Loss of idealism is an inescapable truth of growing older

It is impossible not to wince while watching some clips now circulating on X, boosted personally by Elon Musk. There they are — prominent Democratic politicians, some still in office — speaking with sincerity against bureaucratic bloat, factory job losses, unfair trade deals, and influx of undocumented workers. They all did so with a zeal that is now prompting President Donald Trump’s efficiency czar to repost the clips with relish. The urge to wince is not because of what those politicians said back then, but because of how far they have strayed from their convictions since the 1990s and early 2000s.

Two of the clips show Sen. Chuck Schumer, in 1996 and 2010, discussing topics such as government efficiency, trade policies, and the impact of globalization on American workers. His words highlight concerns about job losses due to unfair trade practices and the need for the government to protect domestic industries. A clip of Sen. Bernie Sanders from 2015 shows him dismissing open borders as a right-wing proposal and saying that immigration can make Americans poorer.

To those who do not have a dog in the American political fight, these clips serve as a reminder of the quiet erosion of idealism that happens with age. Not just in well-known politicians and public personalities, but in ordinary people, too. We start out motivated by ideals — wanting to fight injustice, protect the planet, launch revolutions, change the world. Then the years roll on. Bills come due. Personal lives grow more complicated. The system proves impossible to change, and idealism begins to seem impractical.

What begins as a necessity to survive slowly starts to control the way we think, speak, and act. We make moral concessions, telling ourselves they are temporary. We strike compromises to remain relevant, to preserve friendships, to protect our families and end-of-service benefits, to keep the peace. Until, almost imperceptibly, we are no longer the individuals we once imagined becoming. The old clips of Schumer, Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama highlight changes in their rhetoric and priorities over time that they can now ignore, but not deny.

Psychologists have studied this phenomenon. A 2009 paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that as people age, their goals shift from exploring possibilities to preserving what they have. This shifting of goal posts is not a sign of failure, but adaptation to new realities. As our responsibilities grow, so does our readiness to reset our moral compasses. Instead of continuing to dream of remaking the world, we settle for managing a small corner of it.

Over time, we forget why we chose the paths we did

Arnab Neil Sengupta

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002, helped explain why with his concept of “loss aversion.” We tend to fear losing what we already possess more than we desire what we might gain. Idealism, by nature, invites risk. But adulthood teaches us to minimize risk — to maintain stability, especially as we climb further into the middle class and beyond it.

That is why those resurfaced political clips may have touched a chord even with people who do not care about headlines and partisan jabs. They show not hypocrisy so much as political malleability. Leaders who once sounded like champions of the working class today spout a curious mix of Wall Street caution, social-justice platitudes, and climate alarmism. They have not necessarily sold out. The values they started with collided with the institutions within which they had to work.

The same happens in less visible ways to all of us. A young journalist may begin by wanting to speak truth to power — and end up rewriting press releases under deadline, or slanting reports against people or products or views they dislike. A doctor dreams of serving the poor, then builds a practice that caters for the rich. A college graduate takes up teaching intending to awaken minds, but settles for controlling a classroom and making it through the term. Over time, we forget why we chose the paths we did.

This loss of idealism, however, should not be confused with the changes that in fact help adolescents gain knowledge, wisdom and prudence with the passage of years. Middle-aged and old people are an asset to society mainly because of their experience, insight and maturity that a younger generation may lack. Contrary to the famous observation, youth is not wasted on the young if they are guided by the wisdom and experience of the old.

It is also true that idealism, even when buried under the hurly-burly of life, can persist and make a comeback. Many people, especially after retirement, rediscover their true calling — volunteering, teaching, mentoring, rediscovering childhood hobbies, penning opinion pieces and essays aimed at enlightening young minds. They find the freedom to act on beliefs and desires that career and family once kept in check.

Many people rediscover their true calling after retirement

Arnab Neil Sengupta

Developmental psychologists say that older adults often possess greater emotional intelligence and deeper moral nuance. Sometimes their idealism is not lost, just less evident. Idealism does not always burn bright like a flame, but keeps going, as when a high-achieving engineer approaching retirement finds a new purpose in life by devoting his free time to teaching the neighborhood children football or basketball. Unfortunately, these are exceptions, not the rule.

There is no shame in growing older. But there may be regret in growing older without remembering who we were before we started making compromises at every turn. Consider Obama’s clarity of thought during a 2008 Democratic primary debate. “The reason the American people are concerned is because they are seeing their own economic position slip away,” he said. “And oftentimes employers are exploiting these undocumented workers … so, what we have to do is to create a comprehensive solution to the problem.”

Or the remarks of Hillary Clinton from a 2003 interview on a radio show when she was a US senator from New York. Emphasizing the importance of securing the nation’s borders and expressing concern about the economic impact of undocumented workers, she bluntly said: “I think we got to have tough conditions. Tell people to come out of the shadows. If they committed a crime, deport them. No questions asked. They are gone.”

Call them what you will — changing personal opinions or political expediency — these resurfaced clips are awkward for Clinton and Obama, sharply contrasting with their current criticisms of the Trump administration and underscoring an ideological drift that likely contributed to the Democrats’ 2024 defeat. But, more importantly, they are useful for anyone who has watched them as a reminder, however uncomfortable, of the idealist each of us once was — and can still become again if we dare, provided it is for the better, not worse.

• Arnab Neil Sengupta is a senior editor at Arab News.X: @arnabnsg