Saturday, June 25, 2011

JOHN ADAMS TO THOMAS JEFFERSON ON POWER

"Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all His laws."

John Adams, letter to Jefferson, 1816
H/T to Rmj at Adventus, who also quotes Reinhold Niebuhr:
In any event we have to deal with a vast religious-political movement which generates more extravagant forms of political injustice and cruelty out of the pretensions of innocency than we have ever known in human history.
Rmj notes that Niebuhr wrote the words in 1959, and says, "Good to know there's been some progress....."

How sad to see it spelled out plainly that, on certain issues, such as economic justice and equality, we have not come a long way, baby. Rmj's entire post is surely worth a read.

4 comments:

  1. That is quote by Adams says it all about those who are in power. Many....way too many there see themselves as saviors of the people not their servants.

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  2. Very thought-provoking quote from Adams.

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  3. It is one of the less attractive features of most governments that they quite clearly believe the population is on the whole stupider than they are.

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  4. Something seems to happen to all too many folks when they assume high office. They believe their brains leap to a higher level of functioning than the rest of us. They begin to believe their own publicity.

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