realistic

 Is it realistic to expect the ideal? In my opinion that is the problem we are facing these days. You can call it by many names, woke seems to be the current term bantered about, to mean just that. I present the ideal and insist reality adjust to that. Well, that's not going to happen I can tell you that much. Pipe dreams is what they used to be called. They were the fantasies people experienced while smoking opium! Guess not much has changed in the world after all, just the delivery method of those pipe dreams. They are apparently government sponsored these days. They even have certified classes being taught in colleges and universities that are nothing more than pipe dreams. Non-binary comes to mind. Truth is you are one of two things! There really isn't a third option. Yes ideally we could all be whatever we dreamed we were or wished we were but that isn't reality. 

 Now there is nothing wrong with trying to be whatever you wish to be, or working to achieve your dreams, but you have to be realistic about those efforts. Expecting reality to conform to the rules of fantasy isn't one of those. That's just one of the reasons we have so many warning labels on every product imaginable. When you place food in a microwave oven, cook on high for twenty minutes, it will be hot! It will not come out at the ideal temperature for handling or eating! That is reality! Placing an aluminum ladder against active power lines can get you killed is another reality. When biology says you are a male, you are a male. It really doesn't change anything if you think otherwise. And another favorite of mine is this simple fact, equal opportunity doesn't mean equal results. All men are created equal, that's a fact but not all men wind up equal. Shocker isn't it? 

 All of this applies to government as well. No government is ideal. Just as no one is perfect, neither is government. Government has to deal with reality. Our government is deeply in debt, a reality. The idea that government should provide food, housing, clothing, medical care, and a bi-weekly stipend to every citizen is just ludicrous. Is that realistic? This notion of having the top 1% pay the way for the other 99% is equally ridiculous. The best way to increase the security of the citizens is to defund the police? Ideally criminals don't commit crimes. In the real world they do that all the time, why? Because they are criminals. Choosing not to enforce a law doesn't make the action non-criminal anymore than a man wearing a dress makes him a woman! Realistic vs Idealistic. 

 And then there is the question of history. Ideally man would have never have made a mistake. There would have been wars. The entire world would be joined in singing Kum Ba Ya. That isn't what happened. You can't change that. You can not change yesterdays actions with todays dreams. Fact is the past owes you nothing. It is up to you to learn from the past not attempt to rewrite it. Tearing down statues, erecting monuments, waving flags and banners are all vehicles to promote ideals. That is what they are designed to represent. It is also the reason they are eventually replaced. Consider the fact that we are busily engaged in erasing from history Generals of the civil war, well if they were on the wrong side anyway. When they were erected what did they represent? They represented an ideal, that men should fight for their freedom to live their lives and direct their government as they want. That is what was being represented. Yes, they lost that war, were they wrong? It wasn't until 1957, ninety two years later that the government declared those Confederate soldiers as United States Veterans! That's the reality of that situation. In less than sixty years the idealists have decided to change that once again, choosing to vilify them. Yes, they are Veterans, same as all other veterans that is the reality. So when you are taking down those statues and monuments you are erasing reality in a misguided attempt at an ideal. Ideally we would all love and respect one another right? Isn't that the woke thing? Well, only when that supports idealistic pipe dreams. History isn't ideal, but it is real, that's what happened, deal with it and move on. 

 It's way past time. I was told, on more than one occasion, to pull my head out of buttocks and take a good look around. Good advice and advice I didn't always heed. Well all I can say about that is history taught me a lesson, several lessons. Reality reared its' ugly head and smacked me square in the face. I haven't forgotten about that. I don't expect history to change to suit me. Ah geez, it wasn't fair. Truth is fair is what you make it. Fair doesn't mean you get your way. You see fair applies to everyone in a different way. What is fair for you isn't necessarily fair to me. That's the difference between ideally and realistically. Wake up people, quit dreaming and start dealing with reality. That's the only way progress gets made.