When I was growing up and becoming more and more aware of politics and the constant debate between parties, my dad told me a quote that has been attributed to Winston Churchill, but originated from a French politician named Francis Guizot. It sounds a little something like this, more or less:
"If you're not a liberal at twenty, you have no heart; if you're not a conservative at forty, you have no brain."
For the longest time, I had no idea what my dad was talking about when he said this to me, but as I've gotten older, it has started to make more sense. Whether or not it is true is a different story, as it seems to illustrate a classic, but possibly dated, difference between parties and which age groups are associated with which. Originally, it was used to show differences be tween liberalism and socialism, but over time it has been adapted to fit modern parties.
From my interpretation, which seems to match up with the consensus of meaning, the quote is hinting that at a young age people believe all the world's problems can be solved and one day we can all live without a care in the world. Once the individual reaches a more mature age, say forty, they start to realize that some things just can't be fixed and there will always be some kind of problem, big or small.
Being raised in a Republican household, I have been taught, and can definitely see, exactly what problems the meaning of the quote refers to.
I decided to look up the quote on the Internet for further research, just to see what other people thought, and the results were pretty interesting to say the least. On many websites, I came across blogs that were primarily about politics. It was surprising and even amusing at times to see how offended people were by the quote.
Many of the responses seemed insulted that they were being criticized for their generosity over the years. Others were a little more sensible when responding, realizing that the quote could be referring to a time period where things were not the same as they are now, and that it quite possibly could have been referring to two different forms of government popular around that time period.
Again, being brought up in a Republican household and hearing this quote, quite frankly, I agree with its sentiments. When we are young, I feel we don't realize just how big and com plicated some of the world's problems, and even our nation's, really are. I feel many people believe that every problem we come across re quires immediate attention or a call for action.
While I agree that an optimistic and prompt attitude is important to have when looking at the conflicts that surround us, a healthy dose of reality is necessary. It simply comes down to this: we can't fix everything.
While the quote may come off as condescending, I believe it's true to an extent, being that as young people we are more or less supposed to think this way; otherwise, it uncommon. To think that we shouldn't try and solve every problem that we come across would mean we just simply don't care.
However, when an individual becomes older and more mature, they start to realize that it's not worth trying to solve every problem that pops up. Going back to problems we come across in foreign countries, just imagining trying to fix every third world country we encounter is simply exhausting. Do we really need to be involved in every conflict in every country?
Even facing some of the problems in our own country can be overwhelming at times. The government handling everything, whether it is poverty, unemployment or crime, sounds unrealistic in my opinion.
That is why I believe things need to be brought down to a smaller level, and the states should have more control of this, and we should only use the government when it is beyond our control. This way, we become more efficient in solving the problems while the government is free to worry about bigger things, such as the national debt crisis or avoiding another world war.
Overall, the quote is a bit sarcastic and con descending, but it's also honest. I think a lot of what it means to touch on is priorities and what, over time, will become most important to us. It's normal to care about everything when we're young, but it's also normal to realize what is most important when we get older, and that's when we will know when we should take action.
