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The Idiot and the Ideal Human Being


One of Dostoevsky’s compelling novels is The Idiot whose protagonist is Prince Myshkin who is perceived by people as an idiot. On the one hand, Myshkin is an ideal human being with his truthfulness, humility, meekness and altruism. On the other, he is incompatible with the real world of basic self-interest and animal passions.

Myshkin, like most saints, is admirable from a distance. But emulating his example will destroy our lives. Saintliness is good in church-alcoves. In the world of real human beings, it is inadvisable. People will hate you if you are so good. And they will drive you mad. Or they will destroy you, even kill you. In the beginning of the novel, Myshkin comes to Russia from a sanatorium in Switzerland where he was under treatment of sorts. At the end of the novel, he is driven back to the same sanatorium as a mentally broken person. His encounters with the complex human world wreck him mentally.

You can’t be too good and be human at the same time. Human beings admire goodness. But they won’t let it near them. Not too near, that is. That is why, we keep our gods and deities locked up in shrines and temples and churches, far away from us. We will visit them when we need to be reminded of such goodness. When the world has sucked out our goodness from Monday to Saturday, we will go to church on Sunday and replenish our hearts with whatever goodness we are capable of withdrawing from there.

Nowadays, the places of gods and saints are not able to transfer much goodness to the devotees, I think. Maybe, those places have been politicised too. I find a lot of hatred peddled from those places these days. Most people I meet now are too religious. Sickly so.

There’s a Christian song that I love. A hymn, I believe, it is. Some of the lines are like this:

       Do You remember, when You walked among men
            Well Jesus, You know if You're looking below
            It's worse now than then
            Pushing and shouting…

Christians all over the world, belonging to an infinite number of sects like Roman Catholics and Protestants and Restorationists and Emmanuel Emperor Church and so on, just celebrated Easter. All these Christians, about 2.5 billion in number, believe that Jesus came to make the world a better place. But, as the song cited above says, the world has become “worse now than then.” Evil has only increased in the human world year after year though many divine incarnations came and went with the sole objective of reducing the evil.

Jesus was killed at the age of 33 by his goodness. Dostoevsky created Prince Myshkin in the image of Jesus to a great extent. Myshkin is wrecked at the age of 26. Jesus and Myshkin are two ideal human beings. Neither could survive in the human world. One became a god and the other became an idiot. The ideal human being is an idiot in the practical world of ordinary human affairs. Except the very few lucky ones who become gods.

PS. This post is part of #BlogchatterA2Z 2023

Previous Post: Hurt in the Heart

Coming up tomorrow: Jurassic World [Not about the movies but about present India]

 

Comments

  1. JaiApril 10, 2023 at 2:49 PM

    Well, an excellent description of today's world where goodness simply cannot survive in the ocean of evil that surrounds us. After all it is kalyug.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 10, 2023 at 4:15 PM

      I am certain that India will survive any Armageddon because Modiji is an incarnation of god. Indian incarnations are post-truth.

      Delete
  2. Yamini MacLeanApril 10, 2023 at 5:13 PM

    Hari OM
    Harsh... but close to being true. I do think there are many who maintain goodness even in the everyday, but it usually comes at a level of sacrifice in some way (if perceived from the selfish greedy p.o.v.) For the 'good' themselves, they ought not to see sacrifice. If they do - then they are actually egoists and really part of the world they puport to be against! Which is to say, it is ego-lessness which is almost impossible to keep when engaging with the world, even where acts of goodness exist. YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 10, 2023 at 6:04 PM

      For the letter G, I wanted to write about Gulliver's misanthropy. It'd have been harsher.

      If the world has a few more enlightened people like you, Gulliver wouldn't hate humankind so much.

      Delete
  3. marietta pereiraApril 10, 2023 at 6:07 PM

    Good people have it rough. Near misfits. Well-written post around a unique idea. One Day At a Time happens to be a favourite of mine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 10, 2023 at 6:27 PM

      That's a lovely song. So meaningful and melodious. And the typical un-Christian questioning.

      Delete
  4. magiceyeApril 10, 2023 at 6:56 PM

    Extremism either way is not good.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ArtiApril 10, 2023 at 9:05 PM

    After reading your post, I read Yamini's comment. For me, the balance is restored:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. DeepikaApril 10, 2023 at 10:17 PM

    Loved your post. Found it the best among all i read so far. People are too religious and sickly so. Agree and so on point. The world doesn't recognise goodness.

    ReplyDelete
  7. deepti menonApril 10, 2023 at 11:09 PM

    This reminds me of the phrase "being too good for one's good!" I tend to agree with you... good people are often misfits in a naughty world!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 11, 2023 at 5:22 AM

      Innocence is dangerous for both the innocent and those around!

      Delete
  8. AnonymousApril 11, 2023 at 10:29 AM

    Truth is cruel. Your article is thought provoking.

    ReplyDelete
  9. जितेन्द्र माथुरApril 11, 2023 at 10:44 AM

    Prince Myshkin's story reminded me of a Hindi movie Yugpurush which was released in March 1998. In that movie also, a person released from asylum after 25 years and having a mind as clean as slate has to go back to the asylum only within just a few months because the world is not meant for truthful and clean-hearted people like him. You have truly asserted that the ideal human being is an idiot in the practical world of ordinary human affairs. Ideals appear nice in the books only. Majority of the people who call themselves as 'practical' and 'prudent' use them in words but keep an optimal distance from them in their deeds.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 11, 2023 at 3:01 PM

      Being practical means making compromises. The movie you mentioned must be exploring that theme. Too much goodness won't do anyone good.

      Delete
    2. जितेन्द्र माथुरApril 12, 2023 at 8:06 AM

      Not for the good person at least.

      Delete
    3. जितेन्द्र माथुरApril 12, 2023 at 8:11 AM

      And more than making compromises, being practical is meant to be a hypocrite (not being true to own words).

      Delete
  10. Harshita NandaApril 11, 2023 at 8:15 PM

    Harsh but true...good people are found fewer every year and not really in real life

    ReplyDelete

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