rumitoid

I paraphrased, unable after a search to find the exact quote, yet I feel I held true to the spirit.

This thought from Churchill, I feel, brings up very important questions, the basic ones being: why liberal when young (what does that say?) and why conservative when older (what does that imply?)?

I will say it is rare for the up and coming generation not to feel, given thousands of years of history and present problems, that they can not do things better; not to think so would be truly tragic. How do you that? You take the extreme opposite approach to the mores and values of those that proceeded you, for better or worse.

Why? It seems apparent that the previous generation either dropped the ball or were complicit. Which somewhat explains the swings from generation to generation and the general attitude expressed by the newbies and resistance from the oldbies. What is often seen by proceeding generations as rebelliousness in its youth, is, I feel, always a hope and optimism for a better future in the next generation, however misplaced, ugly, or absurd it may be expressed.

I can't help but feel a little defeatism in Churchill's quote, as if he is saying that as we grow older, certainty becomes of primary importance and new ideas are too risky. Pragmatism, it seems in his words, outweighs idealism not by force of value but by matters of safety.

jay-are

Those who are liberal in their youth are stupid, and if they are liberal in their youth and then become conservative in older age, they are hypocrites.

I have no respect for people who were hippies in the 1960's, and tried to destroy everything civilized, and then put on a suit and tie and go to work in corporate America when they get to be forty and fifty.

They should get the same h**eful treatment when they try to join civilized society as they gave to civilized society in their youth.

Certainly, they should never be allowed to get leadership positions in the civilized society they had so much h**e for.