Proverbs on Ideological Idealism

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Audio and Video Music:
Virtutes Instrumenti.
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1. Ideological idealism is an idealism that is so sure it is right that it is willing to impose its vision on an unwilling world.

2. Ideals ought to be mountains to guide one's chosen way, not blueprints for a prison to keep people behind bars for their own good.

3. Non-ideological idealists devote their lives first to people and then perhaps to an organization or cause. Ideological idealists devote their lives first to an organization or cause and then perhaps to people.

4. Cynicism, lust, and greed tend to cause less evil than ideological idealism since their evil is committed in pursuit of some limited selfish end, whereas the evil of ideological idealism is committed in pursuit of unachievable ends and therefore knows no bounds.

5. One ought not be frightened away from idealism by the dangers of ideological idealism since once the differences between them become apparent, it should not be difficult to devote oneself to one and avoid the other.

Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.

Audio and Video Music: Virtutes Instrumenti. By Kevin MacLeod. Performed by Kevin MacLeod at the Free Music Archive under an Attribution license.

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