It would be incorrect to view recent political developments as the peak of liberalism. In the world there are big cycles and small cycles, and today we are in a small cyclical downturn in liberalism but still clearly in a grander upswing. Despite the discontent of the Facebook liberal, we are still more liberal today than we were 10 years ago. The right wing today resembles the left wing of 20 years ago. The clear underlying trend for humans is higher incomes and higher quality of lives, which translates to a desire for more liberalism. This trend has more or less been intact for most of history. There are often unravellings of liberalism in short-term reactionary regimes, but they are small blips in the greater arc of human development.
Nothing shows this more evidently than Macron’s landslide victory in the French elections. As has been shown throughout history, France was the birthplace of liberalism and has since been on the cutting edge of liberalism. It was France that was at the forefront of the revolutions of the 1800s, and the primary defender of the free world in the wars of the 1900s (if not particularly successful). France by most accounts created the European Union, which is why it was always unlikely it would leave. On a sad note, this is also the reason France is the most targeted country for terrorism. It is inspiring that a country which has dealt with three major affronts against liberalism in very recent memory has chosen to go the opposite way of the United States so decisively. As to extrapolate history, as long as France is trending more liberal, we cannot believe that the world is any different.
A similar discussion occurred at the Roy Thompson Hall betweenNiall Ferguson & Fareed Zakaria, and it is clear who the winner is. https://www.facebook.com/munkdebates/videos/1508298059182692/
I will now comment on the recent developments in the United States. The lengthy battle ensuing over Obamacare, a legislation decried by republicans who control all facets of government, further shows the strength of the liberal order. The Facebook liberal has lost most of his vigour, now that he has realized that the world is not vastly changing, and because we have seen that Trump is more moderate and predictable than expected. I had written that I would call out anything problematic with the new administration. The truth is that the first 100 days has been unspectacular, which is a few grades higher than most Facebook liberals were predicting. Other certain potentially discriminatory policies have also been overturned, exemplifying the liberal institutions that still govern the society.
Hulu recently made Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale into a television series. The show has been such a success that it has already been renewed for a second season, despite there is Atwood does not have a sequel book. The series has been considered to be “timely” as it is set in a dystopian society that is sexist and homophobic. These comparisons to modern day United States are laughable. A more interesting fact is that apparently Toronto makes for the perfect dystopian setting, and the Toronto City Hall is the epicentre http://www.atlasofwonders.com/2017/04/the-handmaids-tale-filming-locations.html.
All of this is to say that liberalism is congruent with human development, and so the broader trend is better lives and more liberalism for everyone. In the past 30 years, the beneficiary was more likely a Chinese labourer than an American labourer, but that is because the American labourer started at a higher base. Another important concept is that politics does not lead society, but rather the other way around. It is economics and morality that create the politics, and so anything that happens politically is a mirror to reflect in. If it wasn’t clear before, the image the French see in the mirror is better than what the Americans see.