How does age affect politics? And why is it so damaging?
Read this before you start yelling at people for not thinking the same way.
Age is the foundation of some of the most aggressive political divides over the course of our entire human history. For some reason, when people are born in a largely different time and environment as someone else, they end up thinking differently!
This comes as no surprise to anyone when it's put as clear-cut as that, but when going through your angry political phase of the year, you can definitely forget the critical factor of age.
Technology
Generations used to be slightly different from each other in the past. I’m sure someone born in the 1730s wasn't vastly different from someone born in the 1740s, but if you make that comparison between someone born in the 2000s vs someone born in the 90s, you’ll see some shocking results. This is due to the exponential advancement of technology.
We’ve made such huge leaps in such short amounts of time that certain generations are missing entire skillsets that some newer generations have. One of my own experiences of this was when I took a break from playing video games for two years. Just two years and when I tried to get back into it, it was like I was traversing an entirely different ecosystem. I won’t get into the details but this was a shocking revelation to me about how much a relatively short amount of time has an effect on what we’re able to comprehend.
Human Behavior
Coming back to age, a five-year difference between two people can lead to totally different political viewpoints and this can lead to a very detached reality for some people. I’m not at all using age gaps to provide an excuse for edgy teenagers or grumpy grandpas. What I’m saying is that we all need to be aware that these exist and how powerful they can be, but we can override them.
Human habits are one of the most difficult things to break especially when they are rooted in our political opinions. My theory is that political ideologies are what separate us from just another animal, so it makes sense that our political beliefs are stored somewhere in our core. We can’t just shake them away because these ideologies are what motivate most of our actions.
Possible Solutions
Talk to Grandma
The biggest way to solve this issue is to actually communicate with those who are from other generations. This means speaking with people decades older or younger, as well as speaking to people who are just a few years apart. I’ve gained a sense of clarity since practicing this myself because not only do you understand why someone may think the way they do, but this helps to make more accurate assumptions of groups of people which may prove useful when debating political opponents.
Run Away from your Friends
Uh oh, you’ve hung out with your friends too much and now your friend group is a singular unit of political opinion. You all share the same thoughts and the same viewpoints, either by chance or by force. By chance I mean you all started out that way, or by force because you’ve all convinced each other to believe one ultimate ideology.
Don’t do this! It’s important to know who you are. Hanging around people who only agree with you can lead to you believing that the world behaves the same way. You’ll be shocked when someone disagrees with you and worst of all you’ll become a dick.
The Sponge Method
We’re all just a bunch of sponges who soak up the vibes and opinions of our environment. So what can we do with this information? Ring yourself out once in a while, and place yourself in a new political environment.
You’ll end up becoming an amalgam of contradictions but that’s a good thing! You have to put yourself in uncomfortable or even sometimes compromising situations and you’ll learn how to really develop political theories, rather than regurgitate what’s already out there.
I remember being quite liberal and going to an overwhelmingly conservative high school. Now I don’t even know what I am. But this is something I am proud of, as I can’t be classified and dismissed. People actually have to have a thorough conversation with me to understand what I believe.
And I believe this is how all political conversations should behave.
About Me
I’m a twenty-year-old web developer still in college. Check me out at my website where you can find some software projects that I’m working on.
Quae
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