132 Ancient Ideals
was in fact conformity, conformity with the middle- class ethos of
de- idealization. Deconstruction’s true polemic is not against meta-
physics per se, as Derrida claims in his early work. (In the later work,
he will become something of a conventional moralist.) It is rather
against aspirations to any way of thinking and being that sets up
ever- demanding standards for the conduct of life. Deconstruction
delivers the young Self- seeker from the burdens of the ideal.
Most contemporary intellectual life is designed to lead the young
thinker, who has perhaps begun to experience the light of the ideal,
back down into the cave. The passage can be diffi cult. The mind
has started to expand, but now it is time to close it down, darken
what was bright. In time the descent back into Plato’s cave can feel
like a relief— de- idealization often does, at least at the start. A burden
has been lifted. It is no longer necessary to strive to transcend the
Self. Now one can relapse into the Natu ral Man (as Blake called
him), who is defi ned by his wants. No doubt the life of the true
thinker, or of anyone who dedicates herself to Soul, is arduous.
The current academy can rescue one from such burdens and make
life less weighty, less demanding—at the same time sapping exis-
tence of consequential meaning.
The true thinker must strug gle for a long time. She’s bound to
be poor; she’s bound to be ignored; opportunists will push past her;
she’ll feel constant doubt. And her labor is hard. She’s got to study;
she’s got to read; she’s got to refl ect. But in time, her satisfactions
begin to mount. At a certain point she’ll achieve something like what
Socrates did. She’ll be able to hold the forms of her own culture at
arm’s length. Without prejudice, she’ll be able to look at what passes
for truth and knowledge and see how local, how time- bound, how
geared to mere expediency they are. She’ll rise above her circum-
stances. Lonely and poor as she may be, she’ll be able to walk
through the world, speaking her truth and not being taken in by the