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  • Writer's pictureMichael Holme

Two forms of perfection

Updated: Mar 31

People will understand a difference between the following, but they're worth clarifying. Conscientiousness does not imply a perfectionist personality trait. It means for example, that work is done to a best ability, and not out of neurotic obsessive compulsiveness. It's just the right thing to do. That's an all-round positive.


Work can be carried out to the same equivalent level by a perfectionist, but their attitude is likely to impact on other people, perhaps in term of unwarranted criticism.


The Roman Catholic church lists some hundreds of saints, which it asserts were perfect. In recent times, Pope Francis was irritated into hitting someone. Given that the Pope is the representative of Jesus Christ on Earth, and through the mystery of the Trinity, the Church views Christ, the Holy Spirit, and God the father, as one existence, and one might add his infallibility, then you'd have to doubt Pope Francis' chances of becoming another one of the saints (see video), despite his hard work against conservatism. You might question spiritual perfectionism in general.


As a more numerate than literate person, I doubt perfectionism through mathematical sense and logic alone. But conscientiousness in all its aspects is very desirable. It overlaps positively with moral, ethical, occupational, social, political, and even religious aspects. Like everything else in my thoughts or opus, it propounds a more internal rather than external basis. Personality trait perfectionism on the other hand, can easily spread from once person to others, and that tends to happen if it's uncontrolled, whether its impact is wanted or not!




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