My life has been the process of gradually shedding idealism as I find out what really works.
One that took the longest to go was the idea that working on something cooler, sexier, or more noble is more important than achieving your objectives. Y'know, I'd look at people who take government benefits or got no-bid contracts, and I didn't really respect it. I thought, hey, that's not as good as doing it your own way.
Or maybe something is more glamorous, or more right and proper to excel in. Or something.
Now? Nahh, I'm starting to realize it all counts. All of it counts. If you need a certain amount of cash to do what you want to do, it counts pretty much regardless of how you do it.
Oh, still, don't violate your core ethics. Yes, of course. I've probably got more strict ethics than most people and I've spent a lot of time thinking about mine.
That's not what I mean here. No, what I mean is - moral superiority isn't the way. If there's a lot of easy money in, say, banking - well, it counts. No need to thumb your nose at bankers. They're getting where they want to go.
If you're eligible to receive some benefits, hey, it counts.
This doesn't get into whether it's good or optimum for things to be the way they are. It doesn't get into whether we should make changes or not. But I'm starting to think moral superiority is misguided.
You set your ethics. You set your objectives. Whatever gets you to your objectives without violating your ethics - it counts! And if someone has different ethics or different objectives, there's no real benefit to taking a haughty and morally superior tone with those people.
Hey, you might be in opposition to someone else. You want a different governmental system or you want to run a competing company in the same industry, or even invent a substitute for their product. Okay, that's fine. But if they're reaching their objectives without violating their ethics, it counts! They're getting what they want. Thumbing your nose at them solves nothing. It all counts.