loss of faith

[juldea]

Is there any reason to be idealistic about anything?

Comments

[tpau]

not reall, but there never was before either. if you expect the worst and it comes, yo uare prepaored. ifyo uexpect the worst and it doesn't, you are pleasantly surprised.

[descant.livejournal.com]

Idealism is the new fad! Not only does it keep you young and terribly naive, but in three weeks, you can shed fifteen pounds, feel so much healthier, AND be better in bed too!

[juldea.livejournal.com]

"before"? What is the before and after you're referencing?

If you really and truly expect the worst, there's really no reason to try, is there? I mean, by the odds...

[karlean7.livejournal.com]

Writing happy love songs tends to be harder when you're wallowing in the pits of despair, and all musicals need one.

So yes.

(Also, life just tends to be less fun when you're not irrationally happy)

[waya3k.livejournal.com]

I've always been a realist with optimistic tendencies.

[ratbastrd.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Given my mood recently, I probably shouldn't answer this just now...

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

Yes. If you are never at least idealistic enough to make an effort, you will never accomplish anything. If you are really idealistic, you will accomplish some things, but never enough. In both cases you will be frustrated, but in the latter comfort and hope are available.

If the world seems too hopeless, two approaches can help: (1) take the long view (but not so long that you see the inevitable doom of all things) or (2) take the short view (look forward just as far as the next pleasant thing in your life, or live in the now if it's a good now). Suffering is limitless but unevenly distributed, and you have a choice where to look.

Just do it

[mr-teem.livejournal.com]

Idealism is one of the four great forces in society*. Sometimes you just need to take a stand, measure all comers against your position, engage in debate that shakes the very bedrock of nations and fills you with a passion that leads--or just drags--our sorry excuse for a species further and further into the future without sinking into the grey goo of moral relativism and situational ethics. Pick something to be idealistic about. Whether it is supply-side economics, standard transmissions, the designated hitter rule, paper vs. plastic or a full fifteen minutes of parking time for your quarter, the passion you bring to it will bring you fulfillment and respect. That, and if you can pull off a moody intensity, chicks will dig you. Trust me.

* The other three are curiosity, sex and chocolate.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

In reference to the other stuff I've written, idealistic isn't irrationally happy, either. In fact, idealism tends to make one (imho) quite unhappy.

However, the first part of your answer - about how every musical needs a happy love song, and those songs are hard to write without idealism - makes a good point.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a good thing to be.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Or you can answer it with a mood disclaimer ;)

[waya3k.livejournal.com]

Which means in practical usage is that I realize that glass is at 50% capacity I am going to go ahead and rink the rest of it in the hopes that I have a decent waitress that will fill it when it is empty. *grin*

[juldea.livejournal.com]

... in the latter comfort and hope are available.

I'm not so sure comfort is. If you never accomplish enough, you have the hope that someday you will, and then you'll be comfortable... but until that day, you're not. Hope may be available but comfort isn't.

Re: Just do it

[juldea.livejournal.com]

...the passion you bring to it will bring you fulfillment...

Not if you're so idealistic that nothing ever meets your standards.

Greys

[cristovau.livejournal.com]

Idealism shouldn't be treated as a black/white. Yes, sometimes it is pure, but most often the idealism-pessimism status varies. I'm not sure pure idealism would be good. That's a form of perfectionism that will keep you banging your head on the ceiling.

Positive idealism is about seeking the ideal, not acheiving it. A good idealist knows that his ideal is not real, but the model for what should be, and gains happiness in progress or fighting for it. If nothing else, idealism charges the soul with righteousness, the power that says "I'm cool and you suck." That is a force to be respected.

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

One can take comfort in being part-way to one's final goals even if one hasn't reached them; after all, there are many sub-goals you have achieved. Without ideals to work toward, you look at the things you have achieved and say "what's the point?"; with ideals, you can say "the point is over there, and this is progress toward over there".

[baronbrian.livejournal.com]

No.

Aside from the fact that cynics are not fun people to be around most of the time. It's fun for a while then the cynicism just gets annoying.

Besides, titling at windmills is one of the better pastimes of our species. Because occasionally you beat the windmill.

[crazybone.livejournal.com]

"A good day is any day that you're alive." - Paul Westerberg

Change is affected by action. If not for the ideals of the people who have gone before us, who made the effort to try, we would not have the world we have.
Despite its problems the modern world is in a lot of ways better than what has gone before (in the long view).
So long as there are still people who will speak out, to fight for
what's right despite what the popular opinion may be, I think that's something to be idealistic about.

[kestrell.livejournal.com]

There is a psychologist who studies optimism and pessimism, he wrote a book titled Learned Optimism, and it is interesting in that it asks a lot of the same sort of questions asked in this thread. Basically, what he found is that cynics and pessimists have a more accurate view of the world, but optimists accomplish more. As much as my personal experiences have taught me that there is a lot of yuck in the world, I want to accomplish a lot of things, and I can only do that by idealistically believing that my actions make a difference. Sometimes we all feel ineffectual, that we are accomplishing nothing, but I think that is all the more reason to have goals to aim for. There are always self-declared "realists" telling me I can't do things, but they have always been proven ultimately wrong, so obviously their idea of realism is slightly flawed. To a large extent, you have to believe something has the potential to be made a reality before it can become one.

Re: Just do it

[mr-teem.livejournal.com]

It's the journey, not the goal.

[goldbug.livejournal.com]

idealism without pragmatism is at least as dangerous as pragmatism without idealism. One without the other is at best useless, and at worst the entirety of every horror in human history.

thus says wileypeter in a comment here.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/wileypeter/48047.html?view=107439#t107439