Strategy question: Does one plunge into political activism—or will political efforts not be effective until the broader culture is ready for it? A common response is to say “Politics is downstream from culture.” Here is one datum, from Philip Reiff:
“[T]he first Christian culture revolution accommodated itself from the beginning to the ruling classes of its time. Christian doctrine began by distinguishing between culture and politics, concentrating its efforts at change upon the former, thus preparing a theoretical way for the Constantinian accommodation.”
(Quoted in James Bowman’s Honor: A History, p. 48. The image is of a statue of Constantine at the Capitoline Museums in Rome.)
Related: My introductory lecture on the philosophy of history: