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This quote has stuck with me: > Paul Tillich wrote that all institutions, including the church, are inherently demonic. Reinhold Niebuhr asserted that no insti
by mattgreenrocks 3y ago
This quote has stuck with me:
> Paul Tillich wrote that all institutions, including the church, are inherently demonic. Reinhold Niebuhr asserted that no institution could ever achieve the morality of the individual. Institutions, he warned, to extend their lives when confronted with collapse, will swiftly betray the stances that ostensibly define them. Only individual men and women have the strength to hold fast to virtue when faced with the threat of death. And decaying institutions, including the church, when consumed by fear, swiftly push those endowed with this moral courage and radicalism from their ranks, rendering themselves obsolete.
https://libquotes.com/chris-hedges/quote/lbh3k8n https://libquotes.com/chris-hedges/quote/lbh3k8n
- oldgregg 3y ago^^^ you are here.
- fsckboy 3y agomany, even most, individuals do not hold fast to virtue even in their daily lives, and society has only crude solutions for dealing with that, but we must deal with it. organizations that consist of individuals who do hold fast to principle we tend to label as "cults", and their chosen principles are not necessarily favored by any majority. we need organizations, as imperfect as they are--which is as imperfect as we are--and so we regulate them as best we can. the Tillich quote you cite sounds Ayn Randian.
- mattgreenrocks 3y agoWe do need organizations. And we also need to see them for how they behave sometimes. Both things can be true.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]