Getting more conservative as you get older?

[CBHagman]

133. I actually thought more in absolutes when I was younger.

It was easier to make pronouncements and see things in black-and-white terms when I was in my teens and 20s, though that does not mean I had any particular confidence. I find that last, confidence, does come with age, as does a tendency to take things less personally.

I also accept ambivalence and ambiguity, and in general grow more objective as I grow older.

By the way, I do not think that seeing things in black-and-white terms, in absolutes, is the province of one political mindset over another. From what I can tell, there are plenty of people who define themselves as progressives but don't seem particularly open to discussion of shades of meaning, strategies, etc.

As for the term conservative, I don't see that in narrow terms either, though in the States these days the word has been hijacked to mean whatever talk radio or a political party wants it to mean.