I had planned to start the year with a flurry of business-related blogs, practical pieces to share experience, sharpen thinking, and promote the work I do. Over the holidays, I re-read a book that I first read in High School but rediscovered recently: The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness by Reinhold Niebuhr.
Then the year began. A sequence of recent public events, abrupt, brutal, and unsettling, forced a pause. They were not business topics. They were reminders of power, fear, and the fragility of the norms many of us quietly rely on. Before returning to strategy, technology, and finance, I felt the need to step back and share a more fundamental reflection. This is not a detour. It is context.
An Old Question That Never Goes Away
At its core, Niebuhr’s book wrestles with an ancient question: Is the world governed by moral ideals, or by power? Niebuhr frames this tension through two archetypes.
The children of darkness are moral cynics. They believe life is governed by power, self-interest, and force. They assume that talk of ideals is either naïve or hypocritical.
The children of light are driven by ideals. They believe in justice, reason, cooperation, and the possibility of building a fair and humane civilization.
Niebuhr’s uncomfortable insight is that each side understands something essential and misses something dangerous. The children of darkness are often brutal, but realistic about human nature. They understand the force of self-interest and act without illusion. The children of light are admirable and necessary, but frequently naïve about how deeply selfishness, fear, and pride are embedded in human behavior.
As Niebuhr puts it:
“The children of darkness are evil because they know no law beyond the self. They are wise, though evil, because they understand the power of self-interest. The children of light are virtuous because they have some conception of a higher law than their own will. They are usually foolish because they do not know the power of self-will.” (Niebuhr, 1944, Chapters I–II)
Why the Darkness So Often Wins Ground
Niebuhr does not romanticize the children of darkness, but he is honest about their advantages. They know what they want. They do not worry about nuance. They are not slowed down by internal contradiction or moral doubt. It is easier to destroy a social order than to build one. It is easier to mobilize fear than patience. And they capitalize on a deeply human reality: people fear death, irrelevance, and loss of status.
When humans feel insignificant, they often compensate by asserting pride, by seeking power and control, sometimes vicariously through a strongman, a movement, or an ideology that promises certainty.
This is not a new dynamic. It is a recurring one.
Niebuhr’s Warning to Idealists
Niebuhr is not rooting for cynicism. He is rooting for the children of light, but he wants them to grow up. His argument is not that ideals are futile, but that idealism without realism is fragile. Moral vision alone does not preserve a democratic civilization. It must be defended by institutions, incentives, and a clear-eyed understanding of power. His conclusion is captured in one of the book’s most famous lines:
“The preservation of a democratic civilization requires the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of the dove.” (Niebuhr, 1944, concluding chapter). In other words: The children of light must be armed with the wisdom of the children of darkness, without becoming like them.
The Question of Our Time: How?
Reading this book again today, I am struck by how contemporary it feels. The challenge of our time is not the absence of values. It is the gap between moral conviction and effective action. We speak fluently about justice, dignity, coexistence, and restraint, but too often we fail to engage seriously with how power actually works. The times call for real activism. Not louder slogans, not moral posturing, but disciplined engagement.
The question is no longer whether we believe in peaceful coexistence. The real question is how we protect it, without becoming naïve, and without becoming what we oppose.
That is the reflection I wanted to share first.
The business topics will follow.
