I've got apparently 18 minutes to convince you that history has a direction, an arrow; that in some fundamental sense, it's good; that the arrow points to something positive.
我大概有18分钟的时间 来说服你们历史发展是有方向的---如一个箭头。 本质上来说，这是个好事。 箭头指向着一些积极的事物。