OK, bear with me on this, here we go.
In Plato's Symposium, he defines "love" as a desire for something that one does not have. Whatever this may be, the chance is high that idols can offer it. It does not necessarily have to relate to love as such, but it could be something much more simple. For example, someone who can make you smile or cheer you up. Idols can offer you the feeling you are not alone or they can give you hope in darker times. Girlfriends can also provide "love." However, they have their own desires as well, so it's more like a two-way stream. It's give and take, whereas it's an idol's job to give. Of course, idols get back a lot from their fans in the form of fan letters and such, but it is not an on demand fulfillment of their specific desires.
Back to the argument of "idols VS girlfriends." They are not mutually exclusive and both can offer "love" in a different way. To further explore this notion, let's take a look at Plato's ladder model of love. The first step on the ladder is a beautiful body - The most obvious form of love. We see a girl and check out her appearance. This is true for girlfriends and idols. There are quite a few fans out there who first got into idols by seeing them in magazines and thinking they looked hot. You spot a girl you like and go from there.
The second step of the ladder is called all beautiful bodies - After a while we will find that the beauty contained in this beautiful body is not original, that it is shared by every beautiful body. Someone here summed it up nicely by stating that AKB48 helped him to see that every girls has her charm points. Every girl has something special. So that hot body we initially fell for is nothing special. Interestingly, a lot of idols can offer this second step of "love," whereas in some cases, girlfriends never make it past the first step. For example, one night stands. You meet a girl with a hot body, have some fun and it never evolves beyond that step. Please note: this is definitely not the case for all girlfriends, as we shall soon find out.
Once we realize that a hot body isn't enough to fulfill our desires, we move on to the third step: Beautiful souls - After most likely attempting to have every beautiful body, one should realize that if a single love does not satisfy, there is not reason to think that many ones will satisfy. As a result, we need to shift focus. In the words of Plato, "bring his passion for the one into due proportion by deeming it of little or of no importance." Instead, the passion is transferred to a more appropriate object: the soul. This is an interesting step for various reasons. When we get to know a girlfriend, we may not like what we find. No girl is 100% perfect and the chances a guy and a girl match 100% is virtually impossible. On the other hand, we barely get to know idols at all. We only discover tiny bits about their character and interests through TV shows, blogs and such. The plus side is that they promote themselves in such a way that they are highly likable by a wide variety of people. As such, it's very difficult to discover a trait of your favorite idol you do not like at all. In sum, even though the knowledge of a girl's soul may be deeper with a girlfriend, it also means there will be some flaws. Whereas idols offer a more shallow image, which is closer to one's ideal girl. One question that arises is to what extent you want to really know a girl? How well do you need to know a girl in order for her to be able "love" you and vice versa?
I'm skipping steps four and five because they are irrelevant to the argument. It's the final step where it gets interesting. In step six we will find out the answer to the great question.
The final step is Beauty itself - This is the platonic "form" of beauty itself. It is not a particular thing that is beautiful, but is instead the essence of beauty. Plato describes this level of love as a "wondrous vision," an "everlasting loveliness which neither comes nor ages, which neither flowers nor fades." It is eternal and isn't "anything that is of the flesh" nor "words" nor "knowledge" but consists "of itself and by itself in an eternal oneness, while every lovely thing partakes of it." So basically, love at its highest level is almost like a religious experience. It's not about one girl's hot body, or one girl's incredible wit, but it's an encompassing feeling that lasts forever.
Now, if we tone that down a bit, we can conclude that idols offer a higher level of love than girlfriends. An idol's love is unconditional. No matter who you are, where you or what you look like, you will always be able to count on your idol to be there for you. The ultimate question is, what kind of love are you looking for? If you have a girlfriend and you are only interested in her body, sure, go ahead. However, you'll be stuck at step one and only experience love at its most basic form. The question is to what extent that will fulfill your desires. In Plato's view, it won't. Furthermore, the argument that you can't have a physical relationship with an idol is irrelevant in this sense, because idols offer a form of love that has evolved beyond that step. The idea that we may have a natural drive for procreation may be true, but that is not necessarily related to the concept of love as we are discussing here. In conclusion, the higher we move up the ladder, the more we have to focus on an idol's unconditional everlasting "love."
Idols VS girlfriends? Idols.
Topic: [Poll] Idols VS Girlfriends (Read 5481 times)