day 19 - 20/11/20 : buzzfeed quizzes to see if you have a soul

G'day my reader friend. I was a bit lost at what to write about but I was talking with my brother earlier today and he talked about the Dark Triad of Personality which I hadn't actually heard of before. Another google search told me about its sibling, the Light Triad of Personality so today I thought I'd take you along while I do some researching and soul searching. Before we get started, here's some basic knowledge of each of these triads.

(Also, this isn't a Buzzfeed quiz sort of thing I swear. It's actually academically researched ((however research is still ongoing so if you see it on Buzzfeed, don't blame me)).)

Light Triad of Personality

Light Triad Scale

Katianism refers to the degree you treat people as ends unto themselves, not simply as means to another end. Humanism refers to the degree you value the dignity and worth of each individual Faith in Humanity refers to the degree to which you believe in the innate goodness of people.

Dark Triad of Personality

Dark Triad Scale

Those who score high with Narcissism tend to be highly self-absorbed, have an inflated ego and a strong sense of self-entitlement. Machiavellianism refers to how willing a person is to manipulate, coerce and take advantage of others to pursue their own interests. Psychopathy refers to the ability of a person to feel empathy and guilt.

It should be said that these scales aren't separate or mutually exclusive. Similar to the Yin and Yang, there's always good in someone that would score high on the dark triad and there's always dark in someone that would score high on the light triad. On that note, while 'dark triad' springs forth images of wicked witches, evil overlords, and Margaret Thatcher, it's important to say that they're not all necessarily 'bad' qualities. While a quality like Narcissism is socially averse, in moderation, it gives birth to ambition and assertiveness. This in turn can help someone in more fully self-actualising. Accompanying that train of thought, the light triad also contains in it some averse qualities. Similar to the DTS, while a quality such as Faith in Humanity is socially beneficial, it can also lead the way to being more easily exploited by others. Again, with Humanism, you can also find that people who score high here feel a greater level of self-inflicted guilt, as if they are personally responsible for the hardship felt by their friends or family.

There's a few determining factors that will impact your score on the LTS. Generally, people who are older (fully matured), female (men ain't shit) or have greater life satisfaction will will score higher. They'd also typically have healthier, more stable relationships and are religious or spiritual. On the other hand, people who score high on the DTS are basically the opposite of what I just said. Not only that, but you'd find that they also pursue self-enhancement and are more extroverted (possibly a reason as to why you find psychopaths in so many positions of power).

Okay I'm after doing the test that one of the papers linked to and I really regret writing about this cause it's basically a Buzzfeed quiz. ehhhh sorry. Got my results and they gave me a picture of Yoda and were like "!! Well done gd person :) u r jedi !:)"

In a vain attempt to redeem this blog, I'm gonna do a cheeky U-turn and talk about one of my favourite book series, His Dark Materials Trilogy. These books consist of Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. I just adore em. I think they're the best thing. My brother Luke was the one who introduced them to me and I probably read them 3 or 4 times growing up. One of its real strengths is how it really does have something for everyone. For younger crowds you have this grand inescapable sense of fantastical world-building, for middle aged crowds it's got truly investing discussions about God, Science, the nature of death and our place in the world and for older crowds it's got all the charming drama you hoped for. Since then, the BBC have produced a TV series which, quelle surprise, is my shit. Once again, it's got it all. It has Dafne Keen from Logan, James McAvoy from any good movie you've seen recently and m'man Lin-Manuel Miranda from Hamilton. Some of the people that are aware of it seem to know of it from the movie adaptation of it called The Golden Compass that came out in 2007 - it's poo, don't watch it.

For a brief synopsis, the first novel introduces our protagonist Lyra, an orphan girl that runs about Oxford college in an alternate universe from ours. After her best friend is kidnapped, she goes on a journey to the North Pole with an motley crew of allies to save him. I'll leave the following two books to your imagination. One novelty of the books that helped me really fall in love with it was what they called dæmons. Dæmons, in Lyra' world, are the physical manifestations of your soul. As you go through puberty, they can shift and change between animals and once you come 'of age', they eventually settle as an animal, which is supposed to symbolise the person's true character (i.e. the butlers have a dog, freedom fighters have a hawk etc).

Ironically enough, I really wanted a dæmon of my own and I've probably done a Buzzfeed quiz or two in my time to find out because as we all know, Buzzfeed can see into your soul.

Thank you for reading today even if it was a bit ill-put-together. Hope you're taking care of yourself whereever you are my reader friend. Alla best.