> > I posted a message including a question I was pondering: Are there people
> > who've undergone such radical personality changes that they wouldn't enjoy
> > being with their former selves?
>
> I was once a Democrat.
There's a somewhat facetious saying: if a young man is not a liberal,
he doesn't have a heart; if an old man is not a conservative, he doesn't
have a brain. This may correspond to Robin's suggestion that people
naturally change over the years for biological reasons and not, as it
seems, that they are learning what suits them best.
Suppose you had known, back when you were young and naive, that your views
were going to change drastically, to positions that would have struck
you then as cynical and cruel. Or suppose you knew that in the future,
your ideological beliefs were likely to change once again, and you were
to come to adopt views that are presently abhorrent to you. Maybe in
the future everyone will turn into a bleeding heart when they get into
their 120's, preferring the softness of mercy to the hard hand of justice.
Isn't it disturbing to think of yourself as being blown by the winds
of change like this? Wouldn't it be good to have an anchor, to try
to find some consistency in the past and in the future? Maybe you
should give that young man a greater voice in your own society of mind.
He can temper your extremes of ideology and let you chart a more even
and consistent course through life.
Hal
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