Does Liberalism Make People Lonely?

After the “vibe shift” comes post-liberalism, a political theory that claims liberalism’s weaknesses have helped produce the crisis of the present. Its proposed remedies are virtue, family, religion and a strong dose of paternalism.

Post-liberals want to move beyond liberalism’s supposedly lonely individualism and put a shared idea of the good at the center of public life. That idea, they argue, should bind everyone, even when individuals do not personally want to follow it. Liberal critics fear that post-liberalism may ultimately seek to abolish liberalism altogether.

The theory has become one of the most important intellectual trends of recent years. Its supporters and critics debate whether it could define a new political present as the appeal of wokeness, culture war politics and left-liberalism fades.

Its influence, and what the article describes as its danger, are particularly visible in the United States. Vice President JD Vance is regarded as a right-wing post-liberal, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth studied under Patrick Deneen, a political scientist associated with the movement.

In the latest episode of “The So-Called Present,” Ijoma Mangold and Lars Weisbrod discuss the theory’s rise and ask how authoritarian it really is. They also consider whether a left-wing post-liberalism is possible, what the “common good” would mean, and whether the theory implies that everyone should return to church on Sundays.