By Ozodi Osuji
Plato was an idealist. His comparison of people to prisoners in a dark cave is evidence that he considers people to be living in darkness and see only the shadows of themselves; this implies that they have better selves in the light (in heaven).
In his sketch on how to select good leaders, he advocates selecting boys who show leadership promise and training them, giving them examinations, and after years of rigorous training, then house them in barracks like houses so that they are not tempted to be rich, hence corrupt, and from there they rule society as philosopher kings. This view does not encourage democracy but aristocracy.
Aristotle, on the other hand, was not seeking ideals but merely described people, society, and the natural world as he saw them to be. He was not advocating for changes in people, society, and nature. Women and slaves were excluded from participating in his society, and he did not wish for that to change.
Aristotle was an empiricist and a realist, in today’s language, a scientist. Science observes nature as it is and makes the most of it without the desire to change it.
The idealist sees people as they are but finds them lacking, wishing instead for an improved version of humanity.
People are what you see them as, imperfect, and if you want to relate to them, you have to relate to them as they are, not as they should become. The pursuit of the ideal is the wish of the wisp; it is not going to happen.
People live in a world that causes them pain; they try to improve that world, remove that pain, and obtain pleasure. Some people take this wish for improvement of things to the extreme and try to completely change the world and make it a bed of roses.
Helen Schucman, in A Course in Miracles, says that we shouldn’t even try to improve the world because to do so is to try improving feces; it will always be feces; therefore, give it up and seek an already improved version of it. The Holy Spirit, right from the moment the son of God wished for this world and seem to have separated from God, improved it in the real world, the gate of heaven, the bridge between heaven and earth but to see it you must completely tune out the wishes for anything that has to do with the earth; you must forgive the wrongs people did to you, overlook the world because it is a dream and what is done in dreams have not been done, to be able to see the Holy Spirit’s astral world. This is extreme spiritual idealism; it is a myth and not real.
The world remains what we see it as, imperfect despite our wishes for it to change and become Eldorado; people continue to be evil despite our wishes that they be angels. Such is life, C’est la vie, deal with it, do not complain about spilled milk.
However, if you consider this world a world of art, fiction, you can always construct better works of art to look at, provided that you understand that art is not reality.
In my observation of human beings, only a handful of them are true idealists who want to change themselves, other people, society and its institutions, and nature and make them ideal. Most people simply accept themselves and the world as it is. So, what forces produce extreme idealists, change agents? Are they playing God? I would like someone to explain this conundrum to me.
Ozodi Osuji
March 23, 2026
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