A readiness..........................

     A readiness to adapt oneself to the facts of the real world is often praised as a virtue, and in part it is.  It is a bad thing to close one's eyes to facts or fail to admit them because they are not welcome.  But it is also a bad thing to assume that whatever is in the ascendant must be right, that regard for fact demands subservience to evil.  Even worse than conscious subservience to evil is the self-deception which denies that it is evil.  When I find individual liberty being everywhere lessened by regimentation, I will not on that account pretend that regimentation is a good thing.  It may be necessary for a time, but one should not on that account acquiesce in it as part of any society that one can admire.

-Bertrand Russell, from his essay "Hopes: Realized and Disappointed", as contained in this fine little tome.