Sunday, August 9, 2009

I Blog, Therefore I Am

There is an old phrase that is attributed to Winston Churchill that goes; "If you're not Liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not Conservative when you're 35, you have no brain." Now, there are differing variations on this alleged quote and it is disputed whether he ever uttered it at all. I have found the hard way, that it's not a phrase you want to throw around, just in case there is a liberal within earshot.
Regardless of all of that, it's a phrase that pretty much sums up my evolution. It was a long road to get here and I believe my "transformation" from flaming leftist liberal activist to a very far right conservative came by finally learning to reach conclusions through reason rather than emotion. Thinking back to past beliefs and behaviors, that's exactly what I did. I cringe inside thinking about what a fool I was, but like the saying goes; ignorance is bliss, and boy, that was ever the case.
It is something that has more than mystified my old friends that are still of the liberal persuasion. I assume that most of them think that I went off the deep end and they just put up with the "new" me. I quickly realized that the indoctrinated remain that way the older we are and the more that we are submerged in that mentality; resisting being exposed to other viewpoints with an open mind. We all tend to resist change and anything that could cause us to question ourselves, our lives, our beliefs. Funny the lengths we will go to to avoid learning anything new that would contradict what we already "think" that we know. That cognitive dissonance can be a bitch.
The point of all this is just to let you know where I am coming from. I believe that the present road our country is on is the wrong one; the dangerous one. We conservatives are in for the fight of our lives now trying to save this great country. So for me, I will pick my battles wisely, leaving the lost causes behind and putting my focus on what I see as winnable: presenting what I now see and believe as truth and exposing the lies. It is so easy to go through life without questioning our old paradigms, worldviews and beliefs. To question such things makes us uneasy and we seem to go to great lengths not to upset the old apple cart. Hey, but once we do, we start to free ourselves from the old constraints of our ignorance and misconceptions. Once we do that, we become seekers of truth and boy, is that ever liberating. You betcha.