”Public altruism is increasingly difficult to institutionally enforce proportional the numerical and geographical extent of that public. Ideally, public altruism is self-enforced by individuals’ self-consciences; however, it is simply unrealistic to expect today’s societies to submit to principles authored 1400 years ago, when the community of believers amounted to some 80 people. Then, self-enforced altruism was socially feasible. Today, it is not.

From the bottom of a notepad I used during a lecture on Islamic Political Thought