Moral Man and Immoral Society - Reinhold Niebuhr - Chapter 10

Chapter 10 - Conflict between individual and social morality

"The peace of the world must be gained by strife."   Augustine
The individual must strive to realize his life by finding himself in something greater.
Compare:
unselfishness vs justice,    love vs utilitarianism    or   non-violence vs coercion

Some conflict between even the purest individual morality and adequate political policy must always remain.

It is the responsibility of individuals to maintain the illusion that the collective life of mankind can achieve perfect justice.


My thoughts:
Obviously strife is a part of life but getting caught up focusing ONLY on specific cases of inequality and injustice causes us to develop very specific solutions and lose sight of the preferable over-riding principles like unselfishness, and love.  

Some may read Niebuhr's closing comments about maintaining an illusion as unrealistic "wishful thinking"  but those people would miss the point.  If each individual does their part the illusion will become reality, and furthermore all an individual can do is their own part.