Most every individual I know has experienced hard times and good times. There are a few people in my journey, which I noticed seem to always ride high on good fortune while a few seemingly face one hurdle after another.
Many people believe hard times become fertile ground to create strong-good men/women. My understanding of history tells me that theory does have credence, however history also makes the case for hard times creating strong bad men/women. In our own nation's history we note the hard times of a Revolutionary War, Civil War and Depression created opportunities for strong-good men to rise to significant challenges and the likes of George Washington, Abe Lincoln and FDR met the moments and created good.
Economic depressions in Germany and Italy offered similar challenges and strong men in those countries seized the opportunities. Those men, Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini became powerful and did bad works. Finally, American Colonial Days were indeed hard times and strong leaders did bad things when they enacted the legalization of human slavery to shore up an economy. Bad things happened to good people for a long time.
What becomes obvious is the simple conclusion that hard times will find individuals or nations choosing and the choice is either to do good or do bad. Before that choice is made the individual or nation must confront the four realities of our human experience, which are greed, fear, stupidity and hate.
In the year 2020, over 140 nations and thousands of leaders are facing hard times. I wonder, how will the history books read? Specifically, how American history unfold?
Meanwhile, I'm left to consider G. Michael Hopf's quote:
Hard times create strong men,
Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men,
Weak men create hard times.
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