My best friend Margot claims that it is both scary and hard to be as Good as she is. She tells me that being so Good comes with a price. The price is the agonizing fear that she will slip from her superiority because from her view, the only direction that she can go now is downward. Perfection is a hard thing.
Do we actually want our world to be perfect? That would produce two alternatives: remaining forever the same, or worsening. Presumably no one wants the latter; but the former to leaves a lot to be desired. There is the problem of unrelenting boredom, which makes perfection itself look suspiciously like worsening. At the least, as Lovejoy observes "It is not obvious that remaining forever unchanged should be regarded as excellence." Perhaps the best possible world then is one where there is "a force always at work to make the best better and the worst good."
Climb down a little, Margot. Give yourself, at least, the illusion that you have something more to attain, and perhaps you will feel less fearful of the downfall.
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3 comments:
i wanna get wit margot but she's too good for me.
I'm not perfect... Very close, yes, but not quite perfect. And I never will be perfect. And it is scary. Not because I never will be perfect but because people are going to stop liking me. Once people like you best there is generally only one way to go... And that is down and out of their favour. I mean I will always love myself for being so good and I can maintain that self-love, I just can't make everyone else continue to think I'm the best. Unless I learn mind-control, or invent a drug which makes people think you are the best. So, until then I will continue to slip. Simultaneously, I might be rising in other people's favour so I guess it is not all bad... It IS hard being GOOOOD. And it is hard when people just wanna get wit you! Like, is there even enough goodness to get wit all around?
I don't know, the downward spiral is pretty attractive, in the abstract anyway. Plummeting through the air. Becoming increasingly disheveled.
If being perfect necessarily entails collapse, folding into its opposite, then maybe pre-perfection is the real perfection. In which case Margot actually is perfect.
That bitch.
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