To the end of history, social orders will probably destroy themselves in an effort to prove they are indestructible. - Reinhold Niebuhr

the hegemony of America in the community of the free world creates some curious moral hazards. We are ironically held responsible for disparities in wealth and well-being which are chiefly due to differences in standards of productivity. But they lend themselves with a remarkable degree of plausibility to the Marxist indictment, which attributes all such differences to exploitation. Thus, every effort we make to prove the virtue of our “way of life” by calling attention to our prosperity is used by our enemies and detractors as proof of our guilt. Our experience of an ironic guilt when we pretend to be innocent is thus balanced by the irony of an alleged guilt when we are comparatively innocent.

Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; and pure love without power is destroyed.

Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.