But the inevitability of liberalism is a liberal myth. From a historical perspective, liberalism, freedom, protection of the rights of the individual have been the rare aberration. Since the dawn of humankind, people have been ruled by tyrannies of one form or another. That is the norm. The predominance of liberalism in the modern world is the exception. It is the product of accident and contingency, of time and place, of wars won and lost. It is due more than anything to the rise of a powerful and all-but-invulnerable liberal power that, like all great powers in history, has shaped the world
...more
