Why the world needs idealists

It is better to strive for what’s best than surrender to moral and social erosion. It’s in the journey toward the ideal that we improve ourselves and those around us.
 

A rockstar was once quoted as saying: “People just rip each other to shreds over the years. Nothing kills a relationship like commitment.”This rockstar's anti-idealist quote and its unapologetic pessimism gives it a culturally appealing modern flavor. It begins by being grounded in the kind of day-to-day life many experience: dysfunctional marriages and relationships that have no spiritual framework and are often filled with verbal and emotional abuse. Then, in a profoundly cynical and clever twist of words, “commitment” is presented as the problem that tears people apart rather than the glue that is meant to keep people together.
 

People Want to Talk Exceptions, Not Rules
 

'These are just a few examples of how modern society often reacts whenever the topic of living toward a moral ideal comes up. “You’re not living in the real world,” they will say. “You’re being too idealistic. That’s not how the world is. Not every family has a mom and a dad to take care of a child. Some people steal and kill. Others lie and cheat. Don’t talk about how people should be because that’s not how it is.” It sounds logical, indeed realistic. But it’s missing the point entirely.
 

Let me give you an example of a healthy combination of idealism and realism:

A woman says she cannot breastfeed due to an abnormality in her breast. However, rather than falsely claiming that bottle-feeding is equally as good as breastfeeding (which it's not) in an attempt to make herself feel more comfortable, she instead actually acknowledges that breastfeeding is superior and that ideally babies should be fed and nurtured in that natural, biological, God-designed way (despite the fact that in her situation she unfortunately cannot). This women displays an honesty that most people don't have. Many would try and justify everything they do as 'equally as good as' an obvious ideal, all in the name of 'realism' (or rather, trying to make themselves feel more comfortable).
 

Obviously a combination of idealism and realism is needed (acknowledging and aiming for the ideal, plus promoting it and implementing it wherever possible; whilst using realistic strategies whenever needed)...

....but, far too often realism is used as an excuse to compromise on sound principals.
 

Realism Is Too Often Used As An Excuse to Be Lazy
 

'In our rush to appear well-grounded, rational, and “tolerant,” we seem to have lost our sense of ideals. Right now, for instance, any talk in the public forum about how a child deserves the essential nurturing that both a mother and a father provide in their own unique way is seen as “insensitive” to single parents and “gay-bashing” to those who identify as homosexual, despite the obvious truth of the ideal. At the root of this phenomenon is a kind of entrenched hopelessness that masquerades as a good thing, passed off as “world-weariness” or “realism.” In the midst of our clamor to “get with the times,” an occasional reminder of how we should ideally live is seen as pesky and annoying, something that we inherently know deep down to be true, but also know how difficult it can be to implement. There’s comfort in hiding behind realism—it can seem to excuse us from the hard work of growing in virtue or aiming for ideals as close as possible. We often fail to realize how dangerous this attitude is. Whether we admit it or not, we are unwittingly conditioning ourselves to settle for less than we are capable of, and imply that there is no hope for the world (so don’t spend too much energy trying to be better).
 

If At First You Don’t Succeed…
 

To cry “unrealistic” is to mistakenly think that one must be successful in every attempt at living toward an ideal. We know that perfectly achieving an ideal isn't always possible on this earth—the point is in trying to reach the ideal knowing that, however far we fall short, it is better to strive for what’s best than surrender to moral and social erosion. It’s in the journey toward the ideal that we improve ourselves and those around us. That’s the whole point of having ideals in the first place—to ennoble society and inform our personal lives with much greater dignity and fulfillment through the cultivation of virtue.
So, at the risk of being called “naïve” (or worse), I say that it’s perfectly okay, indeed vital, to be idealistic.
To be anything less would be to not only sell ourselves short,
but the world as well.