IDEALISMOLOGY 101
Winston Churchill said: “If you are not a liberal at twenty, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative at forty, you have no brain.” I’ll be 28 in August. I had no heart at twenty and it’s looking more and more inevitable everyday that I’ll be brainless at forty.There is something implicit in this quote that I’d like to address. Maybe Churchill intended it or maybe his words have just been co-opted by some of the Republican Baby-Boomers, but it goes like this:
Liberals are idealists. Conservatives are realists.
We are meant to understand that the idealism of youth is a phase. That it will eventually give way to the wisdom one can only get from life experience. Growing conservative doesn’t just go hand-in-hand with maturing, it is maturing. They are synonymous in the conventional wisdom.
This is horseshit.
What is Idealism? The dictionary says: “Impracticality by virtue of thinking of things in their ideal form rather than as they really are.” It is seeing the world in absolutes. It is over simplifying things. It is choosing fantasy over reality.So the question is, who does this behavior describe, liberals or conservatives? On the spectrum from idealism to realism, which party has set up its headquarters at the childishly idealistic end? The answer, of course, is both.
Instead of a one dimensional spectrum, picture a bike wheel, the axle is realism and each spoke extends outward to some unique brand of idealism. Each one of us has picked a spoke, and each spoke has it’s own flavor of fantasy. Some are worse than others.
It might seem like I am suggesting that being a realist is where it’s at; that the center of the wheel is some oasis of enlightenment. I am not. Where there is no idealism, there are no ideals. Pretending we live in a black-and-white world is bad enough, but seeing everything in the exact same shade of gray would be unbearable.
What to do? We must choose our spoke carefully and, despite the centrifugal force, hang on with white knuckles to keep from slipping too far into any brand of comfortable delusion, be it liberal or conservative. And we should start by debunking Churchill’s mantra.
Liberals must not sit quietly while unwavering patriots paint them with the 'idealistic brush' and write them off as naive. These people who believe that God blesses our nation above others, that we are living in the greatest nation on earth with a government that's utmost foreign policy goal is to spread freedom and liberate the oppressed, that we are chosen by providence to lead the world; are these people not idealists?
Liberals must break it to them softly that they too, by definition, are idealists and that the most dangerous brand of idealism, as modern history has shown, is nationalism.
Besides, I would argue with Mr. Churchill that the heart and brain only tell half the story. I say, look at the skin. If you ask me, the thickness of skin, by that I mean the ability to accept unpleasant truths, is even more revealing. In our polarized times, this may be the most important measurement of man.
By Robert - 7/31/2006
6 Comments:
i have been told that quote (but had it linked to political parties). i like it, because explains that liberals have hearts/emotions and use them. see, because a heart is not something you can exhibit on paper or base on tangible things. so being liberal shows we have a heart. then for someone that wants to say i have no brain: fine. i do. you can talk to me. i will show you i have a brain.
I've been having that same conversation with myself over the past weekend - and I'm 45.
Here's the bakalar corollary:
“If you are not a liberal at twenty, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative at forty, you have no brain, and if after 10 years you don't realize that your first choice was the correct one, you have neither - and never will”
"Liberals are idealists. Conservatives are realists." - Bob, I agree that that is the common perception and it is horseshit.
I think some conservatives are idealists in the sense that they feel the values that are best for them are best for everyone.
Kyle/Bob –
I would also say that some conservatives are idealists in the way such that they believe in ideas like meritocracy and the power and potential benefits of competition and free markets. Needless to say this is not a blanket statement of conservatives, but for some people who do truly believe in these ideals, it is not for lack of heart or compassion that they do not always agree with more “liberal” policies, but for faith and devotion in their own ideals. I don’t fully agree with the view expressed by the Churchill quote because I don’t think the two (following one’s heart and brain, being idealistic and realistic) must necessarily be distinct and separate. I think it is possible to both think and feel and that too often people are ready to categorize someone as strictly one or the other (as eluded to in Bob’s post also). I would like to think that I am not crazy for holding onto my beliefs and still showing compassion for others.
In Churchill's day "conservative" and "Liberal" may have had slightly different meanings.
Today, you need a score card to tell them apart. Ex: The "conservatives" (read Neos) are the most wasteful "liberal" spenders this nation has ever seen. And god only knows the makeup of today's "Liberal" - which (the label) has been systematically demonized by the moral right.
What may eventually save us is if the true conservatives stop tolerating neocon usurpation of the "republican" party.
Good post Robert
Great point, Petey
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