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Claudia Kitchen's avatar

For better or worse, the principle works in the obverse as well. For now, we no longer believe in the "right" to own slaves,for example. But there has been a general swing toward the individual, unlimited right to bear arms, and the incomplete human embryo or fetus that is unable to survive outside the womb is accorded greater rights than its host. No straight lines to a more just society exist. Was MLK, Jr. wrong?

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James's avatar

I like this post a lot, and I think societies would benefit from understanding it. For better or worse, there is a finite amount of change that an individual or society can endure over some duration of time. If the strategy for change is that "steady breeze", and acceptance of the speed of change, I think that in general things will actually change faster. Of course there are always exceptions. But when people take hard lines and treat it as if it is a fight that must be entirely won right now, rather than a "steady breeze" of changing minds, minds will resist and this leads to slower change (and a more negative environment). Having said that, part of the steady breeze can be small legal changes, that then have time to be accepted, which leads to the next small change, etc. (Note: I have my own range of change acceptance, and certainly do not believe that all change is in a positive direction. So the steady breeze may often slow, and ultimately filter out many calls-for-change that probably should be filtered out, in my opinion.)

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