Idealism: the Faithful | Archetypical Philosophies 3
a Short Essay for the Modern Existentialist
1 | Idealism: Keeping the Faith
As the reality of the Child’s situation begins to crystallize, we are left with two simple choices:
To rise and embrace this destiny—to embrace the Agency implicit in growing; the power to effect and change our world in the way which we see fit, or…
To cower away and deny it—to reject the fact that we’ve grown older, taller—stronger… and must now work and act in our own self-interest if we hope to continue to survive.
The Idealist is this first man: he who believes that his faith defends freedom—that the Innocent and the Blameless must be protected, and the light of civilization thus be defended against the onslaught of a cruel, savage, unnatural world which pounds against the wall. He thinks himself a hero—the one who wields the sword of Truth and Order; a defender who stands atop the wall, beating back the terrible monsters and demons lurking just on the other side.
Taking up his Agency—embracing his fate—the Idealist is a man who believes as well that there are two kinds of people in this world:
The weak, and the strong.
There are those who are destined to rise as protectors, and those who are fated to remain protected. There are those who are strong—who have Agency; and, therefore, a responsibility to defend the world in which the weak reside. An obligation to protect those who are unable to defend themselves against the Evils of the world beyond the wall.
And so, as the Child who has chosen Agency, the Idealist is a man who believes himself to have embraced and achieved Adulthood. He believes that he has grown to inherit Adult status, and therefore that that inherent Adult knowledge must also have been bestowed upon him—the knowledge of what’s right, what’s just, and what’s Good. Thus, he stands proudly atop the wall, waving his glimmering sword of Truth, believing in his heart that the light of Order—of civilization itself—deserves to outlast the darkness and Chaos of the world beyond its walls.
2 | Onward
The Idealist is the Faithful man—the defender who rushes to the wall, ready to cut down any Evil which would attempt to scale its stones. When he reaches the top of the wall, however, he comes to a sordid realization—that is, that monsters have no need to climb. He begins slowly to understand that Evil and Chaos are immortal, and he himself only mortal, and that the demons have all of eternity left to bash and break and tear away. Here, the sword he’s been given is useless—he may wave it, but can cut nothing. And so he realizes that, in order to embrace his destiny—in order to do what’s right, just, and Good—he must leap down from that wall in order to defend it, and must fight Evil face-to-face.
In order to do what he’s told that he should, he must first leave the safety of his home. In order to defend his Eden… he must first leave it behind. He must brave the dangers and the wicked temptations of the world beyond the wall—wading waist-high into Evil lands while still keeping faith and never succumbing… and, all for what?
So that the weak and the meek may live a while longer… and he, himself, may surely die?
And so, the Adult, our hero—this Faithful man—is thus put to the test. Will he remain on the wall, waving his sword—deceiving himself into believing himself to be still a hero? Or will he leap from the ramparts to the world below, wading deep into the muck and the mire… and risk becoming something else instead?
Philosophy: a mindset. An attitude. The way that a person chooses to see the world, and therefore to approach living their life.
Αρχή | archí: origin
Τύπος | týpos: form
An Archetypical Philosophy is the bare-bones, logical basis of a person’s mindset or attitude, inferred from observation of the way in which they choose to live their life.