The Long Arc of Historical Progress – The Wall Street Journal

In a recent article in the Atlantic, the historian Anne Applebaum wrote that There is no natural liberal world order, and there are no rules without someone to enforce them. Her practical point was clear: Only by actively fighting back could the worlds democracies save themselves from Vladimir Putin and the worlds other newly assertive autocrats. But she was also making a deeper point: That there is no broad pattern to history or possibility of historical progress over time; outcomes are simply the result of actors duking it out over and over again. As she tweeted about the piece: There is no arc of history, nothing inevitable about either democracy or dictatorship. What happens tomorrow depends on what all of us do today. The arc of history likely refers to a favorite phrase of President Barack Obama, who often used it in adapting Martin Luther King Jr.s declaration, The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

In a narrow sense, Ms. Applebaums argument is incontrovertible. There is no underlying historical mechanism that brings us inexorably toward a liberal world order, similar to the Marxist belief that history would culminate in Communism. Mr. Putins attack on Ukraine demonstrates that many people in the West had grown complacent about the peace and prosperity brought about by the liberal order that has prevailed in recent decades. They didnt think that anyone would challenge that order, certainly not with tanks and rockets and outright territorial aggression. And it is clearly true today that the liberal order requires believers in democracy to actively support it, in Ukraine and around the world.

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The Long Arc of Historical Progress - The Wall Street Journal