Perfection, Control, and TRON: Legacy
Rev. Murray Speer - December 30, 2010
For as long as I can remember, my hobby has been movies. When I was very young, a movie came out that I found difficult to understand. It was about a man who created a world that he could only see from the outside - a world of circuits and computer programs. When the world he created was under threat, he unexpectedly found himself inside and fighting - not only for his own survival, but for the future of both the computer world, and the computer corporation he helped build.
That movie was called TRON, and there is currently a sequel in theatres (TRON: Legacy). Oscar-winner Jeff Bridges reprises his dual role as “the Creator” Kevin Flynn and his creation, the program Clu. A few years after his first trip into the computer world, Flynn disappears and leaves his son bereft. The orphaned boy, Sam, now a young man, discovers his father’s secret office and follows him into “cyberspace”. Sam quickly learns that Clu, once his father’s most trusted helper, has become a tyrannical ruler obsessed with purity and perfection. Clu intends to exit cyberspace with an army, and bring his mania for perfection to the outside world. Flynn himself is in exile, for although he is the most powerful individual in cyberspace (he is the Creator after all) he has given much of his power to Clu and can’t oppose him directly without destroying everything.
The schism between Flynn and Clu took place when a miracle occurred - cyberspace gave birth to new individuals. These beings were not programs, but were intelligent, and emerged independently from nothingness. Flynn celebrated this miracle, knowing that by studying them he could solve many of humankind’s problems in the outside world. Clu, however, was created to build the “perfect system”, and to him the spontaneous arrival of unprogrammed entities was the very height of imperfection.
How do we respond when our desire for perfection is met with unexpected intrusions? The word “perfect” appears many times in the Bible in both the Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures and the New/Christian Testament. In the Hebrew Scriptures, it is most often used NOT as an attribute but to REFER to an attribute: perfect beauty, perfect knowledge, perfect work, perfect way.
In the Christian Testament, we find the familiar commandment to “be perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). This word, however, does not mean without flaw - it means something like complete, fulfilled, or mature. It is related to the word that Jesus speaks from the cross in John 19:30 when he says, “It is finished.” Furthermore, it is in the context of the commandment to love our enemies. Don’t be childish and selfish, it says. Try to “see the bigger picture” the way the heavenly Father does.
The villain Clu is motivated by feelings of rejection and anger, and his desire for perfection is twisted into a desire for control and purity, and a hatred of all that does not fit into his ordered view of things. Psychologically speaking, perfectionism is related to issues of control and fear. Late in the film, Flynn admits that it was wrong of him to instruct Clu to seek perfection. The Church in various incarnations is also guilty of this mistake. By asking people to fit perfectly into a carefully constructed order, we have misunderstood the scriptures and created psychological trauma.
The perfect system is not one that is pure and orderly. It is one that is mature rather than childish and selfish. It is one that embraces the beauty of inspiration rather than a cookie-cutter ideal. It is one that sees the bigger picture, that true security comes not from control but from respect and equal justice for all. When we tell ourselves that we are pursuing perfection, it is really control that we are after. And that, say the scriptures, is very far from what the Creator had in mind.
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