360
syndrome is when you start from one point of view, move away from it using
logic,
argumentation, etc, and gradually move toward your original point of view through the same process of self
questioning and
reasoning. It's a syndrome because in the process of shifting your ideas some of your friends will wonder what the hell is up with you since you, for instance, started at
pro-life in 9th grade, moved to
pro-choice in 10th, and ended back at pro-life in 12th. See one view as being at 0 degrees on a circle with the opposite stance at 180.
The
problem I see with my friends in high school is that some choose the least
popular (least
mainstream, least
pedestrian) topic and
argue it to death, without knowing that through this process of choosing a viewpoint (without exploring other possibilities) they've joined another (though smaller) group of clichéd 'individuals' with the same viewpoint, refusing to
explore the other side of the
issue. To them, whoever has the
opposite opinion is, by definition, wrong (wrong being whatever is common, old, 'over-explored'). What they don't know about
me is that though I believe in the opposite of what they believe, I once believed in the same view as they do, but I've moved beyond it, having explored and, later, rejected it. Maybe I'll keep on going and end up at 520, and maybe even later, back at 720.
As an
elementary school student I started out reasonably
ignorant. Moving through
middle school and into
high school, I became a
cynic after
9th grade. My
views and
philosophies shifted and changed and in
12th grade I've become completely
disgusted with cynicism. I started out seeing the world as
right and
swell, progressed to seeing it as
broken and
corrupt, and now I see it as a place of
wonder and
beauty, though still aware of its flaws. Some would say I've made a complete
360.