When we think of an ideal, we think of it as a performative peak toward which we strive – a movement either toward growth, which is beautiful, or a falling away toward decline, which is sublime.
The ideal, in that triangulation from the beautiful and the sublime, is something we think of as manifested physically in the world, but truly, it is aesthetic first. It is for this very reason that it is the journey, and not the goal itself, which gives us the best pleasure.
It’s our nature to chase matter, but of course, the ideal is aesthetic. It is qualiadelic. Even if the achievement of greatness gives us a huge rush of Big Dopamine, it is nothing compared to the subtleties of all the Little Dopamine successes along the way. (As in Plato’s Gorgias, the pursuit of external pleasures is far less virtuous or even practical than the inwardly practice to “know thyself.”)
Indeed, it is worth pointing out that the greatest feats, the ones that flood us with Big Dopamine, only last a season and then they are gone – just as are the bountiful gifts of nature. On the other hand, the Little Dopamine gifts are always available to those who have the sense and the curiosity to notice them when they appear.
Indeed, the author of these gifts – ecosystems – is itself an ideal, manifested in all the wonderful growth and decay we find in nature (what we think of as “nature” is the material aspect of ecosystems). Growth and decay, life and death – these are what make the journey superior to the goal, for although they are the experiences we have, it is our interpretation of them that makes them beautiful or sublime.
Interpretation – imagination – is most important for us now, in the world today. Interpretation can be sublime, as when our pain becomes suffering, and it can be beautiful, for instance as attraction turns into love. Our interpretation is all that we really know of all things, including matter. All we really know of a rock is our description of it: hard, black, obsidian and so on.
Our interpretation is all we know of our goals in life as well. We think we want the Big Dopamine – we have been programmed to crave it ever since the dawn of civilization and the rise of technology and economies of more. This is why we are a civilization in decline, decaying, dying, so sublime.
It is necessary to refocus upon the beautiful again, the ideal, the qualiadelic.