Idealistic vs. realistic

This is actually a piece on prudence, a virtue now most howlingly relevant, especially with the ongoing political mess that we are in. Not only our political leaders ought to know and live it. Needless to say, it's an indispensable quality of every politician. But also all of us need to live it, whether we are priests or laymen, professionals or farmers, young or old.

It's the virtue that precisely guides us in our decisions and actions, so that these would really fit our true, objective human dignity, and would really serve the common good.

Given our human nature, our actions are not simply personal, but also have social effects. They are not only completely temporal, but also have eternal effects. We just have to learn how to integrate these dimensions in our actions.

It's not easy, of course. But we can always learn. And the present crisis can be a good source of lessons, validated by historical facts, personal experiences and plain doctrinal teachings of the Church, the expert in humanity.

As the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church says, prudence is "the virtue that makes it possible to discern the true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means for achieving it." (547)

"Prudence makes it possible to make decisions that are consistent, and to make them with realism and a sense of responsibility for the consequences of one's action." (548)

It is a virtue that requires the mature exercise of thought and responsibility in an objective understanding of a specific situation and in making decisions according to a correct will.

The problem we seem to have now is that we have a lot of leaders, political and even ecclesiastical, who appear to get stuck with an idealistic mentality.

This means that they get entangled with one aspect of an issue, pursuing perhaps a very noble goal and upholding a very lofty value, but ignoring other aspects that unavoidably figure, and even significantly so, in an issue.

That's when we say they have become one-sided or narrow-minded or rigid in their views. That's when we say they seem to be up in the clouds or confined in some ivory tower, detached from the concrete details of real life.

They likely fail to correctly read the pulse of the times.

Idealistic persons often arrive at their conclusions or decisions without consulting others. They are prone to be guided only by their own personal, if not individualistic, criteria. They likely think what they have or know are enough to guide them. That's crazy, of course, especially in these complex times.

Thus, they often end up with simplistic ideas and rash judgments that may look brilliant in their minds. They fail to realize that these ideas many times are tainted with a lot of bias and prejudice, and carry the clever wiles of human pride, arrogance and vanity, the usual spoilers.

Of course, their views seldom work. If they do, it's just for a while. They will never last. Sooner or later, the infirmities and fallacies of their positions would be exposed.

What is truly needed is the virtue of prudence. Basic as it is, we need to strongly remind ourselves that this virtue necessarily involves at least three steps to clarify and evaluate situations, to inspire decisions and to prompt action.

Many leaders take dangerous short cuts, driven by strong passions more than by reason. They fail or inadequately do the needed reflection and consultation, then the evaluation that would analyze and judge situations in the light of the common good, if not of God's plans, and the decision-making.

To be prudent, we need to learn how to identify steps that can be taken in concrete political situations in order to put into practice the principles and values proper to life in society. This calls for a method of discernment.

Thus, there has to be constant dialogue with all parties concerned, recourse to appropriate social sciences and other tools to evaluate situations as objectively as possible. Then different choices should be identified and strategies made so as to resolve the problems as effectively as possible.

Prudence dictates that an absolute value must never be attributed to these choices because no problem can be solved once and for all. So, it's very important that we manage to dominate our passions so as to allow right reason to reign.

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