“But in all seriousness, I’d never trust anybody who converts instaneously from “complete leftist” to conservative (or libertarian) all in one fell swoop. That kind of behavior borders on the insane. In my opinion, a sincere and sane person is always going to make a gradual political change.”
I agree in principle, Hawthorn, but in practice both processes can interact with each other - it happened to me. I was raised democrat, but researched political theory and history for a long time, and became more and more upset with the liberal hypocrisies I was coming to understand. But because of my social environment, I consistantly refused the step of openly detaching myself from liberalism.
So my actual change of mind was gradual, which as you point out tends to reflect real change. But it was suppressed. So on the surface “nothing” was happening. Then after years of this, I watched the Waco inferno, and that finally did it for me - the dam finally broke. I simply could not, even remotely, rationalize that horror with its liberal cover story, even though I knew much larger historical atrocities had occurred through collectivism. But Waco was here and now, in my country - in America. And it’s brazenly democrat-backed flames burned up all the denial I had remaining about any “differences” with the past.
So after that, I was “suddenly” conservative to the point of being openly against liberalism, with most of the arguments already well understood. That’s why I believe appearances can be deceiving in conversion situations. Long resistance to the often severe social consequences for the change can easily create the need for some sort of trigger to release things. For me it was Waco, for others it will be other things, but always something that just cannot be rationalized at long last.
Obviously, frauds will use this build-up-and-release process as a cover, too. So I’m not saying that it explains everything. But sometimes it does actually happen for real. And it’s not completely irrational either - collectivist groups are known for severely punishing anyone who tries to leave the group. So it is a form of intelligent self-preservation to only leave when there is no more possibility of staying. Of course, what particular thing makes any particular person reach that threshold is a reflection of their moral character. And IMHO, the only thing that helps that is prayer.
>> I agree in principle, Hawthorn, but in practice both processes can interact with each other - it happened to me. I was raised democrat, but researched political theory and history for a long time, and became more and more upset with the liberal hypocrisies I was coming to understand. But because of my social environment, I consistantly refused the step of openly detaching myself from liberalism.
>> So my actual change of mind was gradual, which as you point out tends to reflect real change. But it was suppressed. So on the surface “nothing” was happening. Then after years of this, I watched the Waco inferno, and that finally did it for me - the dam finally broke. <<
A beautifully written comment, as regards not only its prose but also its obvious sincerity. Thanks for sharing your story1
Still, as a statistical matter, I’m inclined to think you’re in a pretty small minority.
But perhaps it doesn’t matter a great deal. A sincere conversion is a sincere conversion. Period.
And as for my post, I was mostly venting my frustration at the commentors who want to nitpick over Mamet’s conversion — because he doesn’t (yet?) agree with them on everything. Let’s hope they’re just acting childish and will eventually outgrow their immature behavior.