Age and Communism

[Communist Theory]

I realized that it seems that while you are still young and live with your parents it would seem easier to be a Communist (or Anarchist) and have very ideal views and I was wondering how when you get out on you own in the world and has that changed your views at all?

[Bitter Ashes]

Well, I think it kinda goes in a pretty pre-determined cycle, for a lot of people. Of course, there's going to be exceptions:

- You have your childhood where you're very accepting of the status quo. You're sat in school and bieng taught that there's nine planets and they orbit the sun and you're sat at home, bieng told your parents' political ideoligy. You just absorb and accept it.

- Then you get to your teens, where general rebellion sets in. For me, that was more right wing than left wing actualy. I think that the actual deeper meaning is lost usualy and it's usualy just bieng rebellious for the sake of it. Add onto that peer pressure to do the most impressive stuff possible and you've got, lets say an intresting activity in society. Yeah, it's often demonised and it's not accepted that this is how teenagers are and seen as some kind of threat. It really isnt and while I think that it's rare (not impossible) for teenagers to be acting for the overall greater good, I definatly dont see it as some kind of threat that the Daily Mail trys to make out.

- The years pass on and you start to calm down a bit and you're out of that stage where you're working and become a wage slave and experiance that first hand. Your core morality is usualy determined here and I think it's important at how well you adapt to capitalism. You can either see it as a wonderful oportunity to become rich through sysematic backstabbing, or recognise how unfair the system is. As an individual though, you're not given much respect for your beliefs though and it does make you wonder why the 18-25 age group has the highest risk of heavy drinking, drug use and suicide.

- As the years pass on, maybe you've prospered with capitalism and you're quite eager to defend it and your rewards for your backstabbing, or maybe escape justice for those practices. On the other hand, you may have been shafted by bieng a wage slave, but after so many years of bieng ignored and outright punished by the capitalists for challenging thier little game, you lose heart and begin to accept that nothing wil ever change. You've also probably got a family of your own to think about now and you may well become more concerned about how your actions can effect them, than how your actions could help every family.

- When you start getting past middle age, you'll probably have the same feelings that you had before, but feel even less able to change things. Not only have things been bad for so long, but people start thinking you're senile, or stuck in the past, your opinion isnt valued anymore. On top of that, your physical health is probably begining to deteriorate and any dreams of bieng an active part of bringing the system down are long gone.

[Communist Theory]

I voted no because I'm still a teenager and don't know how it will affect my views.
I should have added that option.

[teenagebricks]

I was a total liberal when I lived with my Mum, I started getting interested in leftist politics when I moved out at 18 and started to realise that the system was intentionally set up to put people like me at a disadvantage. That was four years ago, I haven't looked back since.

[Idealism]

i would tend to say i always had the views of communism/anarchism (still not really sure which) in me, and just did know the label for them.

[JerseyDevil]

When I was younger, I was pretty conservative, but I believed everything I heard back then. Now I've started thinking. A lot of my friends are very liberal like me, and I don't see myself changing in the future, but who knows?

[Jack]

I'm a former die hard Republican ultranationalist (not racist) etc. Of course I picked up The Manifesto at 12, and became an anarchist just before I turned 14. I was a Stalinist before.

[StalinFanboy]

I used to be racist and an evangelical Christian.

[Invincible Summer]

I used to be a bigot and went to a Baptist church (although I wasn't really an active believer... I was very skeptical).

Then as I got older, I just matured and realized there's no real reason to hate against the LGBT community or people who don't speak English. I realized that the world has shitloads of problems that can't be solved within the system

[Pogue]

I used to be a social democrat christian who wanted to be a policeman.

[Kassad]

I was a Marxist at 12; Marxist-Leninist by 15; anti-revisionist by 16. I'm 17 now and will be heading off to college in about a year. I don't think that getting out into the real world should alter a socialist's view, as socialists call for a progressive tax rate and an end to exploitative surplus value, therefore, if anything, one should hate the capitalist system even more. One should also seek to unionize as to gain higher wages and proper benefits, which is something socialists advocate. I mean, I can't think of any reason to turn against Marxism after leaving the house.

[Pogue]

Obviously experiencing more will inform your beliefs but its different for different people. I really can't see my ideas ever changing that much because its just common sense. I hate the argument that communism is something you outgrow, thats clearly just patronising bullshit. If anything experienicng the world and wage slavery more would make you more left wing if you looked at it properly.

[Pinko Panther]

Well, I'm still "just a kid", so my opinion doesn't really count, I guess. I first learned about Communism when I was about five or six when my dad explained it to me (we were watching an old TV show and one of the characters was described as a "McCarthyist"). He's pretty much a socialist, but my mom's a liberal democrat, so they basically let me figure out my views on my own.
I discovered anarchism about a year or two ago and that's been my philosophy ever since. However, I don't doubt that my beliefs will change as I get exposed to more ideas. I think I'll always be a leftist, though.

[Rusty Shackleford]

well, to begin, im still a teenager so i still have yet to experience true capitalism.
when i was younger, like others said i believed pretty much anything ive heard. especially the news. also, i would parrot shit like die commie, stupid hippie, fucking liberal, and all that crap...
until i moved to an ultra-conservative area where its very hard to not find anything related to jesus (a mormon church across the street from my school)
then i realized how ridiculous i was being and began to seriously doubt our politics.

when i finally started taking interest in leftism, i saw that it agreed with many of my values. Recently i gave a report on Karl Marx for my English class was quite awesome, seing that there was a xenofobig jingoist in my class which made it fun ^_^

i can definitely see myself remaining left and possibly even more so in the future. which is why i even came here in the first place, to find more information which is not slanted by the media.

[STJ]

I used to be a total shit head when i was a teen one of those know it alls since then i have slowly grown up and my views have changed.

[JohnnyC]

I was something similar to anarcho-capitalist when I was very young, but somewhere around my 16 birthday I began reading about communism and realised what capitalism really is.Right now the only thing that could change my views would be me becoming capitalist, I guess... :D

[LOLseph Stalin]

I don't really think age has alot to do with it. Some people start at different times than others with the whole political thing. I started quite late actually. I became a Marxist at age 16 after reading the Manifesto when I became curious thanks to an Anti-Communist teacher. Before then I was into politics a little and had views that were somewhat leftist. I now know that they would have been Social Democrat views. Even at that point I didn't really care and couldn't even really tell the differences between different political parties. It was really my history class and Anti-Communist teacher who ultimately got me interested in politics.

[CHEtheLIBERATOR]

Not on me but I've just noticed people become less radical a they get older

[brigadista]

Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary's life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime

Angela Davis

[MarxSchmarx]

yeah what the hell; the ideology remains basically the same. But the tactics and vision change. First you appreciate how much more difficult the struggle really is. Second, what were once deep distaste for the existing order and vague feelings about economic justice can become concrete, you come to understand how you can get from a capitalist society to socialism as you mature.

[Marx22]

I used to be a real hardline conservative/capitalist, watched Fox News all the time, and thought Bush and his Iraq campaign was the best thing ever to happen in this country. That was 5-6 years ago.

I don't know what the hell happened but as I grew older, I couldn't stand Fox anymore, I hated the republican party and what conservatives/social darwinists stood for. Everytime I hear Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity speak, I cringe now. I guess it was around the point after I got myself knowledgeable in areas like socialism and leftist political idealogies, I became attached to it. Maybe because of the learning part I began to come to my senses on my politics.

Age in general to people affect political standings; older people tend to be more conservative/capitalist, lean out to the right while younger people are more open to different points of view and tend to lean to the left of the political specturm.

[GPDP]

I've almost always held somewhat leftist views, growing up in Mexico, with poverty and crime all around my city of birth. Once I came here to the US, I did become more conservative, culminating in my support for Bush and the Iraq War back when it started. That was when I barely knew anything, though. I was in, what, 7th and 8th grade? After a while, though, I went "liberal", and was in full support of Kerry just because he wasn't Bush (only he was, just not quite as dumb). Once he lost, I lost faith in liberalism as well, and tried to go "moderate", whatever the hell that meant, out of some belief that the best ideas were probably in the middle.

It really wasn't until I was introduced to Marx and parecon theory in a college class that I began to seriously turn leftward. After a few readings of Chomsky, a lot of soul searching, meetings with a local student activist group, and a class with a fiery leftist professor, I came out a communist/anarchist.

Funnily enough, I could've easily gone libertarian/ancap as well. I actually became acquainted with libertarianism in high school, and I was also introduced to Adam Smith and Milton Friedman in the same class that I studied Marx (it was an ethics class that followed a comparative approach). I actually came out with a rather favorable view of "pure" capitalism. Again, though, it was Chomsky that pulled me away from that crap. Plus, I could never manage to seriously consider libertarianism even in high school, despite all the posturing and propaganda about "liberty" that I was bombarded with back then. Something just didn't click with me about letting the rich and powerful go about their business unregulated.

Will I ever turn away from leftism? I'd like to say I won't, but it happened to my dad to a certain extent, so I don't wanna say anything for sure. It sure isn't easy to be a leftist outside of my university, though. Especially since I'm in fucking Texas.

[Stranger Than Paradise]

I am still a teen but I think since quite a young age I've believed in something like I believe in today. When I started to read books about Anarchism I realised it was talking about all the stuff I believed in.

[pastradamus]

People, Such as my younger brother and younger leftists often ask me the same question. My answer is that while I lived with my parents and read leftist material it all seemed a little bit idealistic and in a way unreal.... but only a little bit. Sometimes I thought of myself as a dreamer. But when I got older and got working and paying rent I discovered that Socialism effects every part of Society in a practical and untheoretical way and can be implied in different ways and forms. Social Security, Library cards, Rent assistance, Disablement pay, Pensions, Grants, Trade Unions, Pay related Social Insurance, the postal service as well as the direct political government implications of Socialism.

It might be of Interest to people here, that since becoming a leftist I have actually become MORE of a leftist and more active since becoming older. If you actually believe in a certain theory or Idea from day one than its easier to alter it to varying situations as you get older. I once talked to a 72 year old socialist and he told me that he also becomes more left-wing throughout the years. So he began with the Labor Party and 70 years on he's a real Leftist. :D