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Idealism vs Realism

 


Idealism devastated Keats’s knight in the poem ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci.’ I imagine the knight as a charming young man until he met Beauty on the hillside. The young woman whom he met on the hillside was the personification of the ideal beauty for the knight. But that ideal beauty was as good as an illusion. It vanished sooner than it had gratified the knight’s quest. However, once you taste the ideal it is hard to be contented with anything less. The knight spent the rest of his life in quest of that ideal beauty. It was a futile quest, however. He squandered a lifetime on an unavailing quest because he failed to understand that the ideals belong to an illusory world.

Keats was a Romantic poet. The Romantic quest is essentially a quest for the ideal form of everything. The Romantics have powerful imaginations which conjure up paradises and hanker after them. Worse, they judge all given reality against those conjured up ideals.

Shelley, another Romantic poet, wrote that “Hell is a city much like London.” Shelley wanted London to be Heaven, an ideal city. The reality that was available to the Romantics repulsed them. They could never accept the injustices, prevarications, compromises and timidity that prevailed all around. Their blood boiled at the sight of such things.

I was a Romantic during my youth. It was one of the many blunders of my life. I could not accept the realities around me - the injustices, prevarications, compromises and timidity, and a whole lot more. I conjured up illusory ideals against which all the given realities were hideous. I grumbled and cursed the realities. I criticised and fulminated.

That was just the wrong way to look at life. The first and most important lesson that I missed was the need to accept reality. Some things are just what they are: hideous. Accept it. You can’t do anything about it but accept it and come to terms with it.

The realist knows that human life is awfully imperfect. Things are condemned to go wrong here on earth. If you are a wise person, you will do what you can to mitigate the downside of your given reality. It’s no use grumbling or fulminating. Accept the simple truth that things could be a lot worse. Accept the simple truth that people are fundamentally on Satan’s side than God’s. Not only things, but even people are also slightly worse than what they seem.

This doesn’t of course mean that one shouldn’t hope for and aspire towards a better world. Contribute what you can towards the creation of a better world in spite of the evils around. It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness, as many wise people taught us. The flicker of a gentle candle flame in the raging storm is infinitely better than a million slogans against the evil storm.

PS. This is the first in a series of #MissedLessons. Next: An Ounce of Appreciation

Comments

  1. Anupama JoshyNovember 24, 2021 at 7:45 PM

    Really helping! Emotionally and academically(La Belle Dame Sans Merci is in my syllabus)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 24, 2021 at 7:50 PM

      Glad to hear this, Anu. And all the best with Keats's Dame.

      Delete
    2. Anupama JoshyNovember 25, 2021 at 12:06 AM

      Thank you. I also remember you telling this story (as of the poem) while teaching 'A Thing Of Beauty. '

      Delete
  2. Yamini MacLeanNovember 24, 2021 at 8:17 PM

    Hari OM
    ...'The flicker of a gentle candle flame in the raging storm is infinitely better than a million slogans against the evil storm.'... Oh that we could all be that candle flame... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Moon's BOYFRIEND November 24, 2021 at 9:03 PM

    Being a candle light... I wanna be one too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. DawnanddewNovember 25, 2021 at 9:19 AM

    Excellent, sir! Unmatched way of conveying the message! We should stop being a Romantic ideal to get peace of mind so as to be really helpful to the society around. Personally speaking, I am still struggling to accept reality. The blog is yet another eye opener from the same magical hands! :))

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 25, 2021 at 5:49 PM

      It takes a different skin to accept certain realities. That's why you and me kept on making mistakes. So we had no real choice until life made our hides thick enough...

      Delete
    2. DawnanddewNovember 25, 2021 at 7:36 PM

      👍Agreed!

      Delete
  5. जितेन्द्र माथुरNovember 25, 2021 at 3:22 PM

    I empathize with you as me too was in the same boat during my childhood, adolescence and youth. The last line of your post is a real gem. People like yourself and myself should absorb that as that's the only way for them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 25, 2021 at 5:51 PM

      I could detect that similarity between you and me in many of your comments. I'm glad to have some similar souls in this space.

      Delete
  6. Pooja MahimkarNovember 27, 2021 at 11:04 AM

    So beautifully written!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Rajeev MoothedathNovember 27, 2021 at 8:43 PM

    Good to read these insightful pieces. Best wishes!

    ReplyDelete
  8. parwatisingariNovember 28, 2021 at 10:13 AM

    Tomichan forgive the younger you what you can that's it.

    ReplyDelete

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