This is the dawning of the Age of Contrariness, the Age of Contrariness.

We find ourselves in a most curious time. We’re in an era when political parties would rather reverse long-held positions on an issue — any issue — than agree with their opposition. Democrats who five years ago favored construction of a barrier wall at the Mexican border now oppose it, primarily because a Republican president has vowed to build it.

And it seems particularly hard for us to respectfully disagree.

While the issues of border security and immigration reform grab a majority of the nation’s attention, another issue unfolding in Harrisburg begins to take on the contrariness theme.

Until a month ago, Gov. Tom Wolf opposed the legalization of recreational marijuana. He said Pennsylvania wasn’t ready. But now that Wolf has been elected to his second and final four-year term, he seems much more “hip” to the idea of endorsing recreational pot.

Wolf this week announced a new step in its exploration of legalizing marijuana, with Lt. Gov. John Fetterman preparing a series of town hall-style public listening sessions. Fetterman, the former mayor of Braddock, has been more consistent in his advocacy of legalizing marijuana. He’ll hold a listening session in each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties in the coming months, he says.

Why the change? With pot legalized in 10 states and the District of Columbia, Wolf says Pennsylvania can’t ignore movement in that direction, particularly in neighboring states like New York and New Jersey.

It’s funny Wolf should mention New York, home state of billionaire media boss and political figure Michael Bloomberg. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in his recent state of the state address declared that New York must legalize marijuana.

Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, responded: “In 2017, 72,000 Americans OD’d on drugs. In 2018, more people than that are OD-ing on drugs, have OD’d on drugs, and today incidentally, we are trying to legalize another addictive narcotic, which is perhaps the stupidest thing anybody has ever done. We’ve got to fight that.”

Young people, take note: Wolf and Cuomo and their generation are children of the Age of Aquarius, popularized in a 1960s song by the 5th Dimension. They can’t help themselves. They are guided by a star of protest demonstration. They embrace songs like Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” which advised them: “There’s battle lines being drawn/Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.”

Disagreement is their hallmark. It always has been their hallmark.