On the name
I was born into a world in which the ideal was a crucial concept, an unquestionable thing, key to every concern (literature, morals, architecture, town planning, design, society, medicine, science, engineering). It was the thing that all bad acts were ignoring. The highest and best, the perfect, the thing to aim at and strive for.
The beautiful.
Were you now to ask me, What is the greatest cultural change that has occurred in your lifetime, at first this seemed a hard question to answer, but upon reflection I can think of nothing to rival this change.
The greatest change that has occurred in say the past 50 years is the rejection of the ideal as a concept, as a real thing. The transformation of the ideal into an ugly artefact, a defective, historical, oppressive idea.
The ideal has always been forsaken, by every fallen human being. But the object of every noble effort has been to quit this: to turn around, turn back to the ideal and honour it.
The ideal that is continually forsaken remains. The forsaken ideal is the thing. It is always time to forsake the forsaking, not the ideal. Death to death, as people say in Greece.
To honour the ideal is hard to do – some have said impossible. (The Apostle Paul suggests we cannot avoid forsaking the ideal since when we commit to unforsaking, the law within ignores us.)
Just how can a thing already counted impossible become harder to do?
What we know is that, however it is done, and it is done, it is not done by accident. You must wish to do it. And how does anyone wish to honour the ideal who despises the concept?
To forsake the forsaking is only harder when the language has been injured – when at any mention of the ‘ideal’ the big neon finger of language points at something repugnant.
The books to be issued from this press are efforts of resistance to forsaking the ideal.
First, opposing the instinctual and ‘irresistible’ forsaking, which (since the ideal is beautiful) is always some inclination to prefer the ugly.
Second, by resisting the new ‘forsaking by oblivion’ – the obliteration of the concept of the ideal.
Against the propaganda that there is no ideal (only an ugly human ‘oppression by ideals’).
Against portraying the ideal as ugly.