Virtually no regime today bases itself on an assertion of overt social hierarchy or denies the principle of democratic legitimacy, even if disregarding it in practice. Modern technology has been weaponized, but it has also made the suffering of distant peoples vivid to us in ways that were previously impossible. Witness the upsurge in sympathy for the suffering of Ukrainians that has swept over Europe and North America since the beginning of the Russian invasion.

From a long-term perspective, liberalism has seen its ups and downs but has always come back in the end. It got its start several centuries ago when Europe was exhausted by 150 years of religious warfare; societies decided to lower the stakes of politics by establishing a political order based on the principle of toleration. It was challenged again in the 19th and early 20th centuries by aggressive nationalism that wanted to base community on blood and soil, but it returned again after 1945 in response to two devastating world wars. In the 75 subsequent years, we have lived under a liberal world order that got a tremendous boost with the collapse of Communism in 1989-91. That has produced a feeling of security and even boredom for many people who want a more engaged form of politics and community. Perhaps the current war in Ukraine will remind another generation of the virtues of that older order.

The liberal idea remains very vivid for people all over the world. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people—sometimes millions—leave poor, violent and poorly governed countries in search of a better life. Their destination of choice is never China, Russia or Venezuela. Rather, they seek out well-governed liberal societies where their children will have greater freedom and opportunity. It is they much more than the complacent inhabitants of liberal societies who realize that there is, indeed, an arc of history, with justice as its terminus.