constant escape
winter withered, warm
that is not how history works. it is a tidy myth. actual social progress progresses in fits and starts. sometimes it stalls. sometimes it goes backwards. when it does progress, it's uneven and messy.
it also elides the fact that, as droid said, rights have to be actively claimed and defended. that is, like all politics, usually a messy process.
Very true, and I appreciate the reminder. I was ready to settle into that metaphor a bit too much. I see your point about the risks of oversimplifying things, packaging them into, yeah, tidy myths, at the cost of trimming/overlooking some of the more unplaceable elements.
That said, perhaps in a more poetic sense, there is something in what he was saying.