The idealists will always be in society and we will survive.

Men can absent themselves from real life for their art more easily. Women are anchored into the quotidian business of getting food on the table making sure everybody's socks match the soccer gear is ready. I admire idealists but they're usually enabled by someone who holds the tether on their balloon who pays the bills and sweeps up after them.

I fear that in the end the famous debate among materialists idealists and dualists amounts to a merely verbal dispute that is more a matter for the linguist than for the speculative philosopher.