What is the difference between ideals and idols
Ideal and idol – as similar in sound these words! But what are different, even in some way opposite in meaning. How great the creative influence of ideals is, the influence of idols is just as destructive.
The ideal (translated from Greek – the ideal image, idea) determines the way people think, act, awakens the desire for the better, for excellence. Man sets a goal and tries to achieve it, while his will is trained, character tempered. The presence of an ideal, like a firm belief in the truth, justice, good, often helped people to survive in hopeless, seemingly situations.
The ideal is always the embodiment of something high, bright. In many respects this concept is synonymous with the concept of “beautiful.” It is not accidental that Hegel considered him to be the image of a human spirit, eternally developing, overcoming contradictions, his “alienated” states. The realization of the ideals of humanity he associated with the establishment
Quite a different content carries the concept of an idol (in translation from the Greek – the image, likeness). An idol is the subject of blind, reckless worship. From time immemorial, they considered a certain deity, totem, sometimes it was an image or some belonging of this deity. Idols were worshiped, they were offered sacrifices, ceremonies were performed for them, sometimes cruel and inhuman. Those who worshiped idols did not think about what and for what they do, their actions were meaningless. The mind of such people was gradually eclipsed, except for blind honoring in their life there was nothing. Unfortunately, and now there are idols, or idols, which fill the human
Thus, if the ideal is a high bright goal that leads a person along the path of development and perfection, then the idol is a disease that “damages the mind and leads to degradation.” Trying to achieve the ideal, we know the world around us, try to learn more, learn more, to get closer to the desired goal. When we are subject to the influence of idols, we do not develop ourselves, but only blindly follow our deity, performing thoughtless automatic actions.
However, an idol can become not only a deity, a person, an object, but an obsession – a goal, albeit unconscious. Paralyzing the will and character of a person, she forces him to observe rituals, prohibitions, prescriptions, gradually turning into a thoughtless creature that does not see and is conscious of nothing but his idol and everything connected with it, deifying and fearing it in superstition. “Superstition weakens, deafens,” wrote E. Zola, “to treat him tolerantly – does this not mean that you will always be reconciled to ignorance, to revive the darkness of the Middle Ages?” I completely agree with this opinion.
Summing up, it is possible to say figuratively that the ideal is light and the idol is darkness. And, reflecting on the question, how do they differ, it becomes obvious that they are different as day and night, like heaven and earth, as white and black. The desire for ideals should be encouraged in every way, while the creation of idols, in my opinion, must be stopped, and this phenomenon must be fought actively. And, as the Oriental philosopher Xun-tzu once said, “than to think only of worshiping natural phenomena and things, is it not better to tackle the establishment of their similarities and differences so as not to make mistakes.”
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