Reinhold Niebuhr’s Political Realism: Get in The Political Dirt with Your Fellow Man to Counter the Evil Power Democracy Can’t Check

If you’ve never heard of Reinhold Niebuhr it’s still likely you’ve recited or at least heard his writing recited. He is the author of the commonly used and effective prayer known as the “Serenity Prayer.”

GOD, grant me the serenity
to accept the things
I cannot change,

Courage to change the
things I can, and the
wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as the
pathway to peace.

Taking, as He did, this
sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it.

Trusting that He will make
all things right if I
surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy
in this life, and supremely
happy with Him forever in
the next.

Amen

Niebuhr espoused the philosophy that there were limitations to religion, to nations, and to political philosophies looking to bring into existence their utopian world view. Man must find his truest expression within his community and with action within that community because mere reason/intellect/education will not save mankind from the evil that exists and from the power that can be wielded against the meek.

Niebuhr wants the individual to be smart like a God in the sense that he speculates and predicts but also smart like a fox in that he is pragmatic and can take effective and smart action within the constraints of his environment.

His vision of the future is a constantly evolving system where our communities influence our nations toward a system of ever-evolving conscience as nations wield increasing power to destroy all of mankind through the use of the tools of war at their disposal. The power to destroy all mankind ca be unleashed with the push of a button.

The process Niebuhr explains is organic and resembles the way that plants and animals interact with their environment in the process of natural selection. Good ideas spread through the community and are adopted to benefit of all humanity. Good ideas persist and form the framework upon which future progress can be built.

President Obama explains Niebuhr better than most when he offers his take away from a lifetime of study of Niebuhr:

“I take away the compelling idea that there’s serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief that we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard, and not swinging from naïve idealism to bitter realism.”

The challenge is to find ways to organize within your community that allow you to express the truest and best sense of yourself and with the idea that the community conscience is needed as a balance to power and wealth which can be turned like the point of a spear against the masses.

Political realism is the tool that can keep inordinate power and those that would abuse it in check. American democracy needs this realistic bend because the checks and balances of American democracy do not hold in check those that would use their wealth to subvert or control democratic institutions. The only protection against the power that tempts man is man’s ability to organize with reason and action within his community to hold these powers in check.

Additional Resource: Obama’s Favorite Theologian? A Short Course on Reinhold Niebuhr