It depends on how many times and how hard they’re hitting you with the stick.

Did they hit you once, an attack you can absorb fairly readily most of the time or are they attempting to beat you to death? Are they at war with you?

Is it progress? No.

Is it survival? Maybe.

There’s also a difference between acting as an individual, acting as a political performance or ideology, and acting as a member of society. There’s overlap, since we all live across a spectrum of existence.