Right Thing, Right Now: Justice in an Unjust World

by Ryan Holiday

Theodore Roosevelt came to understand this. After he discovered how the other half lived and set about attacking various corrupt interests, he was repeatedly foiled by his opponents’ superior understanding of parliamentary maneuvers as well as the judges and reporters under their control. His friend Jacob Riis would say that “honesty was not enough.” To eventually change the political and economic landscape of the country, Roosevelt would have to not just be right, but be savvier and more skilled than those who wished to stop him.

the seven blunders of humanity. Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Religion without sacrifice. Politics without principle.

Any philosophy that hardens you to the plight of other people, any philosophy that punches down (at people who are different, at people who have less) instead of up (as the Stoic Opposition did to Caesar and Nero and Domitian), any philosophy that rages instead of loves? These ideas are the plague of our time.