@Viveca,

The most important thing we can do is to return to reason based politics. Humans are not normally driven by reason, especially when it comes to power. So I encourage both theoretical and practical approaches to politics. To go forth promoting policies with no theoretical basis is invite incoherence, inconsistencies and a long term strategic failure.

Take for example the failure of state communism. Communists were convinced that they were right, and that they were rational, but the system they created was anything but rational. State Communism failed because it was theoretically flawed, and could not learn from its own mistakes. It was a belief-based system that grew more and more absurd.

If we are be politically wise, then reason and compassion are our best guides for intellectual and moral decisions.