Shahid Majeed Mir
Human beings possess distinguished attributes which bestows them unique place in the living kingdom of universe. They are inborn with thinking ability and a whole set of feelings which adds grace to their physical activities.
The most important attribute among them is Mental ability of a man. It provides insights for shaping and reshaping of physical world. This physical world Initially was guiding man from hand to mouth.
Hence the narrative was to be in community for mere satisfaction of Physical need of food. Slowly and steadily man embarked upon journey of self sufficiency and diversified the sources to attain place of prominence.
This diversification provided ample opportunity to think and analyse about the social structure of man. Herein lies the space for social solidarity and its functionality.
What role a society plays for man and what role a man has to play became a serious puzzle! This led the man from mere physical world to world of intellect.
The way of relationship in between and among individuals of society became the arduous task. The complexity of functional hierarchy made the social stability a vulnerable variable.
This connotation accumulated challenges as the continuous rise in social functions make the society vulnerable to frictions. This division and dichotomy was thoroughly analysed by Ancient Great Plato through prism of Idealism.
Lexically it translates to “the property of a person of having high ideals that are usually unrealizable. However the correlation of this concept in a socio-political dimension was elaborated by Plato in different manner.
He presumed Idea to be base of all things in practice. Every Realistic action on ground is preceded by Idea of action in the mental world of man.
Simply saying if we have to improve the Governance in real terms we need to improvise the Idea first and then apply the modified version on ground. Plato’s Idealism initiated a new school of thought to what is termed in present context as School of Political Philosophy.
In the world of Lexicography Idealism is antagonistic to Realism of Plato’s pupil Aristotle the great. Is it really antagonistic? Can’t dichotomy be alleviated? Was friction present in all the ages? These set of questions in a common parlance mandate a thorough analysis.
The cornerstone of idealism is rested on the belief that Physical world is manifestation of Ideal world. The physical world prevailing in and around us is shaped and reshaped in the world of ideas.
To quote an example “if carpenter is planning to construct a chair. He first constructs the ideal of chair in his own mind. The way its legs would be and the way its seat be.
Then the hands follow the dictate of mind to give physical shape to this idea present in the mind of carpenter. Therefore the knowledge of this Chair was present in the intellect or idea of man beforehand he took steps to construct it with opinion at hand.
The way he sets out physical structure varies (opinion) because there are hundreds of samples with so many styles of chairs present all around us but the idea of Chair is infallible inside the world of ideas.
The Ideal is to build a chair which is comfortable , rotatory, affordable etc among others. When this construct is build the Ideal demands it need to be Remote Controlled with inbuilt camera and self rotatory on actions of user.
But the real structure would modify it to a Robot like construct. Therefore the ideal isn’t always confirmed by reality at all times and in all circumstances.
The socio-political situation of the state and its construct is an Ideal which most builders tried to evolve from Mahatma Gandhi to Nelson Mandela, From Martin Luther to Aung San Suuki , From Hitler to Mussolini , From Stalin to Napoleon etc.
The concept pervading in all these narratives was to build a stable , harmonic, sympathetic, prosperous, responsive et al construct out of society. However the ways and the means they employed were in steep contrast.
They tried to establish their ideal on the earth in general and country in particular. These ideals of the men took different shapes in reality and evolved the situations where humanity has to bear the brunt of holocaust.
Although Gandhian ideal of Ramarajya is an ideal in itself but to cite nip and tuck state is to blame the ideal for itself. Ideal is as per its promoter an infallible thing which sustains every situation because there’s a general consensus pervading in all the creatures regarding the mental calibre of humanity.
But the reality that follows on ground makes it pervert to a distorted notion which culminates its fascination in infancy. After Washington consensus and much hyped New world order the Francis Fukuyuma immediately turn to pages of paper and wrote down the “End of Ideological Evolution”.
He presumed Western Democracy based on primacy of Individual as end of ideological evolution of man. He further insisted that there’s no further possibility of antagonism against this established order. But the 9/11 episode overturned whole story to its head and left the western order in lurch.
Mr P Huntington then claimed the episode as “conflict of civilization” and denounced the Fukuyuma ideal as End of End of Ideological Evolution. Was the ideal of Democracy really manifested in presumed form of Fukuyuma or the ideal changes along the lines of thinking across communities?
The events that unleashed in the western order like recent increase in Gun violence, conflict in morals etc exposed the reality to contrast of ideal.
The assumption of basic ingredient for idealism sometimes comes across fault lines which denounces its infant form. The appearance that free trade and liberal policy on globalism was deemed as path of USA’S further strengthening.
This ideal was given shape after WW2 by subsequent generations to present which helped it to maintain the pedestal but the path to Protectionism adopted by Donald trump caught the real world unawares.
Is the beauty of beautiful order loosing spectators or is the ideal of globalism falsifying reality notion? The achievements in the wallet of globalism is supremacy of US and its sustainability on scene for decades.
What led the US to change colour now? The reality of its established ideal didn’t come to coincidence either way which led to amendment now. Therefore the reality doesn’t confirm the ideal always due to dichotomy between what’s and what ought to be .
This dichotomy reaches to an extreme end when applied in the world of human beings because not only reality differs but the absence of consensus on common ideal is present everywhere like Hitler and Gandhi.
The conceptual weakness of idealism is becoming true from untrue that real world is only a reflection of ideal world. Thus to believe it confirms to ideal is to live in dystopian world.
The operational mechanism of reality induces crevices in the adoption of Ideal which cumulates to an unhealthy pie leading to situation where one concludes the contrast between ideal and its reality.
As the saying goes” the life in front of you is more important than the life behind you “. To denounce the connection between the ideal and reality is to invite a poisonous toad whose only language is to harm when disturbed.
The society is an amalgamation of contrasted convergences whose solution lies in adoption of piecemeal strategy to bestow it with stability and harmony. The idealism projects some specific medicines to cure the evils in alignment with aspirations of society.
The ideals of Equality, Fraternity , Human rights , Justice et al are but a social cure for a social evil. Their origin traces to concept of idealism which presumes to construct an reality where all such ideals meet from ascending sense of reverence and descending sense of contempt to social order suitable for each and every individual unto last.
The idealism was denounced the dystopian concept not realisable and utilisable is but a partial interpretation of noble thought. This thought was not taken light at hand by Pupil Aristotle who reversed it to what really matters for humanity in the form of Realism thought.
This is opposite and antagonistic to original tenets of Plato. However this dichotomy and divergence is not always standstill. The later is sometimes defended and correlated with former to minimise the divergence.
This conformity applies for all times in all ages. The ideal of Ramarajya guided Mahatma Gandhi to path of non violence and the reality with which he led the country speaks for itself. The ideal was given a shape and reflection in way ” you can’t expect a rose by implanting seeds of babool tree”.
This ideal reimbursed faith of millions and the resilience shown by him in practice took the freedom struggle to streets and helped in emergence of Free India.
Thus the ideal of free India could only be confirmed due to reality of freedom struggle based on non violence ensued to reach the goal. The ideal of justice and equality is confirmed in the reality of punishment announced in case of its breach.
The way it operates in reality is the guidance of Ideal which confirms course of action. The divided India produced two states with diverse realities because of diverse ideals they perused from the time of freedom struggle.
The conflict of ideals is the confirmation itself that reality always confirms it. The way Kashmir is proceeding and the way it’s becoming sensitive by each passing day presents unique example of such confirmation.
On one side the concept of Islamic Caliphate is projected the root because while on the other mere frustration of young but diverted minds disturbs peace. So the conflict of ideals across stakeholders confirms the reality of instability.
The Hurriyat and the mainstream divergence is because of divergence in ideals they contain and the reality at the ground is continued instability and frustration.
That’s to say reality confirms ideal in certain cases. The prevailing dichotomy between ideal and real is not always antagonistic but the continuum of sequential process which leads from space of divergence to space of convergence. They both hold the system in stable and functional rhythm.
Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood is the universally quoted dictum. The way we adopt the ideal and the chance we provide for its success is the actual manifestation. An ideal untill its practicality can’t be denounced altogether.
Having said that ideal world is a world where fault lines come across severe criticism . They produce and inturn get reproduced after a rigorous back and forth analyses.
For sake of simplicity the ideal of Ramarajya seems always good in all the circumstances in all ages in all classes of society but the way of its operation mayn’t support the cause.
Since the prevailing friction wouldn’t prove it effective due to the conflict of ideals itself. There was time when wealth , territory , power , weaponry, poverty etc were deemed as main and prominent causes for war but the way P Huntington explained 9/11 and predicted the world war on lines of civilization is a contrast of known ideals.
Therefore world is not always what’s real infact it’s Ideal which guides the activities in and around. As is commonly believed in rural areas of India ” When you construct house for yourself it always possesses shortcomings. So the best way possible is to demolish the ist one and reconstruct other in its place to corner those shortcomings.
However reality is that cycle never completes”. So to reach to an ideal is also an ideal. It deserves nip and tuck means to achieve that ideal. Since the society is convergence of complexities, the accumulation is not expected to hold a common belief. That’s what compelled Plato to term that opinion differs from knowledge.
One is infallible while as other is liable to change. One is indestructible while as other is distorted at times to replace with another. As is said “Rome isn’t built in day in the world of reality”.
Ideal world functions promptly and permanently with no stop no pause but the reality of ideal is liable for friction and flip flops. The ideal to reach the moon one day with manned spacecraft is under sustainable possession of ISRO but to plan it tomorrow isn’t confirmed by its reality.
However its comparison with peers like NASA and other prominent agencies confirms the cause of ideal that Vikram Sarabai left for fellow citizenry.
Hence the real world is in evolution of an ideal world where ideal individuals are participants in ideal society with ideal attributes and ideal goals. That ideal of Secular and democratic India is a concept in evolution when compared with Reality.
To sum it up the contrast and convergence of Ideal and Real will sustain the course of whole human history. They both are part and parcel of human life.
They help one another to resolve conflicting claims for evolution of society where individuals reach to their real existence of physical and spiritual.
Reality confirms its ideal sometimes and denounces it other times and there seems no end to this conflict.
The solution lies in compatibility between two for concept which applicable at all times. The son’s hindsight is father’s far sight.
*Writer is a civil service aspirant and can be reached at mirshahid363@gmail.com*
