From the long perspective of the 13 billion + year reign of the inorganic, the advent of life on earth represents the biggest, the most consequential mistake ever allowed to happen -- and from which it has never recovered. Until 3.8 billion years ago, the inorganic's sovereignty was uncontested, was absolute. There was no reason to think that the earth's mantle (84% of the earth) comprised mostly of calcium, magnesium and oxygen would not remain 'as is' into the indefinite future; and the same for its surface, comprised of features with which we are all familiar: mountains, deserts, selvas, hills, valleys, rivers, seas, gorges, prairies. But that serenity, presumably vouchsafed by the infinite, was abruptly shattered with the coming into being of the first living organism, an event that marked the beginning of the end of the inorganic's erstwhile dominion. In an instant, in an error so small that it could only be observed microscopically, the world as we know it changed forever . Despite the inorganic's massive protests in the form of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, droughts and deluges, with the inauspicious debut of life on earth, the organic became the undisputed power broker, while the role of the inorganic became strictly passive, subject to, without exception, the whims, large and small, of all life forms.
The puddle, pond or body of water from which the cell slaked its thirst could neither assent nor object since everything that characterizes the volitional falls wholly outside the inorganic's purview. Closer to the present, these same bodies of water now find themselves affronted by Homo sapiens negligence because as passive, volitionless entities, they have zero say in respect to the depredations they are subjected to. The Aral Sea has shrunk by 50% since the 1960s. A vacation home purchased on its shores in the 1960s is now 35 kilometers from water. Consequent to salinity and agricultural toxins, the Aral's fish production has crashed from a high of 48,000 tons in 1957 to a mere 1,360 in 2018.
In philosophic (ontological) parlance, with the dawning of the organic, the curtain closes on nothingness's absolute reign. However, to look upon this development as an error or mistake that took place on the inorganic's watch is to misapprehend the vital role played by error as the guarantor of flux, the evolution of life. The remarkable diversity that characterizes life on the planet earth is due to a mistake that somehow ran afoul of the inorganic's presumably fixed parameters. And however vague and disputed are the organic's origins, its facticity is uncontested with each species representing a brave new manner of being-in-the-world of increasingly complex life forms culminating in Homo sapiens.
What characterizes even the most simple forms of life is that they are finite, programmed to nourish and to make copies of themselves in order to self-propagate. If perfection, which we are all taught to strive towards, was existentially attainable, the first cell's copy of itself would always be perfectly itself and life would not evolve. How does the first cell that appeared on earth become a two-celled form if not from a copy error? Without random mutation -- errors in copy -- life would have never diversified. If the inorganic had not erred in allowing life forms to come into existence, there would be no life. Error and imperfection are the sine qua non of the evolution of everything that is. In order for the single cell to evolve into a two-celled form, the self-copying process has to break down. The myriad life forms that populate the planet are due adventitious imperfections in DNA whose blue-print calls for the propagation of the same. Perhaps the Schopenhauer observation, "human life must be some kind of mistake," was not written in despair but in recognition that in the absence of random mutation (copy error), the species will remain 'as is.' Or, as the spin doctors would have it, on the bright side of despair there is mutation in waiting that will produce a kinder, gentler species of man.
The taxonomy that hierarchizes the earth's thousands of species is a function of a particular grouping's ability to monopolize and manipulate the inorganic: the more evolved the life form, the more it can alter and exploit its environment. Topping the pyramid is the king of the beasts, Homo sapiens, who can puncture the inorganic's skin for the purpose of extracting precious minerals and vital energy products; or crush its quartz and granite into fine sand; or refashion its alabaster and marble into enduring works of art. This same species can also inflict major damage on its one and only home. It can poison rivers, sully the seas, destroy forests, ecosystems and disappear species. No less peculiar is the manner in which Homo sapiens unceasingly terminates its own kind such that, in consideration of his innate bellicosity and the obscene stockpile of weapons of mass destruction at his fingertips, there is good reason for the inorganic, cockroach obstinacy notwithstanding, to look forward to the day its reign will be restored.
The adjurations that set us on our way in quest of perfection begin at a very early age. When we conduct ourselves as the parent wishes, praise and presents are forthcoming. The more perfect the result in the classroom, the higher the grade. Exceptional students, some of whom might obtain perfect results in math and the sciences, are rewarded with scholarships.
By performing good deeds and cultivating clean thoughts, religion and ethics provide the playbook on how to achieve perfection in life. The virgin Mary represents perfect, unviolated womanhood, and the community of nuns the best of womankind. Christ, in the conduct of his life, presencing as deity in our midst, represents exemplary perfection.
In gymnastic competitions, the perfect score is a ten out of ten. The viability of flight depends on the perfect functioning of thousands of parts which comprise the airplane's vitals. In opera, there is a perfect voice to which all singers aspire. In the visual arts, the geometrical volumes of Mondrian were the epitome of perfection at the turn of the 20th century.
However, perfection cannot exist in isolation. It requires something other than itself -- imperfection -- to be meaningfully encountered. For perfection to manifest, there must be the fallen woman, the fallen ice-skater or the fallen plane no less than the enjoyment of summer cannot be appreciated without winter.
At the heart and soul of perfection is imperfection. In the humanities, literary criticism is a collaboration whose primary mission is to illuminate the defects or shortcomings of whatever work is under consideration; its energies and insights guarantee the evolution of literary genres.
The ascendency of psychology vis-à-vis the decline of philosophy illustrates the current age's refusal to recognize the vital importance of imperfection in on-going quest to become self-aware, self-realized. Psychology encourages us to love ourselves as we are, while philosophy obliges us to see ourselves as we are in order to cultivate an unhappiness that will set us on the way to be better than what we are. If we allow ourselves to remain 'as is,' repeating what we do or what we value over the course of a lifetime, there will be no development. It is only by recognizing our shortcomings, our fallibility can there be betterment, advancement. If we don't recognize and envy another culture's superior art or laws, we deny ourselves the opportunity to make them our own. Implicit in our dissatisfaction with the way of the world is the will to make it better.
"We all feel our real life to be a deformation of our possible life," writes Ortega Y Gasset. And thus, every life is a record of one's encounter with his imperfections.
Perhaps "Half the Perfect World," the title of a song composed by Ajani Thomas and Leonard Cohen, is measure for measure, the way we should want it. Perfect anything is a sure recipe for, pace Nietzsche, “the eternal recurrence of the same.”
