Power, Pragmatism and Virtuous Leverage
Scope: The part of Right Thing, Right Now that asks how good people actually change things: the case for allies, power and competence, the refusal to wait for permission, and the model of Gandhi as “virtuous pragmatism.” The personal ethic that keeps this honest is in Kindness and the Expanding Circle.
Start small, start with yourself
Holiday’s opening move is deflationary. Against despair and utopian talk: “We can despair of the whole, we can tilt at the windmills of enormous problems, we can talk endlessly of utopian futures…or we can get to work.” The order of operations: “We begin with ourselves, our own standards, the things we immediately control,” then “what is closest to us, with the good we can do in front of us.” The unit is one person made happier, one thing made better. “It’s small but it is not nothing. In fact, it’s everything.” He quotes: “The difficult undertakings in the world all start with what is easy. The great undertakings in the world all begin with what is small.” And a civil rights marcher: “We won when we started.”
Allies, then power
The pivot is that rightness does not win by itself: “it would be wonderful if causes succeeded because they were right … But they don’t and that’s not how the system—or history—works.” The bluntest sentence: “The side with the most allies usually wins.” Practical consequences:
- Ally across disagreement: “You may even hate some of the people you have to ally with. But to get good things done, you’ll have to come together.”
- Convert, do not just defeat: “Let’s destroy our enemies by converting them into friends.”
- Look like someone they can do business with: “That’s one of the ways you get allies.”
Then power itself: “Power rules the world. It is very hard to achieve justice without it. It’s very hard to stop injustice without it.” He cites Angela Merkel: “Power is ‘to make’—to do something. The opposite of power is powerless. What’s the use of a good idea if I can’t execute it?” And the diagnostic question: “Who does not having power serve? What good does that do?” The reading list that follows is pointed: “Anyone who wants to do good in this world must be a student of power … must read Machiavelli and Robert Greene.” See Machiavellian Realism.
Virtue and pragmatism need each other
The thesis in two sentences: “Pragmatism without virtue is dangerous and hollow. Virtue without pragmatism is ineffectual and impotent.” Of the moralist who articulates justice beautifully, Holiday writes: “It is unlikely, however, that they will ever be able to bring such a thing about.” In contrast, a leader “has to make decisions … has to take action,” and must be “an idealist as well as a realist. Because they have things they have to protect.” The slogan: “Non angeli sed angli. Stop looking for angels. Start looking for angles.” Gandhi is the model: “I am politician trying my hardest to be a saint,” paired with the observation that independence had to be “independent in fact” (mentally, spiritually, ethically) before it could be independent in law.
Justice as a craft
Competence is moral here. “What justice needs is time, money, leadership … someone who knows what they’re doing … someone who approaches justice not as an idea but as a craft. As an occupation to always be getting better at.” The checklist: “Every problem must be studied. Every skill must be practiced. Every variable necessary for success—allies, funding, public support, power—must be cultivated. Impact must be measured. Decisions must be optimized. People must be held accountable. We have to hold ourselves accountable—that’s how we get better.” This is the activist version of deliberate practice. “When you have the shot you have to take it. People are counting on you.”
Good trouble
The book rejects the idea that being agreeable is the same as being right: “It would be wonderful if … following the law and being on our best behavior was synonymous with doing the right thing. But that’s just not how the world works.” Hence: “Be the squeaky wheel—the one who won’t shut up, the one who repeats the truth that people don’t want to hear.” “We want and need allies…but we can’t be paralyzed at the thought of creating enemies.” “Good trouble does good work for good causes.” And: “The goal is not to be liked. The goal is justice.” Resistance is also read as a signal: “if we can achieve our goals easily … are we really fighting the right battle? Defeats, setbacks, enemies? These are signs that we’ve aimed our sights high enough.” See Civil Disobedience.
Gandhi’s moral power
Gandhi stands for the non-coercive form of leverage: “The power of a machine gun is muted against people who do not fear death.” The British scholar’s warning is quoted at length (“a dangerous and uncomfortable enemy because his body which you can always conquer gives you so little purchase of his soul”), along with Gandhi’s list of seven blunders (including “Commerce without morality” and “Politics without principle”) and Gandhi’s claim that “the endurance of suffering” builds character. Holiday also puts a price on principle: “it’s not a principle until it costs you money.” See Nonviolent Resistance.
Competence, not purity, is where virtue shows up in politics
Holiday defines the virtuous leader as one who studies, builds coalitions, accepts compromise and still keeps clean hands. This echoes the Stoic claim in Stoic Virtue Ethics that the virtues are unified: justice without wisdom (practical judgment) is posturing, and wisdom without justice is Machiavelli unmoored.
Tension with the book's own earlier moral purity
Earlier chapters locate justice in what we demand of ourselves and stress honesty without hypocrisy; this section endorses leverage, coalitions with people we dislike and “ramming” good ideas through. Holiday does not resolve it with a rule; he leaves it to the “virtue” side of the pairing and to the heart-as-muscle discipline in Kindness and the Expanding Circle. Compare Dichotomy of Control, which says outcomes (allies, public support) are not ours to command.