Western politics, as we know it today, is liberalism. From Labours and Tories in the UK to Democrats and Republicans in the United States, all mainstream ideologies fit in the framework of liberalism, operating in a stable structure based on democracy and the belief of social contracts, despite their stark differences and irreconcilable disagreements.
Over the last few centuries, liberalism was by far the most successful ideology — more than half of all countries today are democratic. …
“The people are just like us. They are real, they’re genuine, they got feelings.”
These are the words of an American table tennis player after visiting China in the 70s in an event called Ping Pong diplomacy, which was depicted in popular culture by films such as Forest Gump. After years of violent struggle, the nation was left exhausted, craving for political stability that hadn’t been achieved in more than a century.
This was no doubt in Nixon’s mind when he visited China in 1972, and liberalism may just be the cure for it. After all, it had worked everywhere…
