Are We Doomed To Become Ever More Conservative

The conservative grandad who shakes his head at his rebellious granddaughter. Clashing contempt for each other’s ways — is that the best we can do?

Photo by Rod Long

Writing this in my thirties doesn’t feel right. It probably means it probably is.

How many times do we learn about something when it’s far too late get there in time? How many times do we learn about something when it’s so early on that it seems unwise to take the risk? The elusive middle point between mass- and early-adoption, the fleeting moment between a done-deal and a no-deal, the decisive mindset between courage and recklessness… that’s what we’re after.

So I’ve decided it makes sense to write about how age impacts our worldview in my thirties.

I used to be terrified about becoming more conservative and narrow-minded as I grew older. I had seen it so often that I think my terror was justified: every generation seemed to have certain values that were practically immutable, with young adults yearning for ever more change and old adults complaining about the dilution of their world. In the meantime, middle-aged folk seemed too busy with their personal middle-life crises too pay much attention to either.