idealism is an -ism, too

it's just never been seriously attempted. and for good reason: its very nature dictates that it cannot be implemented. but that's no reason not to try. "utopia" is a word that gets thrown around as an epithet, confusingly confused with the word "dystopia" in the minds of those who oddly desire not to live in utopia.

history shows, again and again, that nature points out the folly of men, and over and over, usually within a tragically short timespan, the human institutions built on the hopes and dreams of the best of us are infiltrated and subverted to service the greed and nightmares of the worst of us.

there are pockets of resistance throughout the world, where local cultures have decided to create utopias not ruled by greed and irrational fear. but no-one is independent, and those places are under constant threat of destruction by insane superpowers that have no choice but to impose their empire, or die.

humanity has always lived under the golden rule: he who has the gold makes the rules. in the USA, the proud tradition of democracy, put in place by the greatest practical idealists that the world has ever produced, has been infiltrated and subverted by The Money Party, which dangles just enough false-dichotomies in front of our noses to keep us divided in the only ways that do not matter: pro-choice vs pro-life, flat-tax vs progressive-tax, hawks vs doves, hippies vs squares, tea party vs occupy. and so we vote "left" or "right" and pat ourselves on the back for electing our guy, who then goes on to service the needs of those who donated the big dollars. not you. the same people the other guy was going to service.

he who has the gold, makes the rules, because that's the consensus reality we've all agreed to by participating in the rules made by those with the gold.