DUers, At What Age Did You Become Politically Minded and Why?

[ProudLib72]

108. I started contemplating posting this thread a couple days ago

I question the time of my own introduction into politics. When I looked back all the events that took place, moments when I could have begun to be interested to the point that I wanted to follow all politics, the one time that stood out was W's administration. It seemed to happen rather quickly, within half a year. I wanted to know who was responsible for this stupid man being in charge. I remember driving home on 9/11 from where I taught in Fairfield, CT, about 50 miles from NY City. I turned on NPR. At that point they had no idea who was responsible for the hijackings. I kept repeating out loud to myself, "It's Bin Laden". I suppose I had been somewhat informed prior to that, but I hadn't been all that interested. Then I woke up.

When I wrote "politically minded", I was imagining that moment when we realize that our world depends on politics, from environment to taxes and everything in between. It's the moment you stop seeing things as just happening and start seeing the political motivation behind the "happenings". It's when you want to be aware of all the major players, their backgrounds, with whom they align, etc. Of course, any deeply held interest in just about any area of inquiry will lead you, eventually, to government. It could be civil rights, nuclear proliferation, war, education, anything!