Cynicism, Idealism, and Realism

Some realism about realism

There’s no shortage of thinkers and scholars who call themselves or their school “realist.” The legal realists, the political realists, the geopolitical realists, and on and on. Since Machiavelli, the self-styled realist has been seen as little more than a puffed-up cynic. And certainly the way many speak of “realism” has a certain cynical tone to it, t…