Instead of basing our lives on what is happening now we talk about ideas and an ideal future. Idealistically, we want to get paid to do what we like. But our noble hero, Ideal, must fight many enemies including Cynicism, Rationalism, and Realism. The Cynic thrives on distrusting the motives of others and beats into us a low opinion of humanity as a whole. Rationalism teams up with slimy Realism, accepting reason as the supreme authority in matters of opinion.
Rationalism casts aside experience, for reason alone is our source of knowledge.
Realism chimes in with its concern for the actual, shunning the speculative and represents things as they are, not as they could be. Luckily, Idealism has its buddy, Existentialism, on her side. Existentialism spends its time battling Rationalism, in particular, with the belief that the individual is self-determining. Rational or not, we are the masters of our own fate. Excessive Existentialism can lead to Individualism, fine in certain degrees.