[W]hatever else a liberal ethos, a liberal education, is taken to be, it is not taken to be a conversion experience, or conducive to a conversion experience; and certainly not a conversion experience to liberal values. It is, that is to say, usually taken for granted that liberalism is, by definition, not something anyone is converted to. And yet, of course, we might think of ourselves, as I say, as having been converted, by liberalism, to being distrustful of conversion experiences. Indeed, in many ways, a liberal arts education aims to arm us against conversion as an object of desire.

Adam Phillips, On Wanting to Change