Maybe the departure of ideals from our lives is all to the good.
Surely ideals are dangerous: those who commit their lives to ideals
sometimes fi nd untimely ends; they can die violent deaths. When
they do survive they often do so in poverty and neglect. And per-
haps what the past called ideals are substantially based upon illu-
sions. Perhaps there are no au then tic ideals, only idealizations.
Maybe the quest for perfection in thought, in art, in war, and in
the exercise of loving- kindness only leads to trou ble. It’s possi ble
that ideals are what Freud (all the time) and Nietz sche (most of the
time) said they are: sources of delusion. But then again, maybe they
are not.
Commitment to ideals may be passing from the world, but this
should not happen without chance for second thought. Young
people, who have traditionally been the ones most receptive to
ideals, should be able to make the choice themselves. Do they want
to live a practical life in a practical culture? Do they want to seek
safety and security and never risk being made fools of? Or do they
perhaps want something else? Every generation should be able to
hold its own plebiscite on the issue of ideals. But many in the West,
coming of age now, have never had the chance to hear the debate.
(And many of their elders have forgotten or suppressed the issue.)
Young people have been born into a world where the most pinched
version of middle- class values— success, prosperity, safety, health—
seems to stand supreme. Some have never encountered alternatives,
except in misplaced or disguised form. Every man and woman should
have the chance to ponder the question of the ideal.
The fi rst ideal that arises in the West, as it does in most cultures,
is the heroic ideal. There are two main versions of the Western hero,
and we owe them both to Homer. One version is embodied by
Achilles, the other by Hector. Achilles, the protagonist of The Iliad,
is the warrior who seeks the fi rst place; he yearns to be recognized
as the best of the Greeks. He is beyond fear. There is no risk Achilles
2 Polemical Introduction