arc of history

noun

Etymology

Popularized by Barack Obama, and based on an older metaphor by abolitionist Theodore Parker, later popularized by Martin Luther King Jr.: “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”.

Definitions

  1. The idea that history has a direction or purpose that “bends” (or can be bent) towards…

    The idea that history has a direction or purpose that “bends” (or can be bent) towards some goal.

    • If Jim Yong Kim wants to ‘bend the arc of history’, he should start by addressing long-standing inequalities in his own organisation[.]
    • We understand the great arc of human history bends towards people coming together in ever greater numbers — from tribes to cities to nations — to achieve things we couldn’t on our own.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for arc of history. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA