The constant struggle between idealism and practicality
2023-08-04
Those living in a democracy will know the seemingly endless political debate about details of new laws and law changes, since politicians have the duty to work out an acceptable solution not only for the 51% of people voting for the current government, but for the entire population. This constant struggle between idealism and practicality is something I noticed in almost all areas of live, so let's talk about it for a bit...
The greatest example I can come up with in politics is the balancing between individual freedom, ensuring the rights of others and the security of the whole society, as all of these a fundemental rights granted to every German citizen via the Grundgesetz and they influence each other heavily. Ultimate individual freedom to do whatever you want would include hurting others, stealing their property and so on for example, which obviously hurts their rights. Ultimate security on the other hand would demand basically no freedoms at all, since only in this state all human behaviour is predictable, which obviously also isn't practical. So in reality, law makers always try to strike the right balance between these, but just like everything humans do they sometimes make mistakes and have to correct afterwards (even though nowadays federal agencies are really stretching what is acceptable - using child safety and fighting terrorism as a "reason" to weaken digital rights and ultimately ban strong encryption is just a joke in my humble opinion).
Another very important area is the enviromental impact of each of us with goal of most people being to live as enviromentally friendly as possible here in Germany. This includes not owning/using a car, relying on biking and public transportation for daily needs, repairing devices as long a possible et cetera. Unfortunately, public transportation - especially over longer distances via the Deutsche Bahn with its enormous delays and uncompetive pricing - is so miserably bad that most realistically NEED a car to travel their everyday distances and most manufacturers are so anti-consumer these days that you don't even have a chance to repair, but are basically forced to buy something new the second your old appliance fails.
Shifting focus towards computers and the software running on them, great examples are the Adobe and Microsoft Office suites as the leading offerings in the creative and productive space. Even though most people agree that the brands behind them are terrible, their pricing is just outrageous and the programs get worse with every day and therefore they really don't want to use them, these applications also have at least somewhat unique features and are most importantly the industry standard in their respective fields, which makes them a must-have for flawless compatibility with other peoples work. The cold heart truth just is that I am in the fortunate position to be so idealistic to run Linux and a degoogled custom ROM personally, but for a business that would be really terrible decision. There it is just much more important to use something that works the way expected, albeit at a high price and with questionable EULAs.
Ultimately, the point I want to make is that it is most important to get the job done and make an informed decision . Don't let anyone tell you what is the "right" tool for a job - as long as it works, it's fine and your "right" tool (for example running Windows is fine in my opinion, if you know what you are doing). I also want to fight against the quite toxic culture on the internet about other peoples' seamingly stupid decisions, since most really have good intentions and there always is a story behind every decision. What works for you, possibly can but also possibly can't work for someone else! As always in life it is about setting priorities and chosing how much time, money or effort you want to spend on something...