Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world.
-Woodrow Wilson
Perhaps in this day and age, a handful of those ideals are being confused or misused. But his statement about America's being idealist is still true. An episode of Malcolm in the Middle humorously addressed this; when Malcolm's female friend returned from a trip in Europe, she was an extreme, pessimistic nihilist with a need to insult, demean, and satirize anything within her vision.