I Guess I'm Not All That Strange

Here's some good news for some of us leftover liberal-types from the 60s...

The stereotype of a cranky old man, set in his ways, getting more conservative by the day, is an enduring one. But new research has debunked the myth that people become more conservative as they age.

By comparing surveys of various age groups taken over a span of more than 30 years, sociologists found that in general, Americans' opinions veer toward the liberal as they grow older.

"All the evidence we have found refutes the idea that as people age their attitudes become more conservative or more rigid," said Nicholas Danigelis, a sociologist at the University of Vermont. "It's just not true. More people are changing in a liberal direction than in a conservative direction."
--Live Science

This made me stop and think about my views and how they have changed or not changed over the past 40 years. In general, I think I am about the same place in general. It is just that I no longer feel the absolute, overpowering sense that my liberal views need to be enforced on others. Call it a little bit of awareness that I could be wrong. I think I am also much more willing to criticize my side of the fence than I was back then.

In many ways this was the theme of a thoughtful and funny play we saw at the Guthrie last week. It was called Third by the late Pulitzer and Tony-winning author Wendy Wasserstein. Her heroine is an ultra-liberal professor at a fine Eastern college where she has turned the world upside down. One day a seemingly clueless, smiling, preppy-jock-type ends up in her class. She pegs him as second-rate. After all, he's an athlete and probably a Republican. When he turns in a truly high quality paper she accuses him of plagiarism.

The play revolves around the challenge to her own prejudice which she insists she doesn't have. She is just reflecting reality. Other people have prejudices. The issue is that we can become as short-sighted and narrow-minded in favor of our side of the argument as we claim the other side is. It happens day in and day out on both sides of the political divide.

Perhaps age can give us a wisdom to deal differently with these differences. The political scene hasn't given me much hope with that, but at least we can keep on trying.