idealism

Most often, we’ll find frustrated idealism just at the moment it starts to sour.

And, holding down the heart of the film with a gravity it probably doesn’t deserve, is Redford, running his techno-security squad with just the right balance of seen-it-all cynicism, idealism and swagger.

“They show both sides of it — the idealism and the difficulty to live up to those ideals,” Gleeson says.

Twenty years have passed since I served alongside those young troops, glowing with pride and purpose in their dedication, their idealism, their commitment to their oath of service.

In an article for Smithsonian magazine, historian Stephen E. Ambrose notes that amid all the contradictions of his personal life, Jefferson never relinquished his idealism about all men being created equal: