He could feel in her
what he felt in his own mother—in every good mother—love of order and peace,
love of the well being of her children, love of public respect and private
honor and morality.
Theodore Dreiser – The Genius (1915)
Sometimes a quote leaps off the page. As an ideal it sets
all kinds of guilty hares running.
Guilty?
I think so – yes.
Ideals are not realities because they don’t have to be. They
remind us of many things, of standards we understand but don’t always observe. In Dreiser's day this one was widely seen as central to the single most important thing we do –
propagating the species. As far as one can tell it isn’t coming back - we have political ideals instead.
7 comments:
A world that is going if not gone.
Propagation of the species though is a fine goal.
Interesting, this made me think of the disconnect between ideas neatly set down on paper and the messy and frequently dishonest actualite.
Demetrius - I'd say gone.
James - and quite enjoyable.
Roger - yes the gap can be wide, but it's a reference point.
Yes, we need ideals to apire to and this is not just a conservative or traditional idea. Progressive thought has been proplelled by the 'if' word equally as much as by a hunger for justice.
Brett - in my jaundiced view a hunger for justice has a significant overlap with the pleasures of altruistic punishment.
AK Haart - I'm not sure what you mean by "altruistic punishment" but it sounds contagious. Better get some herbal ointment and have your aura checked out.
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