The Flaws in Perfect Systems

The following is a topic that can be looked at many different ways, depending on your orientation and preference. This is not a doctrine or deeply held belief, more like general musings and pondered thoughts. I rewrote it several times because my arguments were and probably still are flawed in places, but as you read it that is someone the point.  

An interesting thought came to me yesterday regarding human nature when I was reading The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. It was the fact that people are deeply complex beings that cannot be placed into any system and expected to all just function properly, like cogs in a machine. There is a myriad of influences, rational and otherwise on the reasoning of any one person, and no system can be designed to take this all into account to develop a “flawless” system. The best any system can do is limit the failing (materialistic and moral) of individuals and society and function as effectively, efficiently, and economically as possible. This means ultimately compromise of any system from a theoretical ideal. It also means that systems that take little or no account of the failure of human character and ability are likeliest to fail. This is why communism failed so badly, because it assumed people were basically perfect except a few bad apples at the top, and that bad behaviour wasn’t an inherent quality of humans but merely a reaction to the system.

My point is to say is that people enjoy pointing to such and such problem that once eliminated, humanity will be far better off. Whether its “big” government, capitalism, religion, or any number of possible bogeyman that is slowing or stalling human progress from reaching human utopia, the truth is that people are too complex for any one thing, or for that matter, any number of solutions to fix us completely. I think at its best Christianity understands the inherent fallen nature of humanity, both as a society and as individuals, of our inner competing impulses of good versus evil and the conflict between natural and spiritual desires. While humans should strive to better ourselves spiritually and improve the welfare of fellow humans, we should never expect perfection of earthly beings. Understanding that people are fallible means being able to develop a system that has mechanisms to deal with humanity in these moments, which can support the weak and vulnerable and suffering with grace and mercy, but also that there will always be humans trying to cause chaos and harm, and to deal with such elements properly.

This is why I think a society without a moral system derived of something beyond humans is necessary, since only God could create a perfect ideal for us to work towards, even if we cannot reach it. Otherwise we are only left with the arbitrary ideals of other flawed humans and ourselves, doomed to failure and too often blind to our own inherent failings.