Realists

 

Realism / Martiros Sarian/ Mountains

Can’t say that I am especially fond of folks who pride themselves on being “realists”.  Now, this isn’t a call to childish “when you wish upon a star” lives that currently takes pride of place among our fellow countrymen.  Nope, I am talking about the folks who are actually proud of the idea that they look at the world without dreams or the hope of something good happening.

Now, the pollyanna’s who think that they will live a Jetson’s life with green new deal icing are just barely less annoying mind you.  There is some hopefulness instilled in some of them that can be turned to practical use with quite a bit of effort.  

But back to the hard-bitten realist.  I have found that they run a little “winner-take-all” election in their head every time that they think of something.  The scenario that appears to have the highest probability is selected and any other scenario is immediately deprecated.  

Now, while this system may have the benefit of accurately predicting possible outcomes, it pretty much removes any possibility of human intervention.  I think that folks who pride themselves as realists would have been on the side of predestination in the European theological debates of the 16th and 17th centuries.

But I am a free-will man.  I am going to try and pick the “best” path and try.  I might not be as right as often as the hard-bitten realist, but I can’t see any reason to choose a path by the simple probability of it being “correct”.

Maybe this is an offshoot of democracy as it is practiced in the US today.  Winners take all and shove things down the losers throat.   

That is working super-well.