Hegel proposed that the world makes progress only by lurching from one extreme to another and generally requires three moves before the right balance on any issue can be found. He reminds us that big overreactions are eminently compatible with events broadly moving forward in the right direction. The dark moments of history aren’t the end; they are a challenging, but (in some ways) necessary, part of an antithesis that will eventually locate a wiser point of synthesis. With Hegel in mind, we must strive to be patient with the zigzag course of events.
