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Idealisms Inevitable Clash with Reality

An Editorial Opinion Article Written for the Minneapolis Southside Pride

Omar Alansari-Kreger
I look at my laptop keyboard with a certain sense of awe. A computer unlocks and
delivers the diversity of the world to us in nanoseconds with very little effort. I look at my
keyboard as a gateway to the world. A place where I can project my thoughts and opinions about
the world as things happen. More often than not there is always so much going on that it
becomes difficult to keep up with current events. I often feel helplessly small whenever I try to
process events that consume faraway lands. What can I do to help displaced refugees that live in
fear and famine from my Minneapolis apartment?
The internet has allowed everyday people of diverse backgrounds to establish discussion
forums, political parties, and activist organizations. I like to think that our empathy will deliver
us to a better and more enlightened world. Yet, is the spirit of our intrapersonal resolve enough to
succeed against the odds of adversity that are hurled and stacked against us? At some point, the
real world will come knocking on the front door with a reality check in hand. Our ideas no
longer seem so indomitable when we are saturated by facts, figures, and statistics that arrive at a
penetrating inconvenience.
With that reality check, we are left with two different alternatives. The direction we
choose will ultimately define the strength of our intrapersonal resolve. We have the ability to
reevaluate our worldview in ways where we able to refine its development. As youths, we
approach the world with tremendous enthusiasm. However, we have not yet been exposed to the
corrupt machinations of the world! At that stage, we have nothing but the innocence of our
youth, but it is short lived. No matter how much we think we are prepared for the unanticipated,
nothing can avert that first ideological failure we will endure.
That describes our first wakeup call with reality. That usually occurs during our teenage
years or in our early twenties. Ideas lead to idealism, but the combination of both are not
reflective of an empirical reality. That is something we could collectively call the naked truth as
it is. Our worldview is broken down to pieces by the forces of an unforgiving world. Naturally,
we are inclined to jump personal defense mechanisms because at that critical stage in life it is the
only thing we have. At first, we dismiss our critics as cynics that have pessimistically burned out
from an adverse reality. Little do we know, our naivety fails to realize that they speak truths that
we are not yet prepared to accept.
Where does that leave us? Do we give up on the spirit of our inner idealist? Should we
just accept things as they are and go with the flow? Once our conception of the world is broken
down to its core, we are inclined to entertain a series of existential questions. That is broken
down in a very simple yet summated question: what do we really stand for? From there, we are
able to determine if our voice of critical opposition is pure. That will determine how our

oppositional platforms are formed, based, and supported. We then ask ourselves this: are we
protesting for ourselves or for others?
I have realized that when egos get in the way, our vision of a better and more just world
gets clouded. Sooner or later we find ourselves protesting for the sake of protesting without
actually understanding why we are protesting! Venerating out of rage and frustration only adds to
the instability of the world and once our ideas are broken down, it will be realized that the only
thing we have at our disposal is anger, nothing more. Tenacity is an obscure word, but if we
derive an impartially balanced appreciation of its meaning, our rage against the system, will be
much more sensible to us. In the end, rage and frustration will only lead to more rage and
frustration which does nothing but produce more instability to an already shaken world.
The triumph of our inner idealist must survive its first clash with reality. That is achieved through
an individually driven appreciation of the big picture; the basis of the latter is supported by truths
that encourage a tenacity of inner idealism.