Learning from the past

Neo-neocon has a justly famous series of posts on A mind is a difficult thing to change where she analyzes her conversion to neo-conservativism.

But the question I have is : why is our generation (neo and I are roughly contemporaries) so incredibly naive? Why isn't the experience of Neo more widespread? Have we completely lost the ability to deduce truth from events? Are we so committed to our beliefs that we can only interpret events such that they do not contradict those beliefs? This is the definition of faith. And a faith not revealed by a transcendent God.

I can accept the "Stop the lies/Stop the war" bumper stickers on cars at the local university. My ability to think critically (such as it is) has developed over years, so I would expect the same from students today. What I wonder at is the simplicity of the people my age who cannot, who will not take the words of our opponents at face value.

"War is a terrible thing." There are a lot of quotes by lots of famous people to that effect. But, sometimes war is inevitable; it's just a question of timing. The question is, of course, how do you know when war is inevitable? And, the other question is, "what if you're wrong?" And that question cuts both ways.