I worry about how aging makes humans conservative. I think it has something to do with fear. Fear for one’s own safety, fear of damage to one’s property, fear of new and unknown things. Adult-onset conservatism is also just exhaustion. A lifetime of being optimistic about life’s unsolved problems fosters disappointment and, eventually, pessimism. But no one wants to believe they’re pessimistic, so they switch perspectives and move the goalposts.
