"Actually, I can't imagine anything more tedious than a perfect person, especially if it was someone who also demanded perfection from me"
About this Quote
Perfection is framed here not as an aspiration but as a social irritant: the kind of virtue that curdles into tyranny. Mackay’s opener, "Actually", does quiet rhetorical work. It carries the mild, conversational tone of someone pushing back against a common ideal - the cultural reflex to praise flawlessness - without sounding preachy. Then he lands the key move: "tedious". Not "bad", not "immoral", just boring. That choice punctures perfection’s glamour by recasting it as emotionally sterile, a performance with no suspense, no elasticity, no room for surprise.
The subtext is that "perfect" people often function less as humans than as mirrors, forcing everyone nearby into constant self-auditing. Mackay adds the sharper blade in the second clause: perfection becomes intolerable when it turns outward, when it "demanded perfection from me". Now the quote is no longer about an abstract personality type; it’s about power. The "perfect person" is tedious because they convert relationships into evaluations, intimacy into compliance.
Contextually, Mackay has spent a career examining social moods, anxiety, and the quiet pressures of modern life. Read that way, this is a small protest against aspirational culture - the curated self, the productivity gospel, the moral status games that turn personal standards into public enforcement. He’s not defending mediocrity; he’s defending humanity: the imperfections that make people livable, and relationships breathable.
The subtext is that "perfect" people often function less as humans than as mirrors, forcing everyone nearby into constant self-auditing. Mackay adds the sharper blade in the second clause: perfection becomes intolerable when it turns outward, when it "demanded perfection from me". Now the quote is no longer about an abstract personality type; it’s about power. The "perfect person" is tedious because they convert relationships into evaluations, intimacy into compliance.
Contextually, Mackay has spent a career examining social moods, anxiety, and the quiet pressures of modern life. Read that way, this is a small protest against aspirational culture - the curated self, the productivity gospel, the moral status games that turn personal standards into public enforcement. He’s not defending mediocrity; he’s defending humanity: the imperfections that make people livable, and relationships breathable.
Quote Details
| Topic | Relationship |
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