Perfection or Consequences

One mind game I've seen people play might be called "Perfection or Consequences." It goes like this. They claim that if you're trying to revive an old tradition, you must revive it perfectly or not at all. Or they say that if you're trying to live up to an ideal, you must live up to it perfectly or else you're an eeeevil hypocrite. Or they argue that if you're trying to act according to the ancient forms handed down, you must do it perfectly or else you'd better not even make the effort.

The game of "Perfection or Consequences" is a lie, and those who play this game are almost always motivated by a covert malice. They are hateful liars, not honest enough to come out and confess the hidden hate which burns within them-- they hate that old tradition, they hate that noble ideal, they hate that ancient form handed down.

They are liars filled with a hate that dare not speak its name, and so they presume to persuade you of the impossibility of what they ardently desire you not to do. They limn for you a dartboard with an infinitesimal bullseye, a bullseye the zero dimensions of a mathematical point, and they lyingly claim that you must hit that infinitesimal bullseye with absolute perfect precision, or else you lose. Off by a fraction of a millimeter and you lose.

Of course they are lying liars, and they secretly hope to dishearten you so you won't even make the effort. "Perfection or Consequences!" Whereas the truth is that in most practical matters, as in the game of horseshoes, "close" is close enough. Try to revive that old tradition, strive to act according to the ancient form handed down, and "close" ought to be close enough. "Close" ought to be good enough that many good things will follow in your train.

Of course that's exactly what the liars who play "Perfection or Consequences" are afraid of. They're afraid you'll come close enough to succeed, and so they lie through their goddam teeth in an effort to discourage you so you won't even try.

Absolute perfection may be required before the judgment throne of God. But in practical matters of everyday life, in efforts to revive or continue the ways that long held sway, "close" is close enough. Just as in horseshoes. Don't let a malicious lying liar tell you otherwise, under the guise of "Perfection or Consequences."