Perfection
The idea of perfection has been something that has bothered me for the past few weeks. It started about three weeks ago when I heard Limbaugh (yeah, I listen to conservative talk radio) bashing Obama for admitting that the US isn’t perfect. Gasp, oh no, we might let the world in on a secret that they already know.
Anyways, at the time I thought about posting a quick note, but later decided it wasn’t really worth my time. Then last week during the DNC I heard a Clinton delegate talking about his displeasure with the way things had gone for the Clinton campaign, but if Clinton told him to do so, he would vote for Obama, saying “That’s my leader, and I’ll do what my leader says.”
I think we’re looking at two very closely intertwined viewpoints here, and it doesn’t stop with these two, there are plenty of Obama fans out there who truly and sincerely believe the man can do no wrong. Then there are people who believe their church can do no wrong, or their denomination, or their religion.
Let’s face it, when we come into contact with human systems, and individual humans themselves, the expectation that no wrong can be done is way off base. We need to realize that if our individual consciousness is telling us that something is wrong, we should be listening to that, if a candidate is wrong, we need to be willing to accept that point and find a way to bring the candidate to change, or perhaps find a candidate more in line with our beliefs.
We need to move beyond this idea that being wrong is an awful thing. It happens, we’re fallible. Clinging to the idea that any human (or human system) is perfect is only going to net more pain and heartbreak when the system or human that we have elevated so highly comes crashing down to Earth. Failure to admit wrongdoing when its there isn’t going to make the wrongdoing go away, it’s just going to let it fester until the problem is entirely to large to be dealt with in a way that is better for everyone involved.
We need to be willing to look critically at the systems that we place in the infallible category, and sometimes stop blindly defending a position just because it’s the position we hold. Politics comes to mind here, just as much as people who blindly defend their church just because it’s their church.
Criticism sucks, I know (Trust me, it really does), but without being open to it, and without being open to the fact that I/we/systems can be wrong about something, we’ll never change or grow.
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