My Ideal World

My roommates and I had one of our vigorous discussions last night. I am the resident realist-moderate, Mark is the resident idealist-moderate, and Matt is the resident idealist-liberal. They made the mistake of asking me (a realist) an idealistic question: "What is the ideal world like?" As a general rule, my ideals are based on a simple standard:

1. There IS a concrete, black and white code of moral rights/wrongs and WE are the ones who insert the gray areas for our own sinful convenience.
2. Each man should be held accountable for every decision he makes
3. Everything humane is subjective

The problems that I see in our society seem to be the good things that other people see. I see progress as a bad thing, because it has been mismanaged by human kind. Other people see progress as a good thing, because it "makes things easier." To me, life is never meant to be easy, but instead, it is meant to be a series of difficult lessons only to be understood at the very end. I have been called a cynic, but cynicism is synonymous with realism (un-idealistic). Reality is harsh, so a realistic perspective tends to be harsh. Many people claim to believe that the world is changing in a negative direction, it is the realists to choose to look past the human element of global change and see it for its absolutes rather than its man-made relativity.
This being said, my "Ideal World" would not allow for the development of convenient ideologies. People would recognize that there are concrete rules of existence that we are ALL subject to (i.e. the Ten Commandments) and that we are not entitled to our own opinions on these rules. Furthermore, each human being would be held accountable for his life decisions and efforts. In this world, people would be forced to live an active life, paying the price for, or reaping the benefits of, their decisions and efforts. Who lives the fuller life:

1. the man who lives a life void of any ambition, surviving to be 100 years old on welfare, but never holds a job, nor builds a family.

1. the man who works hard for everything he receives, builds and supports his family, and visibly sees the results of his actions, but survives to be only 50 years of age.

Are we so weak that we must be coddled by our government? Are we so weak that we find comfort in the availability of free lifestyles? And, are we so weak that we cannot conform to the greater rules of existence (nature or God) and must make our own out of convenience?
This is why I see progress as regression. We sacrifice the greater things in life by "making everything easier." We allow people to leech off of society and we support new laws made for convenience. We are slowly creeping into the fat suits of the human characters in the movie "Wall-e." Nobody is accountable anymore. People are only accountable when they choose to be and even then, it's is not true accountability but self standards that we hold ourselves to. It should never be a choice.