How does one counter the conservatism that seems to overtake people as they age?

[johnlucas]

100. People are fickle. People are programmable.

Sometimes when people are young they do the things they do to rebel against the previous generation.
Just for the sake of rebellion.
But then as the saying goes 'You Will Become Your Parents' & when they hit the 30s & 40s they will find themselves saying the same things their parents said right or wrong.

Sometimes people join a group because they want association with some particular person in that group.
Their beliefs are held only by the condition that they have that person's favor.
If that's lost, they may discard that belief along with that lost favor.

Sometimes people have personal life-changing events that cause them to reevaluate their whole belief system.
They may have suffered a trauma & someone influential speaks to them while in the midst of this trauma.
Because of the closeness from that influential person, the traumatized person may just subscribe to that influential person's belief system.

Sometimes people are persuaded by the advertising.
They never had really strong beliefs about anything & can be persuaded with the right appeals.
Propaganda works.

Sometimes it's just a matter of wanting to be on the winning team to fit in.
Strength in numbers mentality takes over & people may discard their belief system to fit in the popular mentality of the day.
Most people really don't have the nerve to stand against the tide.

Sometimes people join a group to escape someone from the group they came from.
They for whatever reason logical or illogical detest a person within their group & with the group refusing to get rid of this detested one, they leave to join another group.

Sometimes people gain a certain understanding over time & change their views accordingly independently without regard to what group's popular or not.
These views may be misguided or incomplete but they saw enough in them to make a change.

These are just a few factors why people switch to ANY belief system much less Conservative.
These factors led to people becoming Liberal as well.

Few people really stick by their beliefs in both good times & bad.
People are generally fickle.
People are definitely programmable.
All we can hope is for their fickleness to go our way & that they get good programming.

MY program says that Society is not right until ALL members of that society get a proper seat at the table.
I'm one of the few who will say this no matter WHERE the political tide flows.
Whether it goes with me or against me, I stick to this.
John Lucas