this side of heaven

ok after a relatively long interval between posts (the longest since this excuse for a blog started), ive once again decided to write abt things i only half know abt with an especially presumptous title.

i'll try to explore ideals here. so before i begin, i guess its best to invoke a much more learned person to give his views. this wld be Plato. Plato believed that the true knowledge of anything is a knowledge of its ideal form. By that he means the objective existence of something in a realm apart from this world. furthermore, our mental representations of things may bear some resemblance to the ideal, but this is completely inconsequential and insignificant; ideals are elevated far above real- life objects. even abstracts.

ok go figure. so this means that the computer u r on now... is not the "ideal" computer. it subscribes to the ideal of the Computer. it is only a partial and imperfect representation of the ideal. the fact that we recognize different computers as computers is because they participate somehow in a single idea or form of computer. hm. ok, it sounds absurd for physical objects but it kinda makes sense when talking abt concepts.

Plato illustrates this by referring to things like "justice", "goodness" and "beauty". these things cant be said to be wholly present in this world; they are incomplete and lacking in some ways or other. but the fact that we find them meaningful and important implies that somewhere, their perfect forms exist. when we say something is good for example, we acknowledge that we have come into contact with a higher, invisible reality, that we have somehow transcended this world of sense experience to something purer and more perfect. our ability to recognize these abstract qualities comes from our existence before birth, when our immortal souls lived in the heavenly realm of ideals and knew them directly, in their pure form. when we see them in our earthly life, our memory is jogged, and we remember, or rather "unforget" our previous, more perfect life.

sounds like spiritual mumbo- jumbo, but try to leave aside the modern creation of religion and jus take this as a world view.

so, in order to transcend reality, and elevate oneself in this life, one should see "through" or rather, past things, events, wdv of this world, to the Ideal.

well and good, but this is despite the knowledge that, try as we might, there is no way to achieve the ideal in this world, in this lifetime. thus, should ideals be pursued? is there really any point in pursuing an unachievable goal, an unattainable dream? is temporarily perceiving the essence of anything worth the delusion upon returning to reality? knowing that we stand on this side of heaven, should we really try to partake of a part of it, or would that be arrogance? in some ways, a little is better than nothing, but i cant help but feel that that little leaves a void when it is gone that makes it even more insignificant. so, putting this into context: should abstract things we know have an absolute truth be pursued in this lifetime? and should we indulge in their opposites so as to make comtemplation of them in a future (and interestingly, also past) lifetime even more palpable due to contrast? i tink it wld be quite a gd course of action, assuming tt u can go back to that heaven when ur done here, removing all connotations of heaven as a place that u can only go to if ur a good boy (or girl (or anything besides)). and how is this different from delayed gratification really? haha...

well i dun tink its gonna change the fact that there r gonna be idealistic ppl pursuing ideals here and now and in the future, cos we dun noe wat the afterlife is like. or if there even is an afterlife at all. but i just think tt its relli quite sad that ideals are ideals for the sole reason that they'll nvr be achieved and that ppl r gonna be disappointed in chasing them down.