Monday, April 11, 2011

Ideals, Politics, and Community

Ideals!  We all have our ideals.  Our ideals are what carry us forward, what energizes us.  We wish, we hope, we dream according to our ideals, the ideal house, the ideal job, the ideal partner, lover, friend, spouse, or family.  We aim for the top and the top is that image we hold as the ideal gain that will be our best, our highest reward.

We also have our detractors, those who “rain on our parade.”  They are unbelievers, negative, and cynical, road blockers to our dreams.  Or, is it that they dream differently than we do?  Seeing things differently, they nurture a different set of values and are aiming for a different set of goals.  Even worse, perhaps we discover that they are not only nurturing a different set of dreams but that we are also in competition with them.  Us and them, competing for the same place at the same time, grabbing at the same material and resources available that is necessary to reach our dream.  What then?

Ideology!  I’ve noticed that this word is fast becoming a bad word.  In some sense it’s always been suspect.  A person who is too idealistic is questionable, perhaps “not all there,” pie in the sky and all that sort of thing.  We want practical “can do” people, realistic.  Let us stick to what is doable.

But even the Disney Corporation understands our need to dream and to dream big.  They’re constantly bombarding kids with that very message on the Disney channel.  Watch it and see.  Yes, we need to dream, to have our ideals and to aim high.  It’s a good way to get our creative blood flowing and moving upward and forward.  Our ideals ignite that All American, Can Do spirit; “Let’s roll.  Just do it.  Go for it!”

So, ideology need not necessarily be a bad word, in and of itself.  Let’s hope it doesn’t become just another political trigger-word to pounce on and denounce as a political foe.  Still, the point is well taken.  Idealists tend to be impractical, passionate, and therefore very difficult to work with.  They usually want “all or nothing.”  No compromise, no negotiating, no in-between or middle ground—perfection!  Talk about unbending and unyielding.

Still, somewhere there is a balance between one’s ideals and dreams, and the stuff of the real world.  Being an idealist is no bad thing.  But holding others hostage to one's precious ideals can be.  Being idealistic while attacking, denouncing, and condemning your neighbor for not sharing the same ideals as you have; now that’s a problem.  One’s ideal of perfection can be another’s perfect nightmare.

What’s the ideal temperature setting for a house in the middle of winter, 75 degrees, 68, or 60?  How much should one spend on a precious daughter’s wedding, 10, 20, 50, or 100 thousand dollars?  What’s the ideal vacation, a week’s cruise on an ocean liner or a week in a lakeside mountain cabin?  What’s the ideal computer, an Apple or PC?  Where’s the ideal place to live, East coast or West, or somewhere in between?  It depends, doesn’t it?  Who’s asking, who’s making the decision, what's the relationship?

No, it’s not ideology, in and of itself, that gets us into trouble in the world of politics.  It’s the way, the manner in which one holds to his/her precious ideals that causes a breakdown in community.  “My way or the highway” never works very well in a marriage.  Neither does it work very well in politics.  Are we a community of friends and neighbors, building a united nation?  Or are we a cluster of self-interested cell-groups, in and among enemy territory, conquering and being conquered, winning here and losing there, gearing up for capture and re-capture?  I fear that it is the latter.

Yes, we all have our ideas and our ideals.  Our mistake is thinking that only our ideals are pure and right while theirs are wrong and perhaps even evil.  My dreams may not be the same as their dreams but they deserve as much respect as mine, do they not?  They just dream differently.  So, since we only have so much to go around, limited resources, how are we going to distribute fairly and justly?  And if community goods and services come with a heavy price tag, how shall we adequately share the cost burden as a community?  Let’s go ahead and talk about ideals, values, and priorities.  But let’s do away with one-way talk: “I’m right, you’re wrong; I’m good, you’re bad; I’m better, you’re worse; I’m good for America, and you’re not!”  America is bigger than that.  And so must we all be.

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