Uuuhhhhh… maybe it’s just about getting older. You rarely hear of a person getting more liberal as they age.
Most foreigners arrive in Taiwan after graduating college…or dropping out…or after they’ve had time to run up enormous debts… anyway…that puts the bulk of them at mid twenties. You piss yourself out after a while…leaving only vinegar. Aging is great hu…
[quote=“maowang”]Uuuhhhhh… maybe it’s just about getting older. You rarely hear of a person getting more liberal as they age.
Most foreigners arrive in Taiwan after graduating college…or dropping out…or after they’ve had time to run up enormous debts… anyway…that puts the bulk of them at mid twenties. You piss yourself out after a while…leaving only vinegar. Aging is great hu…[/quote]
William Gladstone, Tony Benn, Mitterand, Ramsey Clark etc.
Many politicians and other government bureaucrats started as moderates and moved leftward in old age.
I find myself growing more conservative in Taiwan on foreign policy and economic matters. On social issues, I will always be somewhat liberal.
I came to Taiwan in my mid-twenties and was very liberal. After three years I started becoming more conservative and was certain that I had Taiwan figured out, and that all these newbie westerners that showed up each year fresh out of college with their backpacks and soapboxes were idiots. Five years in, I realized that the longer I stayed, the less I actually “knew” about Taiwan or politics generally. After seven years, I was resigned to be pleasantly confused. Could be age, or the heat, I’m not sure. Hopefully I’ve just become more pragmatic.
Me:What do you want to be when you get older? My father:Eccentric.
We have a tradition in the UK of becoming pleasantly ‘individual’ as we age, and believing that people will allow us our little weirdnesses on the grounds that we’re probably senile.
I used to know someone that a friend described as “a fully paid-up member of the purple hat brigade”, and she was a fine example of youthful conservatism gone out the window. I hope to follow in the footsteps of both her, my father, and that famous old guy who used to roller-blade around amsterdam in nothing but a thong.
Then again, I’m not trying to blend in here. If I’m not conservative enough for their tastes then they can learn English from the bloody mormons. See if I care.
I’ve found I have grown more liberal as I have aged, learned more, and experienced different cultures around the world. I’m 38, and my love for freedom continues to grow.
I’ve certainly moved to the right since coming here.
It now grates to go back home to Europe and hear my leftwing relatives moan and rant about how bad globalization is. If there hadn’t been any globalization, most Taiwanese would still have been plodding away in rice and sugarcane fields.
On the whole, living in Taiwan has opened my eyes to another reality: that capitalist-style development can take a country and its people up to higher living standards and democracy, if handled well.
If I had stayed in Europe, I probably still would’ve been raving about how bad capitalism is, and how the west is exploiting the Third World, and how only white Europeans are colonialists and racists, and etc etc. Taiwan showed me the world is not that simple a place, and those so-called “progressives” in Europe don’t know all about the world outside their cozy universities and suburbs.
[quote=“enzo+”]I’ve certainly moved to the right since coming here.
It now grates to go back home to Europe and hear my leftwing relatives moan and rant about how bad globalization is. If there hadn’t been any globalization, most Taiwanese would still have been plodding away in rice and sugarcane fields.
On the whole, living in Taiwan has opened my eyes to another reality: that capitalist-style development can take a country and its people up to higher living standards and democracy, if handled well.
If I had stayed in Europe, I probably still would’ve been raving about how bad capitalism is, and how the west is exploiting the Third World, and how only white Europeans are colonialists and racists, and etc etc. Taiwan showed me the world is not that simple a place, and those so-called “progressives” in Europe don’t know all about the world outside their cozy universities and suburbs.[/quote]
Excellent post!!! Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Agree but surely being in Taiwan has also opened your eyes to the importance of liberal values such as racial tolerance, progressive education, rule of law, an accountable bureacracy, personal freedom to become the person you want to be, environmental awareness, to name but a few.
The older I get the less likely I am to swing towards either the right or left. Both seem more and more too reductive of approaches to complex political realities. I suppose you could say there’s a natural trend towards “moderation” or “centrism”, which I’d just call reasonableness. Political radicalism is cool when you’re an angry young hothead, but maturity brings a less knee-jerk response to the world.
Maoman you’re right about most of things–especially rule of law, but I have to say that I suspect that in practice Taiwan is more racially tolerant than my country (the USA).
Like most Americans I used to think all our law suits were ruining the country, but without them you have a society like Taiwan where no one is ever accountable.
To which I replied…
Actually it’s had the opposite effect…
Obviously expecting someone to realize this means mucha’s observation for me has become being in Taiwan has closed my eyes to the importance of liberal values - well you can read the rest…
As for my bad english, well I am not trying to teach you english and if you prefer to nitpick about english go ahead and person who reads this forum expecting to learn better english deserves to get what they get.
Anyway, the posts after the initial post were meant to clarify not confuse…and from stragbasher observations I have failed, but I never set out to present an argument to support my beliefs only to give examples as to how I saw things AFTER I answered mucha’s initial question.
If you are still confused I am sorry…but this is only a forum, not the end of the world.
The point is that racial tolerance is fucking easy when 99.9% of the population are of the same race. Yeah, they’re REALLY superior us Americans who only have to deal with 50/50% racial differences in most of the country, bar Idaho. Let those Taiwanese deal with more than 1% “foreigners” and let’s see how “tolerant” this island of ignorant xenophobes are.
Taiwan has that whole BSR vs. WSR issue. Toss in more foriegner and you’ll see a real civil rights movement on Taiwan. Oh that would be interesting to see riots, and assassination attempt of leaders…wait that has happened on Taiwan this year…my bad.