Practical Idealism

Sometimes, the prospect of living in this world scares me. Today I rallied against my father in a heated discussion of practicality versus idealism. While I staunchly held onto my belief that one needs a balance of both to lead a contented life, a part of me resonated with his opinion what Friedrich Nietzsche once summed up in a single sentence, 

"If life is a struggle for existence in which the fittest survive, then strength is the ultimate virtue and weakness is the ultimate fault".

I knew this for I had the misfortune of learning it the hard way during my National Service. There I saw how virtues of fairness and altruism were overpowered by the selfish need to make one's own life better and easier, even if it was at the expense of others. If these acts were limited to the minority, one could keep some faith in humanity, but when you see almost everyone, even those you consider friends, tireless in the pursuit of self preservation, you know the ideal world of meritocracy and fairness was simply a big fat lie. The truth was that we lived in an increasingly judgemental society, where despite all the talk about character, the final measure of any man or woman was by what he or she possessed, and to augment that, one needed more practicality than idealism and more selfishness than altruism.

This is what my father knew and this is what he struggled to convinced me about. For to admit it openly would go against certain values that he tried to nurture in me. Though at the same time, like any parent would want to, he wanted to spare me the shock of living in a cut-throat, competetive society, to be not left out. Unknown to him, I knew this already. Known to him, I was perhaps still unprepared for it.

I had considered the options to this challenge before. One was to break away from the system, though that required a lot of moral courage. To live by one's own expectations would be to disregard the opinions of others, and that meant the severance of relationships. A small social circle was ideal, but rather rebellious and impractical in our increasingly connected and dependant world. 

The other option was to dive right into the rat race and fight it out. However, simply from the very people around me, I saw that it only led to or would only lead to regrets and remorse over what-i-should-have-done. Strength did not always translate to happiness.

And all that was left was the middle path, the balance between practicality and idealism, between selfishness and altruism. Though in this path, every decision was all the harder to make and with each choice came a consequence and a dare to face it.

I guess Nietzsche was right in one sense. Whichever path one takes, the only way forward is through strength.