Idealism and Politics (i.e. Deaf-Right, Religious Right)

As I was reading around the blogs and I truly noticed that many Americans (including me)are idealists. I noticed that this is especially within the deaf community because I found that there are some hard-core deaf idealists out there. I thought "AG Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing" was bad but I also notice that "deaf-right" individuals are just as bad as AG Bell.

This is the same for everyone else who are doing the same thing whatever their motives might be. Lack of balance is often the direct consequence of over-emphasis on certain topics while ignoring others that are related. There is a fine balance between legalism and liberalism. Both are wrong. Everything is allowable but not everything is allowable. People are really confused the balance between what the world ought to be.

One good example is National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is doing a great job keeping the balance politically for ALL those who have suffered hearing loss whether they use ASL or not.

Idealism basically means holding on to a set of beliefs which are a rigid system of the way life is "supposed to be" or "should be". Belief system you have adopted about how things "should be done" which often gets challenged by the way things are in reality. I also noticed that many idealists find it difficult to fully accept anyone the way they really are and chronically attempt to control them so that they can become the way they "should ideally be" which often leads to become fatalistic, hostile, pessimistic, and negativistic attitudes.

I truly believe that "over-idealism" is a control issue and that it is at the root of our need to overcontrol situations, people, places, or things in order to ensure that they come into compliance with our ideal image of the way reality is supposed to be. Adolf Hitler was one example of "over-idealism".

Politically, to me idealism is freedom without people telling me what to do or how should I live my life. One of my favorite Presidents of all time was Abraham Lincoln, he had one idealism that lead to civil war. Do you remember what that was? I truly believe this kind of idealism is truth. He wanted to abolish slavery.

The truth is, true freedom does not come without a cost, true security does not come without freedom.

I remember reading that Martin Luther was against idealism within the Church. He contended for a Christianity of churches that would embrace freedom. Christianity of churches that would renounce force and live only by the Word and the Spirit. That the Scripture is the only standard for all issues of personal life and that we’re going to stand with the Scripture. This is what Luther said: "I say that God wants no compulsory service. I say it a hundred thousand times: God wants no compulsory service. No one can or ought to be compelled to believe. But, a soul of man is an eternal thing above all that is temporal; therefore, only by an eternal Word, must it be governed and grasped."

In this world, we are clashing between realism and idealism. To me, I am a centrist politically because centrists are realists who tend to accept conditions as they are and to define the ends and means of policy by the measures of anticipated gains, costs, necessities, and chances of success. Centrism usually refers to the political ideal of promoting moderate policies which land in the middle ground between different political extremes. As a Centrist, I personally desire to be well-balanced, calm, careful, steady, and sane while choosing my options politically.