This is http://www.essayz.com/b0209021.htm Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words. {Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.} ========================================================== %PLATO WORLD REALM IDEAL FORMS FORMULA CONFORMITY+020902 %OBJECTS CONFLICT DESCRIPTIONS PRESCRIPTIONS DEVIL+020902 %FUNDAMENTALISTS INTERPRETATIONS SCRIPTURES HEAVEN+020902 %UNITY MANDATORY AGREEMENT REJECTION EXCOMMUNICATE+020902 %EXCLUSIVE ACCEPTANCE CONDITIONAL LOVERS SALVATION 020902 Plato suggested that there was a world of ideal FORMs and that world which we see is FORMed to conFORM with the ideal FORMs in the world of ideal FORMs. The craftsman who is the FORMer of a king's thrown conFORMs matter in conFORMity with the shape of the ideal FORM of a king's thrown which exists in the world of ideal FORMs. The image of a world of ideal FORMs regarding objects made of inanimate matter --- does not generate conflict so long as it is used only in the realm of inanimate matter ---which does not resist being conFORMed according to the will of an independent agent. Things get complicated if we move with this image of a world of ideal FORMs and conFORMity --- from the world of objects --- into the world of humans and human relationships. It is difficult to describe the complexity. Conflicts can arise from describing ideal FORMs for the proper behavior of humans --- who are usually not conFORMing to the ideal FORMs which are described. Is such a deSCRIPTion of an ideal FROM an implicit preSCRIPTion to which others must conFORM? Is there an implicit proSCRIPTion against being other than in conFORMity with the described ideal FORM? That depends upon whether those who are considering the questions are conFORMists --- who think primarily in terms of ideal FORMs --- in association with domineering people who are in the business of unilaterally making people conFORM --- to their own conceptions of the proper ideal FORMs --- which for them unilaterally set the standards --- for the proper conFORMity of other people --- who have yet to properly conFORM. For some religious leaders their chosen authoritative SCRIPTures contain deSCRIPTions of the ideal FORMs to which their followers must conFORM in order to be in acceptable FORM in conFORMity to the SCRIPTures which they have chosen. Some religious leaders regard humans as raw materials which must be made to conFORM to the ideal FORMs which are described in their SCRIPTures. The raw materials which refuse to conFORM are to be pounded into the proper FORM, or else to be thrown into the purifying fires which will soften them and make them ready to conFORM. Within the above context it is understandable that domineering religious leaders would object to any new deSCRIPTions of possible ideals, values, principles and human relationships which might properly be admired, honored, respected and supported. The introduction of novel new deSCRIPTions is likely to engender conflicts between old domineering religious leaders and new liberating religious leaders --- as was the case of Jesus of Nazareth who did not properly conFORM to the old ways --- and so was despised, rejected and killed at the initiative of defenders of the old FORMs of idealism which demanded that people conFORM to preSCRIPTive and proSCRIPTive laws which left little room for creativity, authenticity and novelty. There has been much conflict over deSCRIPTions which state the ideal FORMs for: God, political structures, laws, human intimacy, human sexuality, religious doctrines, religious rituals, heaven, hell, etc. Descriptions of ideal forms often extend beyond the shapes of things, relationships and texts; to how people should respond to and talk about how well things, relationships and texts conform to the presumed ideal forms for such things, relationships and texts. Domineering people feel that they must be in charge of the ideal FORMs and how people respond to departures from the ideal FORMs which the domineering people demand others conFORM to. Life gets progressively more complicated, contentious, coercive and violent in the absence of any ideal FORMs for resistance which is NOT contentious, coercive or violent. Domineering leaders are prone to try to succeed unilaterally; i.e., without knowledge of or cooperative considerations regarding: 1. Their victims' unique characteristics, desires, hopes, aspirations, gifts, fears, etc. 2. What is and what is not possible within the real realms of the cosmos --- considering the natural laws of physics, chemistry, biology, etc. which accurately describe the reliable patterns of cosmic processes. 3. How they (the domineering leaders) are ignorant, misinformed, confused, arrogant, self-centered, mentally-ill, psychologically-dysfunctional and spiritually off track. 4. The ways that their victims are likely to resist their coercive and violent ways --- in ways which the domineering leaders cannot imagine or oppose with integrity. 5. How they are excommunicating themselves from their victims --- and so making it impossible for them (the domineering leaders) to be well informed and well informed decisions and/or to know reliably how their victims are responding. (Victims are likely to conspire to keep domineering leaders in the dark.) (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================