they interfere with the Government.
Religion being one of the key aspects of the Liberal definition for the People-Press.org test, the next section will focus on just that. However, I feel the first three factors all link together in one way or another; therefore, when I examine the next three factors: family identity, social economic class, and religion, I will look at them as a whole, but paying attention to details regarding each topic.
Family Identity is kind of a tough issue for me, because as a child, and to this day, my family doesn’t really identify themselves with any particular party. More so, they vote how they feel from election to election, thus becoming Independents. However, if I look at myself today, and my current attitudes, I could never define myself as an independent, and I could never see myself voting for the opposing party. Why is this? And how has my family shaped my party affiliation? I believe it goes on how they opening thought and voted when I was a child, and it more so is linked into the values they instilled within me. The basic ideas of sharing, caring for one another, and never lying or cheating, plays a large part in why I define myself as a Marxist. I’ve always believed that money and people, when combined, becoming inherently self-interested human beings, steaming from the ideas of Thomas Hobbes. Therefore, because my family instilled the values of sharing and taught me to never cheat or lie, my political views resemble the same, hence the Marxist aspect.
Moving into social economic class, and seeing where my family is placed in today’s society, really pushes me into the ideals of Marx. My family, growing up, was just your typical middle class family. We were never much better off then anyone else and we were never really any worse off then anyone else. This factor alone links strongly into the ideals of Marx, and the fact that the working class is on a level playing field. However, the upper and lower classes still exist, and from my perspective at least, I believe that these classes should be slowly eradicated.
The third ideal that I have grouped together in the first group is that of religion. One of the key factors that I noted from the test and where the tested had placed me was the fact that Liberals tend to be secular. At this point in time, I would define my self as being more so secular then anything else, however it wasn’t always that way. Growing up as a child, my family regularly attended Baptist church, which me and my little brother being involved heavily within the church on many different levels; however, as we began to get older, for one reason or another, my family lost religion in the church, and we slowly stopped attending. To this day, I’ve been baptized a different religion (Catholic) and I rarely, if ever, attend mass and religious activities. Another key ideal of Marx is that religion is the poison of man kind, and that the world would not be able to be a peaceful place without the eradication of religion. Once again, an interesting alignment, and hence the reason I define myself as a Democratic Marxist.
Moving into now different aspects of who I am and who Liberals / Democratic Marxists are, I will analyze the factors of education at all levels, peer groups, and occupation (in my case prospective occupation).
Another interesting item worth noting from the People-Press.org survey was the fact that liberals tend to be the most highly educated. I found this very interesting on many different levels, because I expected the education to be spread evenly among most of the political spectrum, however, according to the test, this is not the case. Considering I am just an undergraduate in college, I don’t perceive myself as being highly educated, but defiantly moving in that direction. Merely the fact that I am attending college classes, I suppose, puts me into the higher educated parts of society. I’m not sure as to what effect this has on my political ideology, but I do know that I analyze all of the political topics very critically whenever I begin to think about them. From this critical thinking, I then create my opinions and take stances on certain issues, and because of my background, and my love and desire for equality, I always come to the conclusions that equalize the playing field; hence, once again, why I’ve come to the conclusion of defining myself as a Democratic Marxist.
Something the stems from education is that of your occupation (in my case prospective), this is where I believe; the strength of the Democratic portion of my ideology comes from. The fact that I want to work either for some type of Supra-governmental Organization, like say the United Nations, or the fact that I want to work with Law in one shape or another. Under the democratic belief system, there is a sharp and unbreakable desire to uphold the laws and to always follow the spirit and letter of the law, thus coming, once again, to the conclusion of the Democratic aspect of my ideology.
Last but not least, we get into the final aspects of who I am and why. At first you may ask yourself why I’m grouping the final three areas together, but after the story is told, you will understand. The three areas I’m talking about are that of Media, Peer Groups, and big events of your life. Well, one of the major events of my life was the fact that I got to live in Bangkok, Thailand for about a year when I was younger. Because of this experience it affected my peer groups and the media exposure that I received. On the peer group end of the equation, after my experience in Thailand, I gained a new perspective of the world, and joined a group of friends with the aspirations to travels the world, thus shaping my Ideology. The second being that of the media exposure that I obtained; the world looks at America from a very different vantage point than from what we actually look at ourselves from. Being in Thailand, I was able to see this other vantage point, and it molded my perspectives of the United States, and how other countries perceive us.
In Conclusion, we can see that we are all political animals, and that I am no exception to that. However, we see that the environment in which the animal is fostered greatly affects the later ideologies of the political animal. That factor along with family identity, social economic class, religion, education at all levels, peer groups, media, occupation (prospective), and the major events in the animals life, leads to uniqueness.
WORKS CITED
Pew Research Center (2008). Profiles of the Typology Groups. Beyond Red vs. Blue Retrieved November 26, 2008 from: http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=949Barbour, Christine, & Wright, Gerald C. (2006). Keeping the Republic: Power and Citizenship in American Politics
Marx, Karl, & Engels, Fredrich (2005). The Marx-Engels Reader, Second Edition Edited by Robert C. Tucker
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