can bend toward justice, but much of the time it tacks stubbornly toward the status quo. We must be willing to do the work, reaching up with our own hands and wrenching the arc away from stasis and toward a better future. And when the arc seems to be bending away from justice, we have to dig deep, muster even greater resources, and bend it back." - Meaning and context.">
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My former boss Barack Obama likes to invoke a teaching of Martin Luther King Jr.: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." It sounds nice but it's not quite true. The arc can bend toward justice, but much of the time it tacks stubbornly toward the status quo. We must be willing to do the work, reaching up with our own hands and wrenching the arc away from stasis and toward a better future. And when the arc seems to be bending away from justice, we have to dig deep, muster even greater resources, and bend it back.

— Jonathan Greenblatt

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "My former boss Barack Obama likes to invoke a teaching of Martin Luther King Jr.: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." It sounds nice but it's not quite true. The arc can bend toward justice, but much of the time it tacks stubbornly toward the status quo. We must be willing to do the work, reaching up with our own hands and wrenching the arc away from stasis and toward a better future. And when the arc seems to be bending away from justice, we have to dig deep, muster even greater resources, and bend it back." in the context of "" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 19, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Jonathan Greenblatt

About Jonathan Greenblatt

Jonathan Greenblatt (born November 21, 1970) is an American entrepreneur, corporate executive, and the sixth National Director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish non-governmental organization focused on combating antisemitism. Prior to heading the ADL, Greenblatt served in the White House as Special Assistant to Barack Obama and Director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.