Age and conservatism

[P2P]

Why do you think so many people gradually become more socially conservative, economically right-wing and religious as they grow older, and regret their ''ways of the past''? I'm not talking about old people awaiting their death, but more of middle-age people. After having read and heard countless of debates between lefties and righties, I simply can not believe that the switch have anything to do with ''wisdom'' or intelligence. So what is it?

[Unicorn]

Actually, the opposite is true.

"People Become More Liberal With Age"

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/people-become-more-liberal-with-age/20080311091309990001

[thewoodcutter]

because their former liberal ideas were either beer-induced or a method used to hit-on women.

aslo, why is this in S&E?

[Raisa]

They dont beleive that young people are going to look out for them subcontiously if their radical ideas comeinto effect, they start physicially deteriorating and at the small signs of this feel mortal and like their running out of hope, so they cling to conservative ideas out of insecurity with the world and their own selves.
If we respected our elders better and did more in their interests every day, and honored their knowledge maybe they wouldnt be so afraid of the future because theyd know their in good hands.

[jake williams]

There are complex reasons for the various correlations of age and politics. Keep in mind that we should be aware of our context. For one, a great deal of things are pretty specific to our corner of the world. Also, the fact is that we're at an odd point in social and political history, like this century even.

[crimsonzephyr]

I think a small point is that as a kid, their arent many worries besides not letting your ice cream fall on the ground. As an adult you seem to worry more about life and death, taxes, work(I'm only 16, i dont really know what im talking about but its what i infer). What im saying is that the more you worry, the more you will want someone their for you(the government) to help you and keep you away from (fake)terrorism.

[piet11111]

you have to look at what sort of time they grew up in.
when the older people where young capitalism delivered the goods and they had had a good chance to have a successful career and to make more money as they go through live.
the need for social change was very limited for a lot of people

these days our prospects are much worse as living will become more expensive while our wages will not grow fast enough to compensate for the increased costs of living.
then you can factor in the hollowing out of retirement funds and medical insurance.
these days capitalism is on the offensive and people respond by becoming more leftist both young and old.

[JimFar]

The problem with discussions like is that when discussing whether people become more conservative as they grow older, it's not altogether clear whether such assertions are based on comparisons of the expressed views of older people versus younger people, or whether they are based on following the expressed views of a cohort of people over an extended period of time to see if their views change significantly as they grow older. I think that most of the time, the claim that older people are more conservative than younger people comes are based on comparisons of the views of different generations of people, rather than on studies as to how the views of one generation may change over the course of several decades. The last time that I looked into any research on this issue, most of the studies that I recall seeing, indicated that people's fundamental views concerning matters like politics and religion are remarkably stable over time, from their 20's onwards. So, if it is the case that older people seem to be more conservative than younger people, then those older people came from a generation that had been conservative to begin with. By the same token, most of those younger people who hold progressive views, will in all likelihood continue to do so for the rest of their lives.

[TC]

There is a tendency to become more socially and financially powerful as people enter middle age so they become more conservative to match their emergent social interests...similarly when people retire they become more economically "liberal" (i.e. social democratic) as their financial influence decreases. Its really not that complicated and can be explained by the position people occupy in the political-economy at different points in their lives.

[Schrödinger's Cat]

There is a tendency to become more socially and financially powerful as people enter middle age so they become more conservative to match their emergent social interests...similarly when people retire they become more economically "liberal" (i.e. social democratic) as their financial influence decreases. Its really not that complicated and can be explained by the position people occupy in the political-economy at different points in their lives.

Precisely. You identify with your age group. The elderly are more likely than not economic moderates/liberals (American sense), but they often maintain conservative social values. I would just amend the previous statement to include disgruntled idealists often just "mellow out." This group at a young age shifts around according to whatever anti-establishment segment of the population is popular: communism, right-libertarianism, flower power, fascism, Christian revivalism...

[RHIZOMES]

thing is, you only hear about the ones that switched over. Noone ever talks about the ones that STUCK to Marxism or anarchism, only the ones that switched. Hell I've met 85-year old ladies with the entire collected works of Hoxha and a giant picture of Stalin on their wall. I think that people becoming more right-wing as they age is utterly false and a concept encouraged by the bourgeoisie to make it seem like communism isn't a serious political theory.

[Don't Change Your Name]

Some people who are more "leftist" in their youth move on a more "conformist" direction. This is because of dissapointment with radical politics, because their economical situation improves over time, because they get weaker in many senses, because they have children (it's not as easy to fight against the police when you have to worry about a baby), etc. I'm sure some get scared about death and resort to religions to get the idea that they will go on living. Some might even get "respect" from the establishment, so they will support reforms over revolution.

People often change their views though, the difference is that when people get "less conservative" they usually become "moderates" or reformists, or just hopeless about it all so they don't really care much, while people who move towards conservatism might be doing so with a religious influence or with economical interests, perhaps making it more pronounced.

[Dystisis]

As has been stated, there are many aspects to this, not just one.

It is also the thing that the data we have regarding this could be misleading. Considering for example that through various times people in general could have been more conservative/radical, etc.

[Comrade-Z]

I don't think that age has as much to do with it, as the fact that most people get kids as they get older.

1. Kids are an investment that produces a return in most circumstances. The return varies in proportion and qualitative type between societies. In farming societies, kids start producing a return as soon as they can work on the farm. In industrial socieities, kids start producing a return as soon as they can help around the house or take care of younger siblings. The big payoff in industrial societies comes after kids graduate from college and get jobs so that they can help pay for retirement homes and old-age care for their parents. Starting in the '30s in the U.S., this function of the family unit was being replaced by the State in the form of social security, medicare, etc.

2. So if kids are a huge, important investment, then they need to be taken care of at all costs.

3. People accumulate more precarious obligations to the system as they have kids. They have to pay for the things the kids need, and they start to think that that's more important than protesting or going on strike or something else "risky," so they stop protesting or going on strike or wearing offensive radical t-shirts at work or whatever to make sure that they don't get caught by their boss or to make sure that, no matter what, they don't get in trouble with the police or whatever and jeopardize their kids (their investment).

4. This "ownership" of kids as an investment produces a tinge of petty-bourgeois in every adult who "has" kids. Even if you are an oppressed worker at the factory, you know that the system still promises you that you can come home to rule over your little empire (either benevolently or harshly, but in any case profitably). So you see some incentive to stay loyal to this system. There's no accident that "family values" is considered so important by a lot of adults (parents).

See this past article of mine, "Religion as a Tool of Parental Despotism" for more explanation and for a proposed cure to this problem (in short, setting kids free from economic dependence on parents and generally dissolving the family unit):
http://www.revleft.com/vb/religion-tool-parental-t61893/index.html?t=61893&highlight=parental

5. Another reason for old-age conservatism: some workers in industrialized societies accumulate some small savings throughout their career (401k plans or whatever), and because of this these people think that they've "got it made." Well, no they don't. Those "savings" are not surplus. They are already spoken for in terms of providing for old-age. Even if a person has some mutual fund investments and pensions or whatever, they aren't really a capitalist (or even much of a petty-bourgeois) until they have a large surplus over and above what they need to hold back for their retirement. In other words, they only become a capitalist when they have capital that they can immediately plow back into production. Nevertheless, a lot of working people with small savings erroneously think of themselves as part of the upper-crust. Why this false consciousness? I don't know.