Introduction

A professor once told me that she would rather be an idealist than anything else in the world. This was in my first year of university, sitting in a humanities seminar, one of only two or three other science majors (and the only engineering major) in the entire room. I had been accepted into this 2-year honors program to study a wide range of subjects, from postmodernist theory to art historical critique, linguistic models to feminist philosophy - possibly the only education I would get in these area before signing away the rest of my life to the hard sciences and mathematics. It was a truly enjoyable experience.

But more than all the readings, that one line stayed with me throughout. Idealism. To believe in the power of ideas. Often used nowadays to describe someone with his or her head in the clouds, and yet, our society could not function without these same ideas forming the basis for all our actions, words, thoughts, experiences. Wars have been fought over capital, yes, but behind that capital is a certain ideal of who should and why they should - a perfect abstraction. The only question is how to temper the lofty goals of idealism to fit within the constraints of humanity's own flaws.

That's where the cynical comes in.

I looked up "cynic" in the dictionary and found a less-than-kindly definition. Several other sources came up with similar results, emphasizing "bitterness," a certain "habitually negative outlook" and a belief in the "selfishness behind all motives." One even gave a medical definition (apparently rare nowadays, for obvious reasons) "resembling the actions of a snarling dog."

Ironically, the origin of the word lay in the Greek philosophical group of thought that believed virtue was the only necessity for happiness.

Perhaps the best description in my case, then, is to take the cynic as one who questions the motives of others. Hardly an argument for misanthropy, right? But also one grounded in a practical view of humanity shaped through experience (for we all come into the world fundamentally as idealists, I believe) and our own limitations. We assume the worst because we want to protect that which is best, the beautiful, the good, the virtuous - the ideals that have become so rare in a world where "genuine" is used as a marketing tool. We want to make sure that that which we accept as the truth is truly the real deal. In that view, the cynic is the ultimate idealist.

The essence of my outlook is therefore this - idealism must be tempered by critique, a solid grounding in what can be done and how it might be done, along with what should be done to rectify the essence of humanity's problems.

To that end, I have started this journal. Not so much to solve the world's dilemmas as to elucidate some of my own, posit grand ideas that might or might not be possible and offer philosophical underpinnings for my academic musings, which may or may not ultimately bear fruit in the future. Realistic goals do matter, but here, I can write down all those lofty ideals which the current reality does not have room for yet. For while society grows more and more materialistic as a whole, and one increasingly questions the motives behind any person's purported altruistic intent (as if we are all Avon salesmen trying to make a buck), there still remains a small spark of dreamy-eyed idealism within me.

And, as Pandora discovered when she let loose all the evils on the world, Hope will not be silenced.