People aren't real

"People aren't real," said one of my friends to me a few days ago. People aren't real because they cannot stand up for themselves, are hypocrites and are easily corrupted by the society. This is what he had to say.
But I wonder who gets to decide what 'REAL' stands for? The definition of course varies from person to person. The dictionary describes 'real' as something that is an actual thing and has an objective existence. True enough. To my friend, 'real' seems pure and untouched. To him 'real' seems perfect.
To me, 'real' is flawed. Real has imperfections and that is what makes it actual. Perfection is unreal, perfection is Utopia. It doesn't exist, but we strive for its existence because trying to achieve the unachievable is what keeps us going. Would I want someone who is not corrupted by the society? Sure, it would be great to find someone like that. Moreover, it would be nice to un-corrupt myself from the society. Its not just about eating meat, or about the addiction to coca-cola and other marketing gimmicks, or about using the not-so eco-friendly means of transportations, or about doing a million other things that are deemed 'wrong' in someone else's dictionary. The society makes distinctions between what's right and wrong. Its about doing the 'right' thing for myself. For some of the people out there, doing the right thing may involve doing things keeping others in mind, and for others doing the right thing just involves one person - 'I'. Its a conflict within myself as to which one of the two am I, and which one of the two should I be. Most of the times I fall in the first category, when I think too much about how something that I do might affect someone else, or even sometimes how it might affect my own reputation. I know, its pathetic to think that way, to let your decisions be guided by what others might think of you or make of your decision, but oh well, I never said I am flawless. I am quite flawed and very real (in my definition of Real). But then there are times when I really wish I could only live for myself, take decisions because I think they are right for me not because that's what the world would do if it was in my shoes. Taking decisions with my family in consideration has rarely been a botheration to me, but what does frustrate me sometimes is taking decisions in life based on perceptions of other people who are quite unimportant, to say the least.
I really wish that someday I can apply Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism to my life, and do things because they are right, and because they are right for 'me', not because they please someone else and are right according to them.

"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."
-Ayn Rand (on Objectivism)