November 11, 2009

Misspent Conservative Youth

I want to praise Marty Beckerman's outstanding article in Salon this week, in which he looks back in horror on his early-20s right-wing phase. I had one of those too- like Marty's, brought on by 9/11, and disgust with the collegiate version of activist liberalism- although I mine was neither as deep or as long as Beckerman's. Luckily we both ended up in the right place. It's hard to disagree with this part:

I am not an extreme leftist by any means -- I still dream of swimming in a vault of gold coins like Scrooge McDuck, I would die to protect the First Amendment from censorial progressive overreach, and I would consider voting for moderate Republicans if any still existed -- but I've learned to see the big picture. It doesn't matter whether you are liberal or conservative, but it's dangerous to always think with exclamation points instead of question marks. Your stance on any particular issue is far less important than whether your worldview is a product of inquiry or incuriosity, whether you feel more comfortable questioning the crowd or blindly marching with it. No ideology has a monopoly on reality -- including left-wing politics.

Posted by Stephen Silver at November 11, 2009 11:34 PM
Comments

Reference to Scrooge McDuck's money pit = EPIC WIN!

Posted by: LilB at November 12, 2009 10:41 AM
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