While relaxing in Harvard Yard one exceptionally pleasant afternoon this August, I figured the setting was appropriate to contemplate ten signs that you might be a progressive ideologue. Here they are.

You might be a progressive ideologue, if:

1. You are never wrong.

2. You can never be accused of being a hypocrite because you are never wrong.

3. You are utterly shocked and dismayed to discover that others do not enthusiastically recognize your inherent wisdom or superior compassion.

4. You see problems in the world as resulting from others not realizing that they should defer to your inherent wisdom and superior compassion for solutions.

5. You always know what is best for everyone else and what is best is usually burdensome and never applies to you.

6. You have the constant urge to enslave and impoverish everyone who is not at your level of sophistication.

7. You hold that arrogance is a strength and self-righteousness is a virtue.

8. You believe that "the ends justifies the means."

9. You believe that even lying is okay because the ends justifies the means.

10. "Divide and conquer" at all costs is how you achieve your ends.

Many more signs could be posted, but if you match most of these initial ten, then you might be a progressive ideologue.

Meteorologist Anthony J. Sadar is author of In Global Warming We Trust: A Heretics Guide to Climate Science (www.inglobalwarmingwetrust.com).