"Chads Going Their Own Way" Sir Thomas More on living with degenerate systems

All political movements have this in common: they say that they want to help improve society. Our modern world contains corruption on every level and a man must make a choice: will he become an activist and try to fight the corruption in his field or will he play the game and compromise for his own benefit? One seems to be the nobler path and one the more pragmatic one.

We all know what happens to real activists (the noble ones). They are usually poor, powerless, and always on the losing side. They usually estrange themselves to friends and family and must give up many of life’s joys in order to fight their cause. However noble this cause is, many people rightfully look at these sacrifices and don’t think they are worth it. “These problems have always existed, why should I be the one to ruin my life trying to fight them?” More importantly, however, is the fact that real activists never actually succeed without one crucial factor: immense power, in which case they are no longer activists but Princes themselves in a way.

Saint Thomas More addresses this in his 16th century masterpiece, Utopia, a book about the perfect society.