MakingOne

A while ago (no idea how I found it) I took this 8 values political coordinates test. I retook it just now and got essentially the same result. It's not a bad approximation of my political alignment. The test asks questions about polarizing political topics, but it states them in neutral ways that encourage you to judge the statement rather than the question judging you. But even with its attempts at neutrality, in its very construction the test reinforces beliefs that keep us from coming together and making the world a better place for everyone. Skip to the bottom if you just want a summary.

It's not markets OR equality

Laws make markets

First we have to let go of the fiction that markets exist without governments and laws. They never have, even when the laws were just social expectations enforced within small communities. “Free” markets exist because of laws that maintain their function.

Actively regulate or markets will break

Second we have to accept that complex systems break if they aren't carefully tended. Gardens go to weeds. Bodies go to cancer. Classrooms go to hell. Economies go to ruin or to the rich. It's not hard to see. If economies are run for the purpose of money, then the economy will run for those with money. If government is run to serve money, then the laws will benefit those with money.

And it will break.

Markets should work for us

Governments need to be run for humanity. For people. Not for money. Not for people with money. To produce human freedom, markets must be run with the purpose of enabling or creating human freedom. As long as they are run for the freedom of money, or the freedom of those with money, that's what we will get—people with money will be free. As communities, countries, and a world we will have worse health, less happiness, more war, and more lawlessness (see the research).

There are other choices. We can make our laws to promote the values of humanity. To foster equality which fosters health, peace, cooperation, and lawfulness (the research). I believe in markets as a tool, and that we can harness them to promote both equality and freedom through good governmental policy and strong social norms of care and community.

We don't have to choose free markets or socialism. We have to choose whether we work for markets or whether markets work for us. Right now we work for markets and markets work for the rich. We can change it.

Progress is my tradition

I'm an American

Americans cast off monarchy and started a democracy. That was radical progress.

Americans cast off slavery and declared that ALL men should be equal. That was more progress.

Americans said women should vote, own property, and have other rights. That was more progress.

Americans said workers should have rights to organize and rights to a decent life. That was more progress.

Americans said we should follow through on our promise of equality for all and end Jim Crow laws. That was more progress.

I have no illusions that all Americans were ever progressive. Too many of our revered founding fathers owned slaves and defended slavery. Too many of our fellow Americans have fought every change for good, sometimes with good intentions and sometimes with ill intent. But the stories I claim—my tradition—are the times we kept going until we realized the good.

I'm a Mormon

My Mormon ancestors left homes and family to build a vision of Zion—a place of equality and peace. That always seemed progressive to me.

My Mormon ancestors were willing to question their culture, question their economy, question prophets, and even question God. This too seemed progressive to me.

My Mormon ancestors valued caring for the poor and oppressed more than acquiring wealth.

I've no illusions that these things are true of all my ancestors, or any of my ancestors all the time. I'm very clear eyed that Mormons have done good and ill. But these are the stories of my family. This are my tradition.

You will be right if you call me a progressive. If you say I don't respect some set of traditions you choose, you'll be right again. But I respect the traditions of truth seeking, of seeking peace and equality, of caring for humanity, and of resisting oppression. For me, being progressive is my tradition.

My country AND the world

I don't have much to say on this, but the test sets care for and love of your country, and the belief your country has a right to use military force and control whatever belongs to it, against the view that we are a global community and that we should have global laws and standards. I just can't see how seeking peace and equality across the world is not part of loving my country. I wish I were, but don't think I am, a pacifist. If I were I would be one because I love my country enough to be peaceful at the risk of being hurt by the violence around me. It would be because I love more, not less. It would be because I trust God or humanity more, not less. It would be because I believe my country should be greater, not less.

Differences are real, these labels divide

I really do value things differently than most people I know. But not by as much as these binary labels make us believe. I've lived, and still live, with many who value “free” markets more than I do. Who value religious, economic, governmental, family, and social authority much more than I do. Who value loyalty to our nation or to traditions more than I do. I continue to hope that sharing my way of thinking can help them see better how socialist values, how progressive values, how globalist values, how humanist values are not in binary opposition to the things they desire. Sometimes they are a new way that can bring us hope.

Looks like I'm valuing my tradition again. Can't stop evangelizing.

Discuss...

tl;dr

Regulate markets to work for humans and for equality. That will bring freedom. Markets working for money will free the rich and damn the rest.

Being Progressive is my tradition. It is embracing the best of my ancestors, not rejecting the good they did.

Love of peace, and wanting the world to work together, are inseparable from loving my country.

The Foundation of My Fathers

Parley Pratt was seeking God's word. He devoured the Book of Mormon and went looking for its author, Joseph Smith. His family became Mormons, including his brother, Orson—my great-great-great grandfather. Orson Pratt was one of the first two Mormons to enter Salt Lake Valley in 1847. The Mormons were headed west to make the desert blossom and build Zion. Parley and Orson were called among the first of the modern Twelve Apostles.

John Taylor and his wife, Leonora, found Mormonism in Canada and began to share it. John took a letter from Leonora to her brother George Cannon, in England. George read the Book of Mormon, propped at his joiner's bench, in a week. He judged that an evil-minded man could not have written the book, and a good man would not have written it with intent to deceive. George took his family to Nauvoo. Along the way, his wife Ann died, and he died not too long after. Their children cared for each other and moved west with the Mormons fleeing the mobs. They went to build Zion. John became the third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. George and Ann's oldest son, George Q., became a prominent Apostle for the whole church. My great-great grandfather, Angus Cannon, was a Stake President over hundreds of families, for many years. There is still Cannon Stake named after him.

Names of my ancestors pop up throughout LDS Church history, with a grandfather and an uncle in Carthage Jail when Joseph and Hyrum were murdered. Others settled towns from southern Utah up to southern Idaho, befriending the American Indians and blasting canals through solid rock to water their crops. Others built the first iron foundry in Utah. Others helped build the beautiful, pioneer temples. The first Mormon scientist was one. Many were farmers. In my Grandma Cannon's line there were teachers, with a school named after Great-Grandpa Knowlton in a small city north of Salt Lake. A beautiful copy of The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith sits on my shelf with the name George Q. Knowlton written in the cover. I remember the day Grandma Dorothy gave it to me. I was 23 or 24, recently back from my own mission. I had driven two and a half hours to visit Grandma for a day or two. We were looking at her paintings, and I saw the book. I told Grandma how much I loved it. She told me to take it.

Along with the memories of my own mission to Italy, the stories of faith and sacrifice from my family who sent missionaries all over the world to share the message of Mormonism are more than I can hope to remember. Through all the faith and falling away, was the unifying thread that we were all on the inevitable journey toward a future, glorious Zion—whether we were building it, or fighting it. I wanted to build it. To be among those obedient to God and His Prophets. To be ready for the days of peace and unity, freedom from sickness and fear, and universal submission to the divine rule of Christ. I wanted to be there.

I still do.