Cutline · Grade 8–9 · one of sixteen

P·A·I·G

The Technocrat

private · centralized · internationalist · gradual

Authoritarian fascism

Let markets run things, but have expert international institutions manage them by rulebook and treaty. Not a defence of any one country, and not a revolution — an administration, run by people who believe the big arguments are basically over.


What the four letters mean

P Ownershipprivatenot collective (C)
A Controlcentralizednot decentralized (L)
I Horizoninternationalistnot national (N)
G Methodgradualnot rupture (R)

Where this has shown up

HistoricallyThe World Trade Organization and the IMF; the EU’s single market; central banks deliberately kept out of politics.

All sixteen

Columns: collective → private. Within each half, internationalist then national.

Rows: centralized → decentralized. Within each half, rupture then gradual.

This page is not a diagnosis

The Technocrat is a box, and a box throws almost everything away. It keeps which side of each line you landed on and forgets how far. Two people in this box can be at opposite ends of it, and somebody two points the other side of a line has more in common with this type than with their own. The four axes are real. Where the lines were drawn across them is a decision a person made.

The point

Cutline tells you the margin it used to hand you each of your four letters — including when one of them was a coin toss. That is the part every other quiz leaves out. And you are fourteen. You are supposed to change.

Take it · 24 statements