Do you have any area's of thought where you have an abstract principle in conflict with some pragmatic circumstance?

For example:

Pro democracy, but don't like the way the people vote.
Anti-polarization, but really dislike one side atm
Anti-moderation, but want to win election

One thing I think about:

There's some good modeling of social science that suggests more cooperative societies tend to do much better.

Sounds good, right? Nasty implication, if true, is a sort of might makes right world, where the conquered should've cooperated better.