My thoughts are again with the topic of idealism. Should that one post be complemented somehow? And if yes, in what way? I believe that the main point when addressing idealism as an idea or as a set of thoughts and sensations we can see inside us, is to switch an attitude back to positive. To overcome the impact of cynicism and to see idealism as what it actually is. This will make us have a more positive attitude towards that side of us (I do believe that at least a piece of it resides within each of us), plus we open ways to battling for some important values, either in our workplace or in any narrower or broader community.
Is it … practical idealism?
When reading about idealism, or listening to some podcasts, or watching lectures, you may quickly come across topic of challenges that arise when letting idealism flourish. One warning that seemed most crucial was that idealists should learn about the “nature of things”. Like, if you are interested in possibilities and changes for the better, then you must understand the natural flow of changes; i. e. how changes happen. And other things alike. Conquering those pieces of wisdom should, at the end, make you a so-called practical idealist.
In this post I am presenting some thoughts that I learnt and ideas that I see influential regarding the wisdom of life or the truths of life. As idealism is a topic of philosophy, I am just looking around inside that same field of knowledge. Into some paramount ideas.
Taoism (or also daoism)
There are two main motives to Taoistic school of thought: 1) everything has its natural flow and 2) an idea of effortless living.
First one tells us that all things in life appear, happen, or change in accord to certain inherent principles. When facing various life situations, we will do good not to bring in too strict (own) ideas about how events will turn out or how we want them to turn out, but rather watch well, observe well, recognise the flow and go with it.
I remember just a while ago, I was watching a Disney series entitled Shōgun (i. e. title of military rulers of past Japan). In one scene a devastating earthquake erupted and damaged heavily the army of one of the central figures in the series – shōgun Yoshii Toranaga. In the aftermath, words of Yoshii Toranaga were displayed in which he voiced something like This earth is ruthless, we must always be aware of its hapennings and go by its rules. In that moment I recalled two things. 1) Words by some anthropologist in a documentary saying how influential natural cycles and wheather is in shaping our minds and culture. And 2), how in west we are crazy about control, about coming into things with our minds well set, and to shape events according to our idea.
Second one is about the options that this flow presents to us. If we recognise the natural flow, we can just go with it. In this way, minimal amount of energy will be spend and we will have an effortless living. The other option is to go against the flow, but in this case we might have to put in substantial effort and amounts of energy.
Stoicism
Main idea from stoicism is that a person sets his or her focus only on things that he or she actually controls. This school of thought teaches us to have a pierce eye when seeing elements of our life and to distinguish well between those that we can actually shape by our own doing, and the others that are truly outside our own reach.
While Daoism was established by an Eastern philosopher Lao Tzu (also Laozi or 老子 in Chinese), inicial Stoic thoughts are attributed to Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. It can be seen as another way of preserving energy, of making good decisions regarding where to put our efforts to, of being conscious of what we should focus on when evaluating our progress, and so on.
I have another train of thought arising from last written words. In Slovenian sport we don’t really have any clubs that would have lasting high scoring. Of course, people in our sport would tell you that Slovenia is small and that this is simply impossible, but there is also a bad habit, either with club’s leading personnel, the media, or the general public, that we mostly only focus on results such as medals, wins, what is written on scoreboards or in the league tables.
If we look into field of strategy, which is about creating a long-term success, it will be clear that to build a long-lasting success, you need to be able to focus on something that you can control. Furthermore, it will be clear that aimed results should be diverse, i. e. we should define desired input results (meaning what sort of effort we want to put in), direct output results (meaning what immediate result we want, like the way our team plays on court), and finally indirect output results (and that is where scoreboards and chart tables lie).
If you only focus on last measures of success, you are in for a confusing and stumbling time. And if you add other two groups, only then you can count on gradual and long-term progression.
Buddhism
Buddhist thought, at least to my mind, is about following personal fulfillment. With all that we do in life, what we actually do is learn about ourselves. This includes our ideas, as we learn about what they are, what they mean, and how they can be realised. Whatever happens on this path, is just another source of lessons or information about ourselves and about our fulfillment.
This goes well with idealism. If you read and remember from previous article, this general idea is one of the distinctive characteristics of idealists. To be able to go along this sort of life-line, you want to perceive any obstacles that arise as natural part of it all and not any sort of reason to step away. Of course, you learn and depending on what lessons are you may adapt your approach, but this is all just a well known part of life.
Minimalism
Last one on my list is minimalism. I am adding this especially for one important reason. I. e. to say clearly that minimalism is not about renunciation, but about knowing yourself deeply.
Minimalism is a thought and approach to life which is build on having a great knowledge of one’s self. You ask yourself what are most important things in life for you. You ask yourself what are the main things that bring you happiness and fulfillment in life. And then, no surprise I guess, you devote yourself to realising those essentials.
Conclusion
For me personally, idealism is by no doubt a positive force. As I stated in previous post, we should let go of some cynic perceptions about it and let idealism have its part where we need it. We don’t need to worship it, but just see it with clear and objective eyes.
But further, to make it count and to keep it in its place, we must guide us through the challenges well. This is the point where other branches and contents of philosophy can help in great deal with the messages they carry. I named just a short selection of them, but there are many more to discover or get acquainted with, if that is in your interest. There are some good Youtube channels like Philosophies for Life, After Skool, and others, where you can get more from this content.
Paradim 