I don’t like rapid change. The world that we live in has been good to me. I am happy and prosperous. I know and understand this world. Some other world, one in which we are not rapidly stripping our planet of its natural resources and causing a rapid increase in the price of oil, food and metal, might be less beneficial to me.

In my column, I have decried radicalism of all sorts. When a nation changes rapidly, the social order is easily upset. Those who were once on top often find themselves against a wall.

I have no wish to wake up and find that the world as I’ve known it has been turned on its side, even if that change is for the better.

Many of my friends are more adventuresome than me. They dream of a better world. They dream of a world without war, famine or pestilence. They dream of a world where every human being may reach his or her full potential.

They are idiots. And they will never achieve that dream.

There will always be class disparities. As long as people arrange themselves into different groups — whether those groups be divided along lines of sex, race or national citizenship — those people will always hate each other. Human beings are ornery, greedy bastards. And when the government tries to corral our selfish behaviors, we fall prey to the selfishness of the people who run the government. We are trapped by our human nature, and we will never be able to move beyond it. I don’t even bother to try.

But still, there is a sort of beauty in the foolish idealism of these people. I have met men and women who are as cynical as I am. I tend to dislike them. I much prefer the company of dreamers. They look at this world and, while acknowledging its shortcomings, never lose sight of what a magnificent place it could be. I would rather see that shining city reflected in their eyes, knowing it can never exist, than have to live with dismal reality.

If our world changes at all, it will not be because of pragmatists like me. It will be because of hopeless dreamers like you. Of course, our world is not going to change. It cannot change. And you will dash your dreams on the rocks of that reality. But I applaud you for trying.

This will be my last column. And I want to use it to thank the many people who have shaped my worldview. So many of you are far better people than me. And more importantly, so many of you have been a far better friend to me than I could have wished for. I will miss you.

Rahul Kanakia would like to thank his editor, Katie Taylor. You can email him at rahkan@stanford.edu.