THE EVER quotable Winston Churchill once stated, "If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain." Upon reading this, most individuals will be shocked and dismayed to know that they either apparently have little or no human compassion or are doomed to a rather crotchety life of watching Fox News. However, what Churchill was intimating is what several studies have shown and common sense echoes - that a person's political ideology and commitment to certain causes change over time.
It can be due to a variety of factors - changing economic climates, higher or lower incomes, different standards of living, varied social environments, etc. - but the fact of the matter is that in 20 years you most likely will not hold the same political beliefs you have now. As time goes on, opinions change and so do people. With age comes a different perspective of what is and what isn't important and what should take priority.
Now this doesn't necessarily enforce the old stereotype that everyone becomes more conservative as he gets older. In fact, some studies have shown that most people actually become more liberal with time. However, no matter in which direction one's ideology shifts, the mere fact that people's opinions can differ radically over time is enough to give anyone pause.
After all, look at Grounds during elections for president, senator, etc. Though people on the hard left or right probably are not going to waver much in their old age, it is interesting to consider that many students who were once swayed by passion and the historical significance of Barack Obama's campaign may find themselves on the other side of the fence in a few years. The same can be said for their conservative counterparts. This can often cause us to question just how strongly we hold our convictions.
As college students, many of us merely focus on our schoolwork and have not yet completely entered the workplace and our current economic environment. Though we consider ourselves "worldly" and "enlightened," many of us are insulated from real-world issues. When we have to contend with the responsibilities of supporting a family or maintaining gainful employment, will we really still maintain the same level of political activism that we have in college? Not only can our ideologies change, but our level of involvement with causes we hold dear also has the potential to suffer as a result of our growing up. We are afforded the luxury of being immersed in academia and can devote a larger portion of our time to causes we deem worthwhile. As we grow older, we often become less passionate about causes and issues that once animated us in our college days.
If the problems that cause the current crop of college students to become activists continue into the future, will we still try to do something about them as adults? Therein lies the true test of one's convictions. Almost daily, students are confronted with pleas for donations, requests for attendance at rallies, signatures for petitions and calls to put up flyers. If you can say honestly to yourself that 10 years from now you will at least try to continue to fight for issues such as the Beyond Coal and Living Wage initiatives (assuming they are not yet resolved) that cause such passionate debate among us now, then you show a clear, uncompromising dedication that should be lauded. Though the future is hard to predict, if someone who is so passionate about these issues now cannot see himself realistically continuing the fight into his late 20s, then his calls for action are somewhat disingenuous. For their pleas for support to be genuine, students must either pledge to make a lasting commitment beyond the borders of the University or be a little more honest with themselves about just how much they are truly dedicated to a cause.
Of course, it seems rather lazy and uncaring to say that if someone else won't do something about an issue, then I won't either. However, if activists want their causes to be taken with at least some modicum of seriousness and dedication, they must first exhibit to others that their actions are not some fly-by-night endeavor to fill a line on a resume. One of the most important steps to initiating change is to show that you have made a true investment in affecting that change. Anything less can be taken as just words.
Pietro Sanitate's column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at p.sanitate@cavalierdaily.com.
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