Thomas Merton: What American "Conservatives" Don't Get

Alan: American "conservatives" automatically write off anyone they consider undeserving.

"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.  The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization.  We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”  

"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton

More Merton Quotes

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/04/merton-best-imposed-as-norm-becomes.html

Pax on both houses: Merton: "The best, imposed as a norm ...

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Pax on both houses: Thomas Merton On The Relationship ...

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Pax on both houses: Thomas Merton On Buddhism And ...

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Pax on both houses: Thomas Merton On Serving Two Masters

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Pax on both houses: Thomas Merton And The Eternal Search

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Pax on both houses: Thomas Merton: "The Beginning Of Love"

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Pax on both houses: "We Are Living In A World That Is ...

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Pax on both houses: Thomas Merton Quotations

paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/12/thomas-merton-quotations.html

Pax on both houses: Thomas Jefferson On "The Absolutely ...

paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/.../thomas-jefferson-on-absolutely.html

Both Houses Yorker Cartoon Stories. Thomas Merton Terrible

"The Hard, Central Truth Of Contemporary Conservatism"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/04/obamacare-and-hard-central-truth-of.html