Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And weak men create hard times. Agree or Disagree?

Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And weak men create hard times. Agree or Disagree?

A cyclical pattern and actually a common motif in early modern intellectual history

On first inspection, it reads like an old baby boomer pining for the "good ol' days" before the "sissies" and "feminists" ruined society by destroying masculinity. But I actually disagree with the statement and here's why.

Hard times create desperate men, more prone to succumb to illiberalism and strongman rule. It is only when things then get worse, and the illiberal rulers are eventually defeated and repudiated (often largely by their own errors), that you see a reactionary retrenchment of liberal values that enables good times again. And it's in times of relative peace and prosperity that we see the expanding circle make its biggest leaps, that people are willing to be concerned about and able to do something about the rights of others. Liberalism is, in some ways, a luxury good.

There is no inherent virtue in suffering, and it tends not to produce more virtuous people. At best, it produces defensive action, hopefully well-aimed at the real cause of their suffering. But more often it produces backlashes, scapegoats, nationalism, and all the rest. Germans circa 1933 had seen a lot of hard times in recent years.