idealist

Youth tend to be idealists, thinking it's possible to rid the political system of the corrupt, it's possible to get industry to avoid harming the environment. Then they find out there are too many selfish idiots who don't care for there to be any chance for the world to be nice and that the world sucks, always has, and always will.

What is odd is that I've seen people who use the term idealist as an insult, as if it is somehow a bad thing to believe that the world can be made better, and that we should, for some reason, prefer the world as it currently is.

The only thing we can directly experience or interact with are thoughts and ideas, so they are the most real. What we know about the world consists entirely of memories of experiences.

Idealism is cool--better than dualism--but I prefer materialism.

I*de"al*ist, n. [Cf. F. id'ealiste.]

1.

One who idealizes; one who forms picturesque fancies; one given to romantic expectations.

2.

One who holds the doctrine of idealism.

© Webster 1913.