I was hoping to be back from my travels and ready to write a new post today. But the best laid schemes of mice and men… Well, you know. So I’m just up from the archives with today’s post. But this was a popular quotation, and the topic is always relevant. So I think you’ll like it. You may expect a new post this coming Friday, March 30.
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Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian and ethicist who served as a professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York for more than 30 years. He was a keen observer of politics and commented often on political ideologies and public affairs.
Niebuhr had a great appreciation for the rub between idealism and realism. He appreciated high ideals and principles. But he recognized that sometimes the most effective work must be done through compromise.
I think in large measure we’ve lost this concept in modern times. This explains much of the rancor, posturing, and polarization we see in modern politics and governments. It reminds me of the Abraham Lincoln quotation from an earlier post. He said,
There are few things wholly evil or wholly good. Almost everything,
especially of government policy, is an inseparable compound of the two.
In his quotation, Niebuhr reveals two essentials of democracy. An effective democracy requires a people who have an inherent capacity for justice. Democracy only works when there is a fundamental love for and striving for justice. Without a sense OF JUSTICE and a commitment TO JUSTICE—democracy will not work. A driving sense of justice makes democracy a viable option for a people.
But democracy requires more than a love of justice and a commitment to justice. A functioning democracy needs a means of PRESERVING justice. Why is this?
Because the same people who possess a love of justice and appreciation for justice are often the same people who have an inclination TOWARD INJUSTICE. Niebuhr understood why this is so. He said it was because groups often care more about self-interest than they do about justice.
As individuals we tend to strive for justice. But as groups we tend to strive for self-interest. You only need look as far as political parties, lobbyists, political action committees, and factious idealogical fringe groups to observe this tendency. Political factions will argue that it’s the morally superior ideology they’re trying to serve. But it’s often difficult to separate ideology from self-interest.
Niebuhr seemed to understand and appreciate this perennial conundrum. Many do not. So the endless rancorous battles for power, control, and self-interest continue. We may do best by letting Niebuhr speak for himself. He said,
As individuals, men believe that they ought to love and serve each other and establish justice between each other. As racial, economic and national
GROUPS, they take for themselves whatever their power can command.
When we consider this tendency, it’s no surprise that it was Niebuhr who came up with the now famous Serenity Prayer. In this prayer, Niebuhr wrote:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Niebuhr’s prayer is an expression of the timeless conflict he observed. That based on our ideologies and values, there are changes we would LIKE TO SEE. But realistically these changes can never be attained. We may not like this. We may stress out over it. But we must learn to ACCEPT IT. Some things just cannot be changed.
But wise compromise and courage will allow us to change SOME THINGS. As Lincoln pointed out, these changes are an inseparable compound of the good and the evil. Not wholly evil. Not wholly good. But something in-between. Sometimes the best we can hope for is moving CLOSER TO the changes we would like. Ideologues despise compromise. But their hatred of compromise results in NO SOLUTION rather than a less-than-perfect solution.
And though we must figure out what changes are BENEFICIAL, we must also figure out what changes are REALISTIC. We must learn to distinguish between what can be changed and what cannot be changed. This requires wisdom.
Lord Acton made a well-known observation about power and its tendency to corrupt those who have it. He wrote,
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Of course, power doesn’t HAVE TO corrupt, and we’ve seen examples in history where it did not. But power TENDS to corrupt. So the corruption tendency must be proactively fought. Though not everyone is willing to engage in that battle.
In a speech in 1852, American abolitionist Wendell Phillips said,
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty;
power is ever stealing from the many to the few.
Eternal vigilance must be the guardian of liberty. We’ve seen that though liberty is a marvelous gift, it tends to be fragile. So it must be protected. Always. As Niebuhr observed, not only does our capacity for justice make democracy POSSIBLE. Our inclination toward injustice makes democracy NECESSARY.
Without the capacity for justice and the eternal vigilance to preserve the liberty it secures—governments will tend to fall into the hands of ruthless, power-hungry, self-serving, despotic dictators. Winston Churchill once noted,
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government—
except all the others that have been tried.
Democracy is not a perfect form of government because power rests in the hands of flawed people. But when a people have a capacity for justice. And when those people realize that eternal vigilance is necessary to protect that justice from corruption’s tendency. When these two come together, we may have found the best form of government humanly possible.
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