Tuesday, August 18, 2009

"Wherever men hold unequal power in society, they will strive to maintain it. They will use whatever means are convenient to that end and will seek to justify them by the most plausible arguments they are able to devise. Nevertheless there are possibilities of increasing social justice through the development of mind and reason.”  
Reinhold Niebuhr, Moral Man and Immoral Society 

2 comments:

Holy Moly! said...

there was a time in this country when Reinhold was on the cover of Time Magazine.

The discourse has fallen far and hard, and I have to blame C.S. Lewis as much as Jerry Falwell. We've been trained to privilege apologetics over theology. Apologetics as a discipline is about reinforcing one's position, not about learning to question it.

Derek said...

I immediately thought of the health care debate when reading both of the Niebuhr quotes that you posted. There seems to be a crazy irrational dishonesty about what is really going on coming from both sides of the debate. I think I understand why (and maybe get a better handle on some of my own craziness) from your placement of this one in particular.

Thanks - as always.