Children of Light and the Children of Darkness

Niebuhr's distinction between the children of light and the children of darkness, introduced in his 1944 book of the same title, identifies two characteristic moral failures. The children of darkness are cynics and realists who acknowledge that self-interest drives human behavior—they are at least honest about what they are doing and can therefore be held accountable. The children of light are idealists who believe in human perfectibility and the inherent goodness of their own projects—more dangerous not because their ideals are wrong but because their sincerity prevents self-examination. The sincere person cannot be corrected, because correction is experienced as attack on sincerity rather than as information about blindness. The sincere person believes good intentions are sufficient evidence of good outcomes. Niebuhr's formulation: the children of light are 'foolish not because they are evil, but because they do not know the power of self-interest in human affairs'—including their own self-interest, disguised as idealism.