Compromise

        "Compromise is another word that carries shades of weakness, vacillation, betrayal of ideals, surrender of moral principles.  In the old culture, when virginity was a virtue, one referred to a woman's being "compromised."  The word is generally regarded as ethically unsavory and ugly.
        But to the organizer, compromise is a key and beautiful word.  It is always present in the pragmatics of operation.  It is making the deal, getting that vital breather, usually the victory.  If you start with nothing, demand 100 per cent, then compromise for 30 per cent, you're 30 per cent ahead.
        A free and open society is an on-going conflict, interrupted periodically by compromises -- which then become the start for the continuation of conflict, compromise, and on ad infinitum. Control of power is based on compromise in our Congress and among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.  A society devoid of compromise is totalitarian.  If I had to define a free and open society in one word, the word would be "compromise."  Saul Alinski, Rules for Radicals