lucidity

A famous phrase whose origins I have to seek.

Here it is in a Unitarian sermon (!) that quotes Erich Fromm:
"in matters of life, -- be it of the individual or of a society -- it does not matter whether the chance for cure is fifty-one percent or five percent.Ý Life is precarious and unpredictable, and the only way to live it is to make every effort to save it as long as there is a possibility of doing so."

Indeed, according to the Rev. Phillip Hewett, "the slogan `Pessimism of the Intellect: Optimism of the Will' appeared regularly on the masthead of a journal called Ordine Nuovo. The editor was Antonio Gramsci, a brilliant radical intellectual, one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party, but like a number of others in that party, too much of a freethinker to be held down very rigidly to a party line.Ý He was thrown into jail by Mussolini and not released until he was literally at death's door."

Here's the group relations bit: "Joanna Macy, whose writings may be familiar to some of you.Ý She points out how those who have gained a deep understanding of the workings of the human psyche are unanimous that repression, avoidance, refusal to face what you know to be the real situation, serves only to weaken rather than strengthen your response to the world. "Repression", she writes, "tends to paralyze; it builds a sense of isolation and powerlessness."

Finally, this, from Bonaro Overstreet:

You say the little efforts that I make
will do no good: they never will prevail
to tip the hovering scale
where justice hangs in the balance.

I don't think I ever thought they would,
but I am prejudiced beyond debate
in favour of my right to choose which side
shall feel the stubborn ounces of my weight.