Idealism: Interesting

[juldea]

I find it interesting that many of the responses to my question about idealism earlier were sayings of the, "Don't give up," variety.

Lack of idealism != hopelessness... It's change in what is hoped for.

Comments

[siderea]

Well, I didn't respond because I wasn't sure what you meant by idealism. So what do you mean by idealism? What are you characterising as idealistic?

[juldea.livejournal.com]

The behavior I'm talking about is mainly the act of holding up a perfect ideal of something and either refusing to grant worth to things that don't hold up to the ideal, or refusing to admit that the ideal wouldn't work in the world without concessions.

Example: Communism as laid out in TCM makes a perfect, wonderful world that leaves everyone happy. Therefore any political system other than this is inferior, and I won't vote for any candidate who doesn't completely endorse and desire it. Nor will I be at all pleased with any system other than pure book communism, even if what I'm offered is the closest thing possible to man.

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

That's beyond what I would think of as idealism; perhaps "blind idealism" or just "fanaticism". You can be an idealist in the sense of letting your ideal notion of how the world ought to be guide your work in the world while still maintaining a rational assessment of the value of your ideals and still valuing things that don't quite live up to them. Emotion is not a binary thing.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Erg. I want to continue this line of discussion but the only way I can is to go into personal issues that involve other people. Oh well.

[descant.livejournal.com]

In all seriousness [this time around anyway], idealism does imply a sort of naivete that isn't practical in Real Life^TM and could [and does] lead to many disappointments. Also, cynicism is often mistaken for realism, as if the only alternative to being idealistic is to be cynical. Removing those optimistic ideals and that pessimistic shell that color your view on life, you just have reality, things as they are.

Hope can be assigned within any temperment. People just use it differently. Idealists hope far too much. Cynics don't dare to hope. Realists don't need hope. Knowing and accepting how things are, you wouldn't hope for anything outlandishly different or ideal; instead, you do your goddamn best to make your dream happen.

Living with minimal hope != despair

[juldea.livejournal.com]

I like your first sentence and your entire second paragraph. It says things a lot like what I'm thinking.