The suicidal pursuit of perfection

ShrinkWrapped does an analysis of the left's position of listening to terrorist phone calls in the US.

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It seems to me there are only two possible reasons the leakers, and those who print the leaks, can have for airing such potentially harmful information. The first possibility is that they are true believers in the absolute primacy of civil liberties; these are people who believe, for all sorts of often excellent reasons, that government power to control individuals is the ultimate danger and that any compromise of their position starts us on the "slippery slope" to totalitarianism. This position is, in some ways, quite admirable, though the logic of their uncompromising position leads to great harm to their own cause and to any influence they might wield or seek to wield. The other possibility is that they are political opportunists, using the issue for its value in damaging the Republican opposition for short term political gain. Aside from the noxiousness of this kind of behavior, I would suggest that their approach is similarly self-defeating, and threatens to marginalize their party and destroy whatever influence they might hope to wield.

There is a certain type of person who is intolerant of imperfection in themselves, and in others. They maintain the highest of standards for themselves and their society. In a profoundly important book written 20 years ago, the Psychoanalyst Arnold Rothstein described them as being involved in The Narcissistic Pursuit of Perfection. Their need for perfection leads them to attack all those who, inevitably, disappoint them; no one is ever good enough to make them feel satisfied.

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