Amen and hallelujah, friend McGrath. Very astutely observed. I, too, feel that my core values haven't changed since I came of age. What has changed is my capacity to be tolerant of differing viewpoints.

My earlier post was of course facetious, but not entirely silly: I cannot imagine executing a complete turnabout such as Andy seems to have done. (I hope Don Meixner will forgive me a bit of speculation about his friend.) It suggests a man who was never really sure of what he believed in to begin with, and who, when he became frustrated with his early causes, switched "faith", as it were. No doubt he'll remain frustrated.

Everybody's looking for something, as the song says. People throw themselves into religions or political movements (PMs) because they are, as are we all, looking for answers... but not just any sort of answer: they need to be comforting ones. PMs and religions are obliged to attract followers, so they make sure their message is the one people want/need to hear.

Any perceptive person will soon notice that the advertisement doesn't match the actual product, and become disillusioned. And many of these will turn right around and plug into some other belief system, not realizing that the problem is not with any particular movement or message, but with the faulty notion that organized belief systems (PMs or religions) can deliver what they promise.