Anti-Idols: Separating the Artist from the Art
A few weeks ago, I concluded the piece The Iterative Nature of Human Evolution by stating humans are terrible at predicting the future but are incredibly skilled at determining what interests them and what doesn’t. This week’s piece builds on that concept as we explore the purpose of anti-idols.
What is an Anti-Idol?
We all grasp the concept and the role of idols and role models in our lives. These are the individuals we look up to and whose ethos we desire to embody. Conventional wisdom dictates it’s healthy to have such influencers, but what it ignores are the equal, if not more beneficial influencers known as anti-idols.
If the definition of an idol is an individual who we admire and strive towards, then the definition of an anti-idol is somebody we do not desire to admire in any form, manner, or shape. Based on this definition, it’s easy to see why conventional wisdom ignores this group. However, the logic behind ignoring this group is flawed as it goes against proven neuroscience.
The Neuroscience of Anti-Idols
Neuroscientifically speaking, memories are more likely to form when a strong negative or positive experience is associated with them. Furthermore, it has been theorized negative emotions form stronger memories as a result of our evolutionary defense mechanisms, though this extension has yet to be validated. Extrapolating from here, we begin to see the issue with exclusively identifying idols as opposed to identifying both anti-idols and idols.
Anti-Idols: Separating Artists from Their Art
Identifying anti-idols may seem like a simple process — encounter someone you don’t like, notate why you don’t like them, rinse and repeat. Theoretically, if one were to repeat this process enough, one could develop a strong conviction of their ideal self based on process of elimination. Again, it seems like a simple process. There is ,though, one lynchpin — it’s likely your anti-idols and idols are the same people.
This lynchpin provides an excellent opportunity to elaborate on an important skill you’ll need to develop on the journey of being more — being able to separate artists from their art.
Thus far, the only “artist” we’ve discussed in Becoming Polymathic is Leonardo DaVinci. Within that discussion, we illustrated the Maestro as a brilliant but distracted and distant individual. Leonardo’s work is undeniably brilliant; his personality and work habits, however, are not. This same dichotomy can describe many “artists” such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Henry Ford, Rudolph Diesel, and Salvador Dali.
Developing Acceptance
The ability to separate the outcome of a person’s efforts from the person themselves is a difficult skill to develop, particularly if you know the person or are patrons of his or her work. For the same reasons strong emotions enhance memory formation, our ideas surrounding individuals we have deep connections with are strong and difficult to change.
Therefore, the prerequisite to fully developing this separation skill is developing acceptance, or in more colloquially terms, understanding perfection is impossible. Acceptance will lead to enhanced perspective and, in this context, enhanced perspective means being able to annotate the admirable and deplorable characteristics of your anti-idols and idols.
Ancillary Benefits of Anti-Idols
Consequential to this skill’s development is the enhanced understanding of yourself. Here we go again with the Shadow…I won’t restate what the Shadow is, I’ll just state it tends to manifest itself in the aforementioned deplorable characteristics of others.
There’s another ancillary benefit to adopting anti-idols, and it’s the speed by which you can align yourself. No neuroscience necessary here; as long as you can spin the adage “burning the candle at both ends” in a positive manner, you can understand why annotating negative and positive traits simultaneously is beneficial.
Anti idols are an essential part of your journey, and though discovering some of your greatest influences fall into this category can be catastrophic, it will prohibit the even more catastrophic consequences of living in naivety. Proper contextualization is not cynicism, quite the opposite, it is freedom. No single concept, idea, or possession we discuss in Becoming Polymathic is more important than freedom, for it is the ultimate catalyst for being more.
Be More.
Become Polymathic.
Quote of the Week: “People focus on role models; it is more effective to find antimodels — people you don’t want to resemble when you grow up” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb
