As it happened, Auden had also been reading [Reinhold] Niebuhr's views in his book Christianity and Power Politics, which he reviewed for the Nation. He summarized Niebuhr's argument that Western democracies, having developed from the Renaissance tradition, saw human history as a realm of infinite positive potential - and ignored to their peril the truth that potential for evil exists permanently within this realm as well. The progressive democratic conviction that an individual could extricate himself from a state of sin - that is, eradicate his potential for evil through either mysticism or rational action - was false. The practice of pacifism, for example, would never achieve its goal of world peace in the face of political devastation because it was based on the idea that perfection could be achieved simply through progressive thinking. Evil, whether active or latent, would always remain, and it was blasphemous, as well as tragic, to ignore this truth when choosing one's actions.
from: Sherrill Tippins, February House,Houghton Mifflin, 2005
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