Realpolitik "is politics or diplomacy based primarily on power and on practical and material factors and considerations, rather than explicit ideological notions or moral or ethical premises." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realpolitik).
Realpolitik can be contrasted with political grace. Realpolitik focuses on external power; political grace focuses on behavioral empathy. The first focuses on the rule of gold; the second on the golden rule. The first focuses on short-term effect and efficiency rather than the long-term imperatives of compassion and justice--which, in all practicality, will sooner or later in one way or another sabotage the lustful desires of realpolitik. Realpolitik, therefore, artificially and with contrived rationality limits its vision to the real and practical of today, whereas political grace embodies the unitary realities of the present and future in a context of compassion and empathy.
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