Being Idealistic vs. Being Realistic

When analyzing current socio-political events I look deeper than just the surface issues. I look for what Marx referred to as the "superstructure". I look for psycho-social/cultural influences on the trends and ideas of today. I recognize two fundamental approaches to life: Idealistic and Realistic. Being idealistic means denying reality and recognizing only the psychologistic. It further means being epistemologically skeptical (nothing can be known with certainty) and ethically relative (the denial of universal rights and wrongs). Politically the idealistic pretend that the universe is malevolent (scary and unpredictable) which gives rise to the presumption for change (success can only be had by luck and/or cheating) and therefore the revolutionary drive for the perfect society. The idealistic are found mainly on the left but I contend that many conservatives are in fact idealistic as are Libertarians and Objectivists (www.theobjectivestandard.com). All of this is important because as Ayn Rand (www.aynrand.org) noted the way to defeat a bad idea is to pull it out by its psycho-epistemological roots. You're welcome

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