Against Ideals

Draft 4.0

i. Ideals excuse weakness and failure. The goal was never reached because it never can be reached. Ideals justify resignation and stagnation. Since ideals can never be reached, one should never make the attempt. Change never occurs when stifled by the impossible. Ideals represent a straight line leading nowhere. Rather than going over, under, around or breaking, the wall is simply struck head on at full speed. Often torturous in reality, the straight path is not always best. Ideals limit development. Ideals force the acceptance of the anti-natural by spawning belief in anti-natural concepts like progress. The anti-natural goes nowhere. All paths end. Ideals are a bad idea...

ii. Excepting manipulative popular appeals, ideals have long been discarded by those wielding power. Only the defeated cling to ideals, which rationalizes their impotence and place. Ideals often manifest in the form of an aesthetic. Ugliness may be higher than any beauty, but the aesthetic ideal will always attempt to deny reality. The form always assumes some fanciful notion, such as loving one's enemy. Hence, one never actually knows the enemy, instead projecting a false mask of innate goodness. Reality never respect the ideal. Conflict perpetuates misery by never leading toward any resolution, merely submissiveness. The individual attempts to live the impossible, and wastes away within an ideal whole in the ground. Ironically becoming less attractive with each lost pound, the anorexic starves for an aesthetic ideal. Depression may be fueled by failure to live up to an ideal, thus ignoring the happiness within. The ideals suits nothing but spectators. The ideal removes the world from consideration in preference for that which cannot be. The ideal distorts everything beyond and below proportion. Its domination amounts to willful stupidity, and deserving of every consequence. Opportunities are eliminated or avoided. Ideals choke most paths. Ideals create false molds. Ideals entangle. Ideals breed passivity. The fly believing itself a spider is devoured. Evil is not necessarily bad, just evil. The ideal only recognizes the good of the herd. Often non-existent in any case, the worst is promoted by idealizing the best. The vilest lies may appear correct in the light of an ideal. The ideal lowers by forcing mass conformity. An opportunist will always exploit those shackled by ideals. One does not live on good intentions. Wars are always advanced by the acceptance of ideals. The enemy is evil because he does not live by the same ideals (or none). Despite the sometimes magnificent facade, ideals are light, hollow constructs. Unaccustomed to carrying a dense load, the idealist becomes bent and topples whenever the truly heavy falls. Yet the inability to live up to an ideal is falsely blamed. Weakness is all-too human. Humans are not mules. Ideals infect. Idealism is a cultural disease vector.

iii. Metaphorically, agitation resonates with others on the same frequency. A crowd, even a nation, may be whipped into a frenzy, and respond in unity. The shadow castes itself onto the collective psyche, violence ensues and people die. Often, for the worst abuses, some backlash sentiment is exploited, but the primary mass appeal for unity is based on the ideal. Germany was bled dry by war reparations, causing a simmering resentment of victorious allied powers, exploited for maximum advantage by appeals to advance an Aryan ideal, and millions died in the rubble. Meanwhile, the Soviets butchered millions more in the name of the working class. The ideal is the only correct way. The insight to incite produces creates a mix of the sublime and pathos. The agitated will follow where few would ordinarily tread. The shadow triumphs. The greatest errors are unwarranted. The herd instinct will make compliance seem compulsory.

iv. Perched atop a pinnacle, ideal equilibrium is never stable. No immune response exists: exposure to reality will always prove fatal. The ideal will seek to preserve itself through compromise. The ideal ceases. Nature abhors the ideal, and will seek its elimination. The ideal is anti-natural. Any debts accrued with these false coins will always demand payment in full as prescribed by natural law. An ideal only lives as long as its consequence.

v. Beauty is not ideal. Ugliness is not ideal. Only the underlying level of falseness, including denial, behind the veneer means anything. The age may determine consequence. One century's standards may be another's dog end. Concealment is not falseness, nor anti-natural. The chameleon is not always an animal. Logic is not always natural.

vi. The scientific method requires a periodic re-evaluation which must accommodate the ever increasing scientific world view. Society only shapes effectiveness. Priority is always ranked. Motivation is only human. Currently, the scientific method is shaped by positivist reductionism, with a similar technical mindset driving society and culture. Any future scientific revolutions will need to move beyond the current attendant requirements. Quantum mechanics is accepted, because it works. However, its meaning remains elusive. Science should not be a stagnant pond. The individual ripples can be interesting, but the larger pattern leaves the impression. Repetition may just prove boring. Lest one go mad, the same view may only be seen for so long.

vii. Past error may only be mitigated. Erasure only works on paper. Propaganda is not neutralized by more propaganda. Peace is not an arms race. Recycling does not eliminate consumerist waste. Is hazardous waste a better alternative to deforestation? Communication is not peace. Passivity does not nullify war. Life and death are not diametrical opposites. Something always rises from the ash. Revenge and justice are not extremes. Apologies are not regrets. Some races can not be run.

viii. Viewpoints can change. The still recede into the distance. The relevant can change with progression into the unknown. The extent defines ignorance. Stagnation is death. The ideal is bliss is death. In the end, all ideal roads are followed by lemmings. Why choose it? Why not fight it?

1996 - January 1, 2001