The other day, in the middle of a conversation, someone branded me a centrist. It went even a step beyond that, he/she said I am more a conservative than I was earlier. Interesting..!! I always thought I am more of a left winged (according to the bloggers...latte drinking liberal)...but then I couldn't just brush of this comment just like I always do when people call me names..! Am I really this guy who mixes religion with governance and science with belief...? the answer I want to say is no...but then..I didnt..!
There is always this age old statistics based statement that as man grew older he tend to become more conservative... of course...statisticians....you don't generally believe them do you...? I always thought statisticians are a subset of lawyers who write their publications in such a way that, they make you believe in something which when is right, they take complete credit for becoming this great seer, but then when it is wrong takes no responsibility for that but rather blame it on our brain for believing it in the first place !! (statisticians...no offense..but you guys can take it as a complement...its either you are smart or we are dumb).
Now getting back to the problem, so is age the factor for my change in positions ? As adolescents or as a grown up young men/women we always try to go against what's the general rules of the society. Although there are major differences between cultures around the world, the underlying fact is that people in the age group of 18-30 are always up for drastic changes in the societal rules. Infact we dont like rules. There is a sense of pride that we take in by branding ourselves as mavericks. But then what happens after our quarter life crisis...is something which is interesting ! Dont we then tend to slowly adhere to the rules of society ...? How much ever we argue, religion is always a belief.... ! Its a unproven set of guidelines/rules that we take in, follow and believe just based on said "words". As a maverick we tend to oppose it, but then we later adhere to it. May be it is a sense of fear towards life..? May be we need more security ? What makes the transformation within us, that stops us from questioning further the basic conservative rules ? Are we getting more insecure about ourselves that we are afraid about the society at large? or as wisdom really dawned upon us here.. ? (The question here is made with a genuine heart felt surprise...no sarcasm meant) or are we becoming more pessimistic about how much we can change and we slowly resign to the fact that its individualism thats going to help us survive from now on ? Am I going to become this guy who is going to "cling" to religion and find a refuge in there and isolate my soul from the rest of the society ? ... or may be to put it dryly....I am trying to act pricey !! my factor of safety has increased...! I am not sure. The nature essentially enacts a play where, humans are born, they grow, adapt, find partners, reproduce, act as parents, safeguard their kids, let them out of their lives, and live the remaining till they die. And in this life long journey, he/she is socially and politically maverick at first, adapt to the norms, turn conservative, continue to follow guidelines till he/she thinks societal security blanket is required (eg. till the kids are out of their lives), slowly releases himself or herself out of the add on conservative guidelines, turns more into a liberal. However the liberal in his/her last stage of life is not exactly the blood rushing maverick that he/she was once upon a time. But rather he/she looks at the society with a heart of a liberal but through the eye glasses of a conservative person. May be thats when we figure out what exactly we could do and are capable off !! I am not sure about you...but for me that is too late ...!
There is always this age old statistics based statement that as man grew older he tend to become more conservative... of course...statisticians....you don't generally believe them do you...? I always thought statisticians are a subset of lawyers who write their publications in such a way that, they make you believe in something which when is right, they take complete credit for becoming this great seer, but then when it is wrong takes no responsibility for that but rather blame it on our brain for believing it in the first place !! (statisticians...no offense..but you guys can take it as a complement...its either you are smart or we are dumb).
Now getting back to the problem, so is age the factor for my change in positions ? As adolescents or as a grown up young men/women we always try to go against what's the general rules of the society. Although there are major differences between cultures around the world, the underlying fact is that people in the age group of 18-30 are always up for drastic changes in the societal rules. Infact we dont like rules. There is a sense of pride that we take in by branding ourselves as mavericks. But then what happens after our quarter life crisis...is something which is interesting ! Dont we then tend to slowly adhere to the rules of society ...? How much ever we argue, religion is always a belief.... ! Its a unproven set of guidelines/rules that we take in, follow and believe just based on said "words". As a maverick we tend to oppose it, but then we later adhere to it. May be it is a sense of fear towards life..? May be we need more security ? What makes the transformation within us, that stops us from questioning further the basic conservative rules ? Are we getting more insecure about ourselves that we are afraid about the society at large? or as wisdom really dawned upon us here.. ? (The question here is made with a genuine heart felt surprise...no sarcasm meant) or are we becoming more pessimistic about how much we can change and we slowly resign to the fact that its individualism thats going to help us survive from now on ? Am I going to become this guy who is going to "cling" to religion and find a refuge in there and isolate my soul from the rest of the society ? ... or may be to put it dryly....I am trying to act pricey !! my factor of safety has increased...! I am not sure. The nature essentially enacts a play where, humans are born, they grow, adapt, find partners, reproduce, act as parents, safeguard their kids, let them out of their lives, and live the remaining till they die. And in this life long journey, he/she is socially and politically maverick at first, adapt to the norms, turn conservative, continue to follow guidelines till he/she thinks societal security blanket is required (eg. till the kids are out of their lives), slowly releases himself or herself out of the add on conservative guidelines, turns more into a liberal. However the liberal in his/her last stage of life is not exactly the blood rushing maverick that he/she was once upon a time. But rather he/she looks at the society with a heart of a liberal but through the eye glasses of a conservative person. May be thats when we figure out what exactly we could do and are capable off !! I am not sure about you...but for me that is too late ...!