I’ve been doing some contemplation on the subject of how ideals are formed. So far, I’ve come to the following conclusion…
Every ideal must possess three traits before someone will uphold it.
#1 Motivation to uphold the ideal. This I feel is mostly based on emotions. I.E. let’s say that the subject of the ideal is cheating. Now, you would have to have some sort of experience on the subject to feel an emotion about it (first-hand being optimal, although second-hand experience could work).
#2 Logic and reasoning is used to shape the emotion and form a code for the ideal. Once you have the motivation, you need to focus that into how you’ll use the ideal. You could feel hurt, resignation, anger, etc… if it was done to you or empathy for others that have felt the emotion. This could be positive or negative. For example, you could be so hurt that you would never want to cheat on someone or you may be resigned and feel that it happened to you, who cares if you do it to someone else.
#3 Lastly, an ideal requires conviction. The motivation to continue following the ideal. I believe that people with conviction constantly reflect upon their experiences, this helps to renew the emotion used to fuel the ideal. “Out of sight, out of mind” if you will.
Anyways, just throwing this out there to see what people think of my theory.
Your points seem to wrap the criteria for ideals quite nicely. They also help to portray how reasoning and idealism are all reactions to events- a kind of resultant order out of chaotic events. Humans often rely on strong experiences in order to create new reasoning, and to create new doctrines as a reprisal for those events. If I could word your points in a similar way . . .
“Legends” or “Movements” or “Ideals” . . . the -stuff- of human culture which seems to hold some pact or solidarity is reliant on 3 main concepts.
Emotional or religious icons
Strict philosophy of reasoning is not easily palatteable for common people, and is not effective for a movement (good or bad) without a creative depiction- a strong representation of desire. God has no followers until she’s given colour.
Logic
Tautologies have become perhaps the most powerful element in reasoning throughout history. Although they are not without fallibility- all beliefs, no matter how creative, must bolster a power against refutation. The sceptic is not an enemy, but a painstaking test.
Conviction
Actions speak louder than words. The last element necessary to make an ideal effective is a portrayal and some historical evidence that leaders were also consistent followers of their design. There is philosophical strength when the owner of an airline would fly one of his own plains just to prove that nothing bad will happen on year 2000. There’s philosophical strength when a person of a certain nationality will protect a person of another nationality as a testament against racism.
I have read somewhere that Ideas create children, or people who are very connected with their parents. In lack of their parents they create Ideals who will replace their parents, in a way – to show love to ideals instead of parents, because they can’t show theirs love to parents.