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In light of a troubled world we find ourselves in of late with a definitive swing to nationalism, here is an extract from the book on why people adopt and love such ideals, what the consequences can be in the extreme, and how we might seek to overcome them.
Chapter 17 - Wide Ideal Lifestyles This [Wide Ideal lifestyle] is based on a perfect way of life that the lover believes is within reach. When the lover bestows love upon the ideal, they must also bring it into reality. Consequently, lovers of wide-ideals change the way they live not only to align their lives to the ideal, but to endeavour to bring it into reality for everyone. This leads to another secondary condition: as my love is bestowed upon an ideal that I seek to prove exists, I must reject all objects, people and ideals that threaten the ideal’s passage into existence. Once it is in existence, I must reject all objects, people and ideals that threaten its survival if I’m to hold onto the beloved ideal. This condition is the ugly side of wide-ideal lifestyles. For those who impede the ideal’s passage into existence and its survival, ‘just’ conflict follows [1] and leads to the slogan ‘by all means necessary’ once the lover bestows love upon the ideal and adopts its duties and righteousness. This secondary condition justified ethnic and religious extremism during the Middle Ages, and destructive social and political ideology in the 20th-century. The human cost of these loved wide-ideals is in the millions as leaders have persuaded zealous followers to accomplish their ideal, annihilating whoever failed to fit the perfection sought [2]. Such tragedies will repeat themselves until humanity recognizes its remarkable ascent [3]. Humans need not kill others on the grounds of ethnic, social or political idealism. Every human being is valuable just because they are human. Knowing that this ideal will never be realized is no reason to abandon it, or even not to work towards it. Martin Luther King Jr said “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”[4] Excerpt from - Voyage to the Heart: The Nature of Love
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Cameron Macdonald
[1] A reference to Just War Theory. Where there is justification for righteous action seeking justice; oppressed and oppressor, who is who in just conflict?
[2] For the 20th-century alone, human cost is estimated to be ~153 million including those who died in the former USSR gulags and Chines equivalent political prisons, the Russian Civil war, World War II and wars and conflicts post-WWII most of which included an undertow of political, ethnic or religious ideology. Source: Deaths in Wars and Conflicts in the 20th Century by Milton Leitenberg: Cornel University, Peace Studies Program Occasional Paper #29 3rd Ed. Aug 2003,2005, 2006 ISSN 1075-4857
[3] Recognition of Dr. J. Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man documentary series (1973) BBC where he argues social development of mankind is evolutionary, positively progressive, enlightened by science and industry, and in concert with art.
[4] Martin Luther King Jr. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?.1968. Beacon Press. p. 67. ISBN: 0807000671
[2] For the 20th-century alone, human cost is estimated to be ~153 million including those who died in the former USSR gulags and Chines equivalent political prisons, the Russian Civil war, World War II and wars and conflicts post-WWII most of which included an undertow of political, ethnic or religious ideology. Source: Deaths in Wars and Conflicts in the 20th Century by Milton Leitenberg: Cornel University, Peace Studies Program Occasional Paper #29 3rd Ed. Aug 2003,2005, 2006 ISSN 1075-4857
[3] Recognition of Dr. J. Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man documentary series (1973) BBC where he argues social development of mankind is evolutionary, positively progressive, enlightened by science and industry, and in concert with art.
[4] Martin Luther King Jr. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?.1968. Beacon Press. p. 67. ISBN: 0807000671