Adrian Wooldridge: Can Liberalism Save Itself?

In this latest Conflicted Conversation, journalist Adrian Wooldridge discusses his latest book Centrists of the World Unite: The Lost Genius of Liberalism.

For deeper dives and world-class Q&As with Aimen Dean, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: ⁠⁠⁠https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm⁠⁠⁠

Adrian and Thomas explore:

Why liberalism is in crisis — and whether it can reinvent itself

Modernity, permanent change and the birth of the liberal world

Erasmus, tolerance and the case for a “chastened liberalism”

Hobbes, individualism and whether liberalism misunderstands human nature

John Stuart Mill, moral formation and the need for cultural elites

Power, authority and how liberal distrust became a “democracy of disdain”

Meritocracy, elite failure and the rise of the examination class

Identity politics, minority rights and the limits of anti-majoritarian liberalism

America, China and the unraveling of the liberal international order