We think that ideals are necessary. But do ideals help to bring about ta change in us? Or do they merely enable us to postpone, to push change into the future, and thereby avoid the immediate, radical change? Surely, so long as we have ideals, we never really change but hold on to our ideals as a means of postponement, of avoiding the immediate change which is so essential. I know it is taken for granted by the majority of us that ideals are indispensible, for without them we think there would be no impetus to change, and we would rot, stagnate. But I am questioning whether ideals of any kind ever do transform our thinking. Why do we have ideals? If I am violent, need I have the ideal of nonviolence? I do not know if you have thought about this at all. If I am violent—as most of us are in different degrees—is it necessary for me to have the ideal of nonviolence? Will the pursuit of nonviolence free the mind from violence? Or is the very pursuit of nonviolence actually an impediment to the understanding of violence? After all, I can understand violence only when, with my whole mind, I give complete attention to the problem. And the moment I am wholly concerned with violence and the understanding of violence, what significance has the ideal of nonviolence? It seems to me that the pursuit of the ideal is an evasion, a postponement. If I am to understand violence, I must give my whole mind to it and not allow myself to be distracted by the ideal of nonviolence.
China,
I must try to understand what you are trying to get at. Perhaps the following might help:
241 Moby Thesaurus words for "ideal":
Arcadian, Edenic, Geistesgeschichte, Hegelian idea, Kantian idea,
Platonic form, Platonic idea, Utopian, absolute, abstract,
academic, acme, ambition, apotheosis, apprehension, archetypal,
archetype, archetypical, armchair, aspiration, assumption, autism,
autistic thinking, basis, beau ideal, belief, best type,
beyond all praise, brainstorm, calling, caprice, cause, celestial,
chaste, chimerical, classic, classical, complete, complex idea,
conceit, concept, conception, conceptual, conclusion, conjectural,
conjecture, consideration, consummate, conviction, criterion,
cynosure, defectless, dereism, dereistic thinking, dream, dreamery,
ego ideal, epitome, estimation, eternal object, eternal universal,
example, excellent, exemplar, exemplary, fancied, fanciful, fancy,
fantasy, faultless, feeling, fictitious, flawless, flight of fancy,
formal cause, goal, good example, ground, guess, guiding light,
guiding star, heavenly, hero, high goal, highest category,
history of ideas, hypothesis, hypothetic, hypothetical, idealism,
idealistic, ideality, idealization, idealized, ideals, ideate,
ideational, ideatum, idee-force, ideological, idyllic, illusory,
image, imaginary, imaginative exercise, imagined, immaculate,
impeccable, impractical, impracticality, impression, inclination,
indefectible, indefective, infallible, innate idea, inspiration,
intellection, intention, irreproachable, jewel, judgment,
just right, lodestar, mainspring, man of men, masterpiece,
masterwork, matter, millennial, mirror, model, moot, morals,
motive, mythic, mythical, nonesuch, nonpareil, noosphere, notion,
notional, noumenon, opinion, paradigm, paradigmatic, paradisal,
paragon, pattern, pattern of perfection, peerless, percept,
perception, perfect, persuasion, phoenix, play of fancy,
postulatory, precedential, presumption, principle, principles,
prototypal, prototype, pure, quintessence, quintessential,
quixotism, quixotry, reaching high, reaction, reason, reflection,
regulative first principle, representative, romance, romantic,
romanticism, sake, score, sentiment, shining example, simple idea,
sinless, source, speculation, speculative, spotless, spring,
stainless, standard, standards, subsistent form, supposition,
supreme, surmise, suspicion, taintless, the Absolute,
the Absolute Idea, the Self-determined, the realized ideal,
theoretical, theory, thought, transcendent, transcendent idea,
transcendent nonempirical concept, transcendent universal,
transcendental, typical, ulterior motive, unadulterated,
unblemished, uncontaminated, unfaultable, universal,
universal concept, universal essence, unmixed, unpracticalness,
unreal, unrealism, unreality, unspotted, untainted, upward looking,
utopian, utopianism, vagary, very, very model, view, visionariness,
visionary, vocation, whim, whimsy, wish fulfillment,
wish-fulfillment fantasy, wishful thinking.
It is not so cut and dried as you might like it to be.
Best Regards,
Johai
:canada:
