What is Idealism?
The attitude of a person who believes that it is possible to live according to very high standards of behavior and honesty
What is Realism?
The quality of a person who understands what is real and possible in a particular situation and is able to deal with problems in an effective and practical way
Why is it that people such as Hashirama/Naruto are considered Idealists.. when their ideas are based on the reality.. and the fact that they have accepted reality?
Because people believe "peace, harmony and etc".. are all idealistic ways.. However, "war and etc" are all realistic ways.. When their thinking is far from the truth.
The real Idealists of Naruto-verse.
Madara, Obito, Nagato. Why are they idealists? Because their "plans" were simply far from dealing with the reality and hypocritical in most of the way.
2 of them wanted people to live in some sort of a dream land.. while the reality is that, doing that doesn't bring peace, but simply stopping people from living in reality.
The other one had some thinking that he can go around causing pain, and people would magically understand each other and then form short term peace, and then back to war.. reality is that people already expereince pain in different ways without him even going around destroying villages. Nagato was a naive idealist.
The reason Naruto and Hashirama would be realists.
Naruto's answer to Nagato's question was.. that he won't kill Nagato. Him not killing Nagato became the answer that freed Nagato from the hatred that engulfed him. Thats not being idealistic.. thats real shit. As many humans work in similar manner. When somebody chooses to be the bigger man, your perception on the situation starts to change, and inevitable lead you to becoming a different person. Naruto accepted what Nagato had done, he didn't forgive Nagato.. however, due to him wanting to remove Nagato's hatred, he chose to spare Nagato which showed Nagato the right way. REALITY.
Hashirama, the man that Madara called a hypocrite. In reality is probably the realist person in the series. He faced warring clans, and so on. What did he do? He started uniting senju blood groups, then made friends with his rival, then formed a village, and then made treaties with other clans who then moved into the village. He found a real solution to the real problem at hand, he didn't go start dreaming about putting people to sleep.. no. The man after all did say in the Gokage meeting, that he believed that their peace wouldn't last forever... however ,nontheless he had a dream that somewhere along the path Shinobi will stand united.
Naruto and Hashirama, understand that peace can't be made by 1 individual, but by people understanding each other. Which is something you can only trust on others for. You can implement systems that can lead you closer to way, but in the end its all up to the ones who will come after you.
illusion of peace, isn't true peace. I would rather live my life, rather than sleep and imagine about peace, while the reality being far from it.
Purpose of my post:
Naruto's way is the rational way. And in reality the man isn't a naive little idealist.. but someone who is willing to change things while staying in the reality of the world.