In his op-ed “The arc of history does not simply bend toward justice” (May 3, TribLive), Adrian Wooldridge writes that the “nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘The arc of the moral universe bends towards justice.’ ” Wooldridge says they are not true and they engender a destructive false confidence and passivity. He’s wrong on both counts.
Crucially, neither Theodore Parker nor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. endorsed an idea this simplistic. King added that the arc in question, “though long,” bends toward justice. He was well aware of the ups and downs of history. But, looked at through an appropriately long lens, the abolition of worldwide chattel slavery — still a major economic activity as little as 200 years ago — the sharp decline in explicit racism, the rising reality of women’s rights, the growing acceptance of other minorities, the rudiments of a rules based international order — there is enormous progress. This would have been inconceivable in 1800.
As to false confidence and passivity, King evidently thought that these words were not only true but engendered hope. You could say that his unshakable faith that racial segregation would be repudiated one day in both letter and spirit was overconfidence. But, if so, that overconfidence helped change the world.
Bruce Ledewitz
North Side