Man does not exist in a cave (hence the ridiculousness of Plato’s Allegory!). Rather, we exist in complex webs of social networks and relationships and ideas, from the day we’re born.
Man, in other words, is a product of the ideas he’s surrounded himself with. And this manifests itself in every aspect of man’s development.
Take the culture that is France, and compare it to French wine; and take the culture that is Argentina, and compare it to Argentine wine.
The French wine-making process is, on purpose, a slow process. The master winemakers cultivate their wine while taking breaks to drink wine. They obsess over every tiny aspect of their wine (not to mention their cheese, for the more dairy inclined). They use the same processes that they have used for the last centuries.
Now, compare this to the Argentine style. The Argentine style isn’t necessarily better or worse….just different. The Argentine style uses the most modern wine cultivation equipment…as of 1970. The Argentine style values high quality wine, although not necessarily the perfect wine.
Indeed, the Frenchman Voltaire probably summarized the philosophical differences best (and he did mention Buenos Aires in the opening of Candide, if my memory serves!): the best is the enemy of the good. The French overwhelmingly ignore Voltaire and focus on the best, the perfect.
But the Argentines understand Voltaire’s wisdom, and even have a tiny street named after him: the perfect is the enemy. The obsession with the perfect prevents us from making the marginal improvements we need to improve, to succeed; it puts your mind in the sky, not your feet on the ground. That’s what the good is for: the good improves us bit by bit, and slowly brings us closer to perfection.
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