Alan: With the dependability of tides, Too Pure Principles bedazzle "conservatives," seducing them to believe in rarefied "ideals" that, by nature, cannot be realized.
Tragically, this sequence of events does not end at mere failure.
Yes, ideals are useful, even necessary beacons. But they emit such blinding light that it becomes impossible for devotees to concive compromise as necessary for the achievement of every Real Good, however limited that good may be.
Voltaire observed that "perfection is enemy of the good."
By trying to be like "the angels" -- something we are not -- we first deny, then lose, our common humanity, and through idealized self-segregation of "The Chosen," coupled with self-righteous condemnation of "The Damned," we fall lower than predatory beasts.
ISIS and The Inquisition exemplify this abyssal Fall, a bottomless collapse in the name of principles so pure that "true believers" routinely ascribe them to The One and Only God who -- mirabile dictu! -- happens to be their God.
Alan: With the dependability of tides, Too Pure Principles bedazzle "conservatives," seducing them to believe in rarefied "ideals" that, by nature, cannot be realized.
Tragically, this sequence of events does not end at mere failure.
Yes, ideals are useful, even necessary beacons. But they emit such blinding light that it becomes impossible for devotees to concive compromise as necessary for the achievement of every Real Good, however limited that good may be.
Voltaire observed that "perfection is enemy of the good."
By trying to be like "the angels" -- something we are not -- we first deny, then lose, our common humanity, and through idealized self-segregation of "The Chosen," coupled with self-righteous condemnation of "The Damned," we fall lower than predatory beasts.
ISIS and The Inquisition exemplify this abyssal Fall, a bottomless collapse in the name of principles so pure that "true believers" routinely ascribe them to The One and Only God who -- mirabile dictu! -- happens to be their God.
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully
as when they do it from religious conviction."
Devout Christian, Blaise Pascal
as when they do it from religious conviction."
"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice. The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization. We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal. Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good. The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”
"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton
"The profoundest truths are paradoxical."
Laozi (Lao Tze)
"You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image
when it turns out God hates all the same people you do."
Tom Weston S. J.
Laozi (Lao Tze)
"You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image
when it turns out God hates all the same people you do."
Tom Weston S. J.
Tom Weston S. J.
http://davincidilemma.com/2012/06/how-your-perfectionism-affects-others/
Religion and Perfectionism
My colleague Sean Sullivan has more on the confusion among Republicans in a piece titled "With clock ticking, Republicans feud over DHS funding." That is precisely not the headline that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wanted to see three months after promising to show that Republicans could form "a responsible, right-of-center, governing majority." If Republicans want to govern responsibly with President Obama in the White House, they need a negotiating position. Until they have one, it's hard to see what they hope to accomplish by holding the federal agencies to arbitrary deadlines.
"The Party of Personal Responsibility" Is "The Party Of Personal Irresponsibility"
"The Party of Personal Responsibility" Is "The Party Of Personal Irresponsibility"
Republican Rule And Economic Catastrophe, A Lockstep Relationship
"Do Republicans Do Anything But Piss, Moan, Bitch, Whine?"
"Do Republicans Do Anything But Piss, Moan, Bitch, Whine?"
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