Am I just a naive idealist?

[xDarc]

I believe in soul mates, true love, world peace, and Democracy. I believe organized religion doesn't have to be bad. I believe you must live your life with honor and morality. I believe that the legal system can work. I believe in the goodness of humanity.
Tell me escapists, am I just naive? Does the world really work this way, or am I just living in a fantasy?

You're naive. I was like you once. Shit. I've even marched on washington. Persistence would make the world a better place.

Now I don't watch TV, don't surf for news, don't read anything but fiction, don't follow politics, I don't vote anymore and my hair is prematurely gray. Life is so much better when you just live in your bubble.

Sure, in 30 or 40 years I won't know how to use a virtual reality interface or holographic quantum computer. But who gives a shit? What impact does it really have on your life?

2000 Presidential Inaugural "Parade." The 3rd time I went to DC.

 

[Kollega]

I believe in these things too, or at least that we all should work towards them. Most people are stupid, not evil - i believe that in time, we can sort this all out. There was some kind of improvement compared to Middle Ages, don't you all think? Just because the world is not a nice place does not mean it should remain GRIM and DARK. We can change it for the best. Someone above me suggested you to be an engineer - and i second that. We need more idealists to create our future.

As for true love, i thought everyone but most hardcore whiners believe in that.

And to everyone who dosen't, think where would we be without a desire for improvement.

 

[ThatPurpleGuy]

Sorry but your are a little naive about these sort of ideals. While alot of them are great on paper and in theory, when the human factor is thrown into the mix alot of this turns to shit in reality.

You also used the words "I believe" alot. I guess you are still pretty young but now I don't "believe" in anything. You will just eventually see things for how they are unless you are one of these starry eyed people that never really gets over the crap they were force fed in university.

 

[Zyxx]

Maybe, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Like Puddleglum said, "... babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia."

Even if your ideals are illusions (which I'm not saying they are,) if holding on to them makes your life better, then that's worth something.

 

[OldRat]

Well, since you asked, yes. I believe most of those things are just nice little ideals created by people. Not sure there is any clear definition of soul mates, but I guess it goes together with true love. Love, as I see it, is nothing but a biological reaction. It's a nice thing and that doesn't make it any less nice, but I cannot see it as anything else than a refinement of lust and the need to breed. And possibly fear of dying alone and the need to belong.
I'm not sure why you need to believe in democracy, though, seeing most countries already have that in one form or the other. It already exists. Unless you mean democracy that is nice for everybody and doesn't just do nice things for the majority. Then no, because democracy, by definition, is "majority deciding for the good of majority". What you are looking for is Aristotle's definition of polity, in which the majority decides for the good of all.
As for the other things, I won't be telling my opinion on each and every one individually. Suffice to say that yes, in my opinion you are an idealist. That's not necessarily a bad thing, other than the fact you'll be dissapointed. But then, aren't we all sometimes?

 

[asinann]

Yes, you are. All those things would be nice, but they are all contrary to human nature.

 

[Fappy]

No one can tell you how the world works, because no one person fully understands it. You can believe whatever you want. I personally am probably more optimistic than most.

 

[LloydEsaka]

I believe in all that wonderful stuff except world peace. Theres no way to make every head of a country happy. I will also go ahead and say that honor is a flawed concept because it keeps someone from doing the right thing (though the right thing can be misconstrued, I'll go ahead and say that I'm using it in an idealistic way).

 

[KarumaK]

I believe in soul mates, true love, world peace, and Democracy. I believe organized religion doesn't have to be bad. I believe you must live your life with honor and morality. I believe that the legal system can work. I believe in the goodness of humanity.
Tell me escapists, am I just naive? Does the world really work this way, or am I just living in a fantasy?

Naive, possible(not likely), never, maybe, true, wrong, true, true(just remember this doesn't mean bad is nonexistant).

Those would be my answers for you.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Well perhaps a little naive, but I certainly won't fault you for believing in those things. I'm certainly with you regarding the whole living life with honour and morality. As for true love, well I certainly cling to the hope that it exists, but I'm not so sure I'll ever find it.
I personally think the legal system is too soft and Democracy, well it sounds good on paper, but as others have said, once you apply the human factor the whole thing goes to shit.
It's nice that you want to believe in the goodness of humanity, but one thing you have to realize is that humanity has had a rather dark history and even if you ignore that, you still must realize that often times things aren't always as cut & dry as "good" and "evil". In fact more often than not, you'll get a lot of grey area.
Now having said all that, don't give up on your beliefs; just try and keep things in perspective.

 

[Aesir23]

Soul mates and democracy... Plausible. World Peace? Not gonna happen.

 

[Sjakie]

I believe in soul mates, true love, world peace, and Democracy. I believe organized religion doesn't have to be bad. I believe you must live your life with honor and morality. I believe that the legal system can work. I believe in the goodness of humanity.
Tell me escapists, am I just naive? Does the world really work this way, or am I just living in a fantasy?

Keep dreaming, dont ever wake up. The real world will only scar(e) you

 

[KillerH]

I agree that all of those points are true except the goodness of humanity. Unfortunately that lack of goodness amongst the general public means that most of your other ideals will fail. Sorry to break it to you.

 

[SonicKoala]

I believe in soul mates, true love, world peace, and Democracy. I believe organized religion doesn't have to be bad. I believe you must live your life with honor and morality. I believe that the legal system can work. I believe in the goodness of humanity.
Tell me escapists, am I just naive? Does the world really work this way, or am I just living in a fantasy?

When it comes to the whole "love" thing, I'm quite the romantic, so I'm inclined to agree with you on the first two things. As for "world peace", it's a nice idea, but I don't see that ever happening. As for democracy, although it's not always the most functional system, humanity has yet to produce anything better that actually works when put into practice (don't bother throwing ideological theory at me, you FASCISTS).

As for all your last points from "organized religion doesn't have to be bad" to "the inherent goodness of humanity", I think that all those things are more or less true. Of course, there are ALWAYS going to be exceptions, but for the most part I believe those things to be true. So, yeah, you're a little naive, but I also don't think you're "living in a fantasty". You've kind of struck a happy medium, and I think it's best if you just stay there. No need to depress yourself by adapting an unnecessarily pessimistic view of the world.

 

[Lonan]

I believe in soul mates, true love, world peace, and Democracy. I believe organized religion doesn't have to be bad. I believe you must live your life with honor and morality. I believe that the legal system can work. I believe in the goodness of humanity.
Tell me escapists, am I just naive? Does the world really work this way, or am I just living in a fantasy?

It partially works like this, but to say it always does is incredibly naive idealism.

 

[klakkat]

In my point of view, you are very naive. I believe in selfishness, irrationality, and hypocrisy for all humanity. Though, I'm not technically a cynic because I also believe that has been working well for us so far.

 

[Soviet Steve]

My opinion:

Soul mates: Meh, you can be good friends with someone but there isn't a magic puppeteer who will guide you to them.

True love: The romantic version does not exist, but I can testify that if you find someone whoose mind works well with yours it can be a fulfilling relationship.

World peace: Very naive, humans will always find reasons for quarreling.

Democracy: It's not perfect but it works better than the things we tried beforehand.

Organized religion: Very naive, though I'm an atheist so this probably makes my viewpoint irrelevant from your perspective.

Honor and morality: Somewhat naive. You have to be prepared to be stepped on and have countermeasures if you want that to keep going.

Legal system: Not perfect, but again it works pretty well considering what we have been doing up until this point.

Goodness of humanity: Not so naive. You have to recognize that humanity is capable of evil and is programmed to do it by nature. The good in humans is what seperates us from beasts and is something to be held most dear.

Tell me escapists, am I just naive? Does the world really work this way, or am I just living in a fantasy?

You're somewhere in the middle in my opinion, you should take a skeptical view of things important to you. If you aren't fully practiced with critical thinking I can recommend www.skeptoid.com - It's a podcast though if your bandwidth is limited in some way then there are transcripts as well.

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

I believe in soul mates, true love, world peace, and Democracy. I believe organized religion doesn't have to be bad. I believe you must live your life with honor and morality. I believe that the legal system can work. I believe in the goodness of humanity.
Tell me escapists, am I just naive? Does the world really work this way, or am I just living in a fantasy?

Soul mates: Nah, I don't believe in them.
True Love: I believe in love, but not "true" love as some kind of different love. To me, true love is just regular love that lasts.
World Peace: It's a great idea, but I don't think human nature will allow it to happen. There will always be people who think they can get what they want by beating the shit out of someone else.
Democracy: It really sucks. Too bad the alternatives either aren't realistic or suck even worse.
Organized Religion: It's not a bad thing. It can be a good thing, as long as people don't abuse it. It's just too bad it's so easy to abuse, since it makes certain people very easy to manipulate.
Honor and Morality: It's a lovely thought, but unfortunately that's not the way the world works. In my experience these things almost never work for you, but people are more than willing to use them against you.
Legal System: There's too much conflict of interests at work for it to work as it should, but I admit I can't think of any way to improve it. There are several systems that are worse than others (I personally disapprove strongly of stuff like the 'jury of peers' system), but there's no such thing as an infallible justice system.
Goodness of Humanity: Yes and No. I do believe most people strive to be good, however that's not all they strive for. They also strive to be happy, they strive to fulfill their own desires, and they strive for a million little goals that noone else cares for. Most of the time there's nothing wrong with it, but when two or more of those things start to conflict, they have to choose. I think that's where 'evil' comes from... Not from the desire to do evil, but from the desire to do good being pushed aside in order to cater to different, often more selfish desires.

Is it naive to believe in all of those things? I don't know. Maybe. I don't think it matters. To me, it doesn't matter what you believe, but how you deal with that belief. How do your beliefs shape your actions? That's what matters, since in the end your actions define who you are to the world.

 

[rabidmidget]

I believe in soul mates, true love, world peace, and Democracy. I believe organized religion doesn't have to be bad. I believe you must live your life with honor and morality. I believe that the legal system can work. I believe in the goodness of humanity.
Tell me escapists, am I just naive? Does the world really work this way, or am I just living in a fantasy?

I envy your optimism, whether those ideologies ever come true or not, there will always need to be people who believe they can come true

It's like Ghandi said "Be the change you want to see in the world"