A lot of people will have their belief system radically altered in a crisis. It sometimes takes a certain item of information (or misinformation) to dramatically alter someone’s beliefs.
I experienced this earlier this year, because of the coronavirus. About 8 years ago, I became a staunch supporter of global free market capitalism. Ever since, I thought protectionist policies were wasteful. It was a major point of disagreement with the President. However, after the coronavirus episode, I suddenly realized the danger of being dependent on other countries for essential items. The way that China hoarded their supplies and pulled their ships back made me realize that unfettered free trade capitalism, while providing cheaper and more abundant goods, is not good in the big picture. Ive also started to realize the danger of huge multinational corporations and enterprises, which are loyal to their profit and not to their home country. That certainly doesn’t mean I’ll become a socialist, but it does mean that I have to look at a bigger picture, one that I didn’t have in near as good of focus before the pandemic.
Sometimes you think you have it all figured out, like I did with my global free market capitalist view, only to discover there was more to the story and that your ideal views don’t bring results when applied in reality. None of us are as smart as we, often unintentionally, assume that we are. The big picture just keeps bigger and bigger. If you’re truly progressing in how you view things, you should be realizing more today how you werent as smart as you thought yesterday. If you truly want to be progressive, take pleasure in discovering where you have been wrong.