"Never negotiate out of fear but never fear to negotiate" — John F. Kennedy.
History rarely moves in ways simple enough to be wholly comprehensible at the time. Even our best journalism takes close-up snapshots — never the long view. What observers and commentators make of what is happening in Hong Kong is not, in any complete sense, what history will eventually make of it.
Historical meaning is elusive without the perspective of time, which is precisely what we don't have at the very moment we need it most. The inescapable flaw of history's future judgment is its inability to offer current value.