I'm Copy Catting Kyle...again.

In A Perfect World
What drives the world today? What inspires us to be better and to progress as the human race? Is it money, knowledge, or technology? While they all could be factors, one that I haven’t mentioned stands above the rest. It still holds true today as it has throughout the time of mankind.
Think back to the Ancient Greeks and their worship of that which is ideal. Compare that with the Puritans and the twenty first century and we see that history has repeated itself, repeatedly! How does this apply? In a general sense of the word perfect it means to be “in a condition of complete excellence in skill or quality; without defect.” In this century we have come to view the Puritans as strict and unlike us, which makes it easy to pass judgment on Puritanism. Over time Puritans have developed a negative connotation, but the truth is that we share an underlying similarity.
Through the years it seems like each people has tried in their own ways to create a utopia. In the twenty first century we are guilty of this. Our definition of perfection may be the same as the Puritans interpretation, which is that we must be perfect, but the context is not. In modern times perfection is geared much toward material items. We have gotten into our heads that our value and the value of objects around us, is from superficial priorities. There is the pressure of ones identity in society that weighs heavily on our minds. Our standard of perfection is not based on sin, but rather tangible items, such as money or technology. Our society is more casual and tolerant because of this idea in contrast to the Puritans.
In the Puritans mind, their idea of a perfect society is one that is flawless and there are no mistakes made by anyone. Like in the Scarlet Letter, their driving force behind striving to be perfect is their devotion to their religion and their idea of predestination. Each person would then try accordingly to become perfect. This is why they are so cruel and unjust in The Crucible. They thought that they had found evil in their midst and tried desperately to root it out, even without logical reasoning.
There are two main reasons why in the Puritans’ society they strove for perfection in their life. One was society’s judgment of them. This was their identity in society and what the others in their community thought of them. It was also how they were dealt with when they committed a wrong doing. The importance of people who shared their priorities in those early times was high, because usually their small towns were all they had. As a small population of people in the wilderness, they used their perfection standard to keep them together. We can see an example of this in “Of Plymouth Plantation” where the Pilgrims-a religious party quite similar to the Puritans, of which they later blended together- had just come to the new world and had many struggles. The main reason they survived was that they had each other to rely on and draw strength from. Even though the Pilgrims were so much like the Puritans, there was the difference with the Puritans. As a result of the Puritans seeking to purify the church, they could not stand any other religions. Often times their tight knit communities that expected each person to be perfect made the Puritans strict and intolerant. They were a kind of elitists who mocked and scorned others who had sinned. We see this in the Scarlet Letter because Hester Prynne who has sinned was an outcast in her own people.
The other reason the Puritans tried to be perfect in their daily lives was their world view. In their religion they believed in predestination. Their doctrine of predestination was that they believed that God has already chosen who will go to heaven and who will go to hell. Even though they didn’t know if they were chosen or not, predestination contributed to the fact that they tried to live perfectly every day of their lives. This was because they thought that God was always present and could see everything they do all day, every day. The Puritans believed in the concept of a unidirectional world. In relation to world view, unidirectional means that they believed the earth has a beginning with an end, and is watched over by one god.
Because of their world view, they were non-materialistic since they believed that their possessions were fleeting. They thought that everything they had belonged to God. Anne Bradstreet’s poem “Upon the Burning of Our House” is about a Puritan’s house being burned and all of her earthly possessions gone. At first she is quite distraught, but then she realizes that all her possessions were really God’s so it gives her strength. She says, ”And, when I could no longer look, I blest his Name that gave and took, That layd my goods now in the dust: Yea so it was, and so 'twas just. It was his own: it was not mine; Far be it that I should repine.”
Studying the Puritans I could see that at first glance they were not the kind of people I would like to be my friends, always judging me or holding me to a certain standard. But I also saw that as time went on, they became less strict. Although it is thought that they were very precise, almost radical, as the old saying goes, “time heals all wounds.” Just like in the Crucible when they forgot the injustices done to them, over time they became more accepting. We see that in Benjamin Franklin’s “Moral Perfection” that the Puritan idea of becoming perfect continues on in their posterity, but it has a softer tone. Despite of lousy first impressions, the Puritans most likely thought this about their ultimate goal of perfection; “Aim for perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it and persevere will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give up unattainable.” – Lord Chesterfield.
Today’s environment of developed cities versus the stark contrast of the wilderness the Puritans lived in is very different. The Puritans, however, do appeal to our cause of trying to reach perfection. Looking at the view from both sides of the fence, it shows plainly that a human weakness and our biggest mistake is that of our striving for perfection.