“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
Side tangent- I tried to find the author of that quote thinking it has to be a ‘wise man’ of the past (given that it’s not a gender neutral statement), and it looks like that it’s actually from a post apocalyptic book from 2016 that soon after became a meme.
Source: https://www.slanglang.net/memes/hard-times-create-strong-men...
"We have been compelled to recognize that millions in Germany were as eager to surrender their freedom as their fathers were to fight for it; that instead of wanting freedom, they sought for ways of escape from it; that other millions were indifferent and did not believe the defense of freedom to be worth fighting and dying for."
I am saying that you are absolutely right that it is currently in a cultural spotlight of sorts, but it is hardly the whole story.
-Things are hard; people fight and win some degree of autonomy -Status quo sets in; people believe this is how it always will be -Things get easy and people forget what freedom is -Things get hard..