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On and on, through recurring cultural battles, progressive principles that began in The Enlightenment have prevailed. For three centuries, liberals generally have won, conservatives lost.
What will be the next front in the culture war? Legal marijuana? Pistol registration? Free college? Whatever comes, it's probably safe to predict the eventual winner.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." However, some University of Michigan scholars recently concluded that the notion of "the right side of history" is a myth -- there's no guarantee that future events will extend previous democratic breakthroughs. Terrible reversals could occur.
Nonetheless, the transformation loosed by The Enlightenment is a fact. I hope the progressive pattern keeps rolling forever.
(Haught is editor emeritus of West Virginia's largest newspaper, the Charleston Gazette-Mail. He can be reached by phone at 304-348-5199 or e-mail at haught@wvgazette.com Email address removed.)
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