Idealism

I am getting tired of writing an article, so decided to blog for a while. SP, I'm sorry but I guess you have to wait for a little longer for it, because I am so stuck.

I should have blogged about this two weeks ago, after the Education At Large forum held at SMU. The gem of the day is arguably this: "In Singapore, idealism is an insult. When you call someone idealistic, it is definitely not a compliment."

Laughter and applause broke out among the audience. I laughed too, but suddenly I realised how sobering and sad it is.

Now, I don't believe that idealism and pragmatism is a zero-sum game. All ideals have some basic working principles in them, together with the limitations and assumptions. The problem is when we call something as "idealistic", it is probably because we have done the necessary calculations in our heads, to conclude that it is not worth the effort or time or money. However, is there only one way to address the problem? Is there any alternative way to look at it?

Note that we can do calculations very well, but we often fail to examine our perspectives and mindsets, and how they were influenced by various political rhetoric.

Therefore, not worth it (who says so and why?) = idealistic = useless, how we love equations.

How about putting forward this argument - idealism is actually pragmatism, we are actually looking for a long-term solution, or at least something that is more sustainable on a long-term basis.

I know this is rather incoherent, but hey I am thinking aloud. :)