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erichendry 's review for:
Liberalism and Its Discontents
by Francis Fukuyama
Equally compelling on a descriptive and normative level. An erudite blend of rigorous scholarship and urgent appeal. As usual with Fukuyama, there’s the elephant in the room: if liberalism keeps reappearing because it’s such a good idea, why is it so apparently unstable? Or in Will McAvoy’s terms, “You know why people don't like liberals? Because they lose. If liberals are so fuckin' smart, how come they lose so GODDAM ALWAYS!”
The erosion of the liberal consensus that dominated the West up until recently is something I regard as the great tragedy of my life. I agree with Fukuyama: liberalism is a precious beautiful and powerful idea. It is worth defending and improving. But as ever, the owl of Minerva flies at dusk. I fear it’s too late. I fear Fukuyama offers a compelling explanation of why we got here and how liberalism’s failings could be addressed but little in the way of concrete and achievable vision for how to realize a liberal renewal in a West increasingly beholden to petty nationalisms and endlessly divisive identity-based claims.
The erosion of the liberal consensus that dominated the West up until recently is something I regard as the great tragedy of my life. I agree with Fukuyama: liberalism is a precious beautiful and powerful idea. It is worth defending and improving. But as ever, the owl of Minerva flies at dusk. I fear it’s too late. I fear Fukuyama offers a compelling explanation of why we got here and how liberalism’s failings could be addressed but little in the way of concrete and achievable vision for how to realize a liberal renewal in a West increasingly beholden to petty nationalisms and endlessly divisive identity-based claims.