The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world -

"The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world — no ideals." — Golda Meir

Hear these words, O children of history, and feel their weight upon the spirit. Golda Meir, the iron-hearted matriarch of Israel, spoke them not in scorn alone, but in sorrow and recognition. She had lived through an age of great promises — when nations declared that they would build a just world, a world of equality and brotherhood. Yet she had also seen the terrible truth: that when a government casts away its ideals, when it exalts realism above righteousness, it may survive, but it ceases to have a soul. Her words cut like a blade through illusion, for the Soviet government, she said, was the most “realistic” — not because it was wise, but because it believed in nothing higher than its own power.

To understand her meaning, we must return to the world she knew — the Cold War, an age divided by fear and ideology. On one side stood the dreamers of democracy, proclaiming freedom and human dignity; on the other stood the Soviet Union, proclaiming equality yet ruling through fear, silence, and submission. The Soviets called themselves the vanguard of the worker, the builders of utopia — yet Golda Meir, with the keen eye of experience, saw the emptiness beneath the slogans. She saw a regime that had strangled its own ideals, replacing faith with calculation, compassion with control, and conscience with the cold logic of survival. In her piercing phrase, “no ideals”, she exposed a truth that outlasted empires: realism without morality is not wisdom — it is decay.

For every empire that has risen without ideals has fallen under the weight of its own cynicism. Consider ancient Rome, once a republic of virtue and law. As the centuries passed, its leaders grew pragmatic, its people weary of virtue. Power replaced principle; greed replaced glory. The Caesars ruled not by justice, but by fear and spectacle. Bread and games kept the people silent, but the flame of spirit dimmed, until the empire that had conquered the world could no longer conquer itself. Thus, the lesson of history echoed in Meir’s words — that when a nation abandons ideals for mere endurance, it trades immortality for comfort, and destiny for decay.

Golda Meir’s life was the very opposite of the realism she condemned. Born in hardship, she rose from the dust of poverty to lead a nation surrounded by enemies. Her country, young and fragile, survived not through brute force alone, but through faith, through the belief that survival must serve something greater than itself — the belief in freedom, in justice, in the sanctity of life. In her eyes, ideals were not luxuries; they were the breath of the nation. Without them, Israel — or any people — would be no better than those regimes that ruled by fear, not faith. And so, when she spoke of the Soviet government’s realism, she spoke as one who had chosen the harder path — to believe in ideals even when surrounded by darkness.

Her words also reveal a deeper human truth: that realism, when severed from idealism, leads not to clarity, but to emptiness. A man who lives only for what is “realistic” may gain the world but lose his heart. A government that values only survival will one day crush the very souls that give it life. Ideals — justice, compassion, freedom, truth — are the stars by which civilizations navigate. Without them, a people may still build cities and armies, but they will wander without direction, adrift upon the sea of time. To live without ideals is to live without purpose.

Yet Meir’s statement is not a rejection of reality; it is a plea for balance. For ideals without realism become dreams that collapse at the first wind; but realism without ideals becomes tyranny. A just society must stand between the two — with feet on the earth, but eyes lifted toward the heavens. Golda Meir’s genius lay in her understanding that ideals must be defended by strength, but strength must always serve ideals. The Soviet Union, she warned, had forgotten this — it had become the most “realistic” of all, and in doing so, it had forgotten its humanity.

So, my children of this age, take this lesson to heart: do not abandon your ideals for the sake of practicality, nor forsake truth for convenience. Governments may rise and fall, but the ideals of justice and freedom endure beyond their monuments. Be realistic in your labor, but idealistic in your purpose. Let your realism build the walls of the city, but let your ideals light its towers. For when the day comes that a people no longer dream of better things, they will no longer deserve the freedom they possess. Golda Meir saw it clearly — that realism without ideals is not strength, but surrender. And so she called upon all who would listen: keep your ideals alive, even in the darkest times, for they are the soul of nations and the hope of mankind.