i am subject to great bouts of pessimism when world conditions look really bad. And right now they are not looking so good. But i think, however, that if you take a sufficiently long historical view of the phenomenon of liberalism, there is some ground for optimism. I would say that whatever so i agree with john that it did arise in a particular cultural context in the west. We could actually go into its religious roots, because i do think it does have an origin in the judao christian tradition. Its biggest selling point is actually a pragmatic one. Write that after the protestant reformation, you have a hundred 50 years of religious warfare between protestants and catholics in different
Following the fall of communism in 1989, American political scientist Francis Fukuyama shot to fame with his thesis about the ‘end of history’ – the idea that the entire world was set on a path towards universal liberalism. But 30 years on, liberalism is under attack from both the Right and the Left – and from Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Professor Fukuyama was joined in conversation by John Gray, the British political philosopher, who rejects the idea of a universal momentum towards liberal values and human progress. Despite the view of many that the Russian invasion of Ukraine marks the end of the post-Cold War era, Fukuyama believes that it is a wake-up call for the West to rekindle the spirit of 1989, while Gray holds that the idea that liberalism will ever triumph is a mirage. Chairing the discussion is the journalist, author and broadcaster, Helen Lewis.
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