Much of the Western thought centers itself around the idea that people
are imperfect. Out of that conclusion, people say such things as "there
cannot be a perfect culture" or "there cannot be a perfect knowledge"
or "there cannot be a perfect society."
My question: What do you mean by "perfect"?
It may seem like a shock, but different cultures have different ideas
of what makes for perfection. The Christians consider perfection to be
a matter of being Christ-like - a state that they believe nobody can
attain, but that is the key to eternal paradise through Jesus. The
Hindus and Buddhists consider perfection to be a matter of ridding
one's soul of all bad karma and the desires that they view to be
impure, and of finding one's way into a place of complete love and
compassion, in order to attain liberation and merger into the divine.
The Muslims consider perfection to be a matter of following sharia; the
Jews, of following the Commandments; the Con****ians, of fitting in
perfectly with the deified social order; the Taoists, of ridding
oneself of the poison of society and going with the Tao - the invisible
flow of nature and mind that they consider the divine.
And this is only for the religions. As far as secular ideologies are
concerned, Communists regard perfection as being completely selfless
and dedicated to the service of the cause of Communism, objectivists
regard perfection as being completely self-motivated, logical (which
they define as being based utterly in self-interest) and self-
determining, and many in science community regard perfection as being
completely rational and open-minded and dedicated to pursuit of
knowledge. Other ideologies, from 18th century enlightenment onwards,
all had their own idea of what makes a perfect human being.
Now I ask you this question. With all these definitions of what makes
a perfect person running around, how can anyone be perfect at all? Is
it possible to be a perfect Taoist and a perfect Communist at the
same time? How about a perfect Hindu and a perfect objectivist? What we
have, it seems to me, is a kaleidoscope of all the different colors
through which we can see the light in different manifestations - which
all rearrange themselves with every change in available knowledge - and
whose flux creates a moving picture through which can be seen
different aspects of the light - but in which no light can be gleamed
whole.
What is perfection? It is believed that people are imperfect; the same
idea however has not been applied to nature. I had seven perfect cats -
perfect because they were what nature intended for them to be: clever,
beautiful, sweet, loving creatures. The trees outside my window are
perfect. The Sun is perfect. Why, then, not people?
It is my belief that the reason for this is that we judge people's
perfection in a different way than we judge that of nature. While
plants and animals are made perfect by being fulfillment of their
natural propensities, people are regarded as perfect if they subvert
themselves to one or another social or moral code. While animals are
made perfect by being who they are, people are supposedly made perfect
by striving to be something other than what they are: To be Jesus, to
be Gandhi, to be Bill Gates, to be Abraham Lincoln, but never to be
themselves.
And that is the reason we get the silly notion all over the place that
people are imperfect - and the bad philosophies and social dynamics
that stem from that notion.
I ask you this. Is a cat made perfect by being the best cat it can be,
or is it made perfect by trying to be a dog? Is a Persian cat made
perfect by being the best Persian cat it can be, or is it made perfect
by trying to be a Russian Blue or a British Shorthair?
In the same way, the concept of most cultures of what constitutes
human perfection is badly and horribly flawed. It is based on changing
one's nature in order to be something that one cannot be - that one
can never be - while preventing one from being the best thing that one
can be.
How can a human being be perfect? Emphatically not by trying to
emulate anyone else - whether it be parents, relatives, business or
political leaders, religious figures or anyone else. Rather, it is by
being the best human being that he or she can be, given his or her
natural propensities, talents, and potential. It is by being the most
complete, most wise, most developed, most potent, most loving, most
beautiful manifestation of what that person can be given their gifts
and their possibilities. And it is this perfection - true perfection as
human being - perfection that is the most complete fruition of what
exists inside as potential - that is the true human perfection -
achievable human perfection - and human perfection that, in a free
interaction with other similarly realized people, can create a perfect
culture, perfect society and perfect world.
Ilya Shambat
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