Liberal Universalism

Liberal universalism is the idea that liberal values, like liberal democracy, are the end goal of the long arc of history. That this current system is, more or less, the last political system we’ll have. It’s also been used to argue we’re at “the end of history”, where going forward we may have minor conflicts and temporary revolutions but ultimately resolve once more to liberal democracy.

Liberal universalism has been used to justify “spreading democracy” (even when what we’re actually doing is replacing already democratic leaders with ones more sympathetic to the west). It’s what gives us a global free market. It abstracts politics into debating for sport rather than a form of governance with real-world impact.

I should clarify here I’m not attacking liberalism from a right-wing perspective. I don’t want authoritarian rule and a world of isolated ethnostates. I’m an anarchist and believe we can both abolish states/borders and preserve our diversity of cultural identities.