Ideals In Difficult Times

"All these questions remain obscure and difficult and we must neither conceal them from ourselves nor, for a moment, imagine ourselves to have mastered them. It is a question of knowing how to transform and improve the law, and of knowing if this improvement is possible within an historical space which takes place between the Law of an unconditional hospitality, offered a priori to every other, to all newcomers, whoever they may be, and the conditional laws of a right to hospitality, without which The unconditional Law of hospitality would be in danger of remaining a pious and irresponsible desire, without form and without potency, and of even being perverted at any moment.
"Experience and experimentation thus." 

-- Jacques Derrida from On Cosmopolitanism

Derrida's deconstruction broke down the authority of ideas and tradition. The unconditional law, in this case the law of hospitality, can no longer be taken as unchallengeable and authoritative as if it were a transcendent Truth; it is simply something we have created. However, it is something that we have created and sustained. It is part of our tradition and is deeply rooted. It is a positive tradition that we see value in, believe in and wish to carry forward. This does not mean that it is practical or even sustainable in reality. Since it is our creation, we need to remember that their is no guarantee that it is practical, realistic or sustainable. We must 'experiment and experience thus' to see how practical, realistic and sustainable it is "within an historical space." All of our ideals, our core values, are traditions and ideas and could be put in the place that hospitality is put in here; they can be seen as unconditional laws.

I would add that it is reckless and foolish in difficult times to cling to and insists on the unconditional law, the ideal, as if it can save us and fix our problems. When the ideals are tested, it is time to-- among other things-- reassess how they have been implemented and how that contributed to creating the present situation that is testing them. This may change the ideal by reinterpreting it and strengthening or weakening it. It will definitely change how it is implemented. But these should happen through assessment of the historical situation, not through a bind and stubborn insistence on the absolute value and authority of the ideal. It must be practical but shaped by the ideal. For it to be radically idealistic in the face of practical and historical problems is dangerous and irresponsible.