The Last Rites of Liberalism: A Sinking Ship in the Tempest of the 21st Century
Description
Water pours through the hull of the ship Liberalism as she lists violently to starboard, her proud sails torn by the gale of populist revolt and multipolar resistance. The vessel that once sailed triumphantly across the seas of 20th century history, proclaiming universal rights and endless prosperity through financial capitalism, now wallows as waves crash over her deck. From the bridge, the officers of the liberal democratic establishment signal distress, while their careerist crew abandons ship, no longer willing to man the pumps for a vessel they suspect cannot be saved.
Nearly a century ago, Italian leader Benito Mussolini and philosopher Giovanni Gentile declared that liberal democracy lives by appearances: “The people are, from time to time, deluded into the belief that they exercise sovereignty, while all the time real sovereignty resides in ... irresponsible and secret forces.” In other words, the bridge never really gave orders; it relayed them. Liberal systems endure not through conviction but through a delicate combination of incentives and a marketplace where access to money, prestige, and influence purchases compliance.
Rewards, rather than coercion, do the work. Gentile saw through this; liberalism’s “false liberalism,” roots liberty in the isolated individual against the state, painting the state as a neutral referee even as real sovereignty is exercised by those mastering finance, media, bureaucracy, and law.
The Carrot Withers as the Stick Rises
Introduce real stakes—a hostile foreign power, a revolutionary movement, or a systemic shock—and the grifter class profiting from the liberal order begins to scurry. Liberalism requires a “safe zone,” where disagreement is amicable and consequences manageable. When risk enters, careerists evacuate. German jurist Carl Schmitt diagnosed this as liberalism’s refusal to face the friend-enemy core of politics.
Gentile argued that the liberal belief in numbers, majority rules, is an illusion: “Fascism denies that numbers, as such, can be the determining factor,” since ballots may measure passion but cannot constitute authority. When existential conflict erupts, liberal regimes either fail to act or act decisively, exposing the myth that process rules. Each escalation pushes them toward illiberal measures, validating Gentile’s claim that democracy’s sovereignty lies elsewhere.
The Soft Shield Crumbles Under Pressure
Knowing its weakness, liberalism from the outset specializes in soft tactics that preserve the illusion of consensus. Violence is viewed as barbaric and beneath civilized politics. Middle class anxieties about stability become bulwarks; symbolic concessions serve as pressure valves, offering just enough hope to redirect hostile forces back into the system’s framework. This pretend game works only as long as incumbent political actors believe their objectives can still be achieved within existing channels.
When faith in the market begins to fade, the mask slips and power reveals itself. Gentile believed this showed that separating the individual from the state only creates the illusion of freedom. Even if one does not fully accept his reasoning, the point remains clear: when governments deny their own authority, they simply hide it behind surveillance and censorship while pretending liberty endures.
The Populist Mutiny Below Decks
Across the West, populism is the endogenous proof that the strategy of liberal neutralization is beginning to fail. Voters treat the carrot game as counterfeit. From Donald Trump’s America First nationalism to Brexit’s rejection of European integration, from the Alternative for Germany’s surge to France’s National Rally, these movements share the recognition that the carrot game no longer offers meaningful rewards.
The populist critique strikes at liberalism’s four sacred pillars. Free trade, once hailed as the guarantor of prosperity, now appears to millions as a con game that enriches elites while destroying working-class communities. Mass migration, presented as both humanitarian necessity and economic benefit, triggers backlash from populations who see their racial cohesion and economic security under assault. Political correctness, the linguistic enforcement mechanism of liberal orthodoxy, provokes resentment among those who feel muzzled in their own societies. Perpetual war, disguised as humanitarian intervention, reveals itself as imperial adventurism that bleeds resources while creating new enemies.
French nationalist thinker Maurice Barrès anticipated this breakdown, arguing that liberal universalism dissolves organic national communities and authentic culture. The order’s attempted solutions generate more of the same problems. More inclusion produces more fragmentation and the eventual identitarian backlash. More conversations create more grievances. More money for technocrats and non-governmental organizations feeds the perception that the system serves its own rather than the people it claims to represent. Here Gentile’s warning still stings: “Democracy is a kingless regime infested by many kings,” meaning it has no single ruler but countless hidden ones. This hidden hand moving Western politics has invariable provoked major discontent among the public.
The Zio-Populist Containment Strategy
Though it should be stressed that the present populist era is a field of mixed signals and controlled backlashes, where establishment forces have learned to redirect genuine anger into channels that do not threaten the foundations of the order. As this author has argued elsewhere, a visible pattern has emerged, namely, Zio-populism. Movements that denounce globalism, mass immigration, and managerial power frequently align themselves with pro-Israel priorities and with the foreign policy architecture of the very system they claim to oppose.
Their rebellion stops at the waterline of acceptable dissent. This alignment produces a pressure valve, dramatizing outrage while leaving untouched the deeper structure of transnational Jewish influence. The first wave of Zio-populists reflects an attempt by elements of world Jewry to contain genuine gentile backlash. The main challenge is for the peoples of the West to see through these subversives and build authentic national movements that are rooted in local identity, material interests, and realist foreign policy agendas, rather than in abusive relations with the transnational criminal enterprise that is world Jewry.
The Multipolar Storm Breaks
As mutiny spreads below decks, rival fleets form on the horizon. Russia and China, no longer supplicate at the altar of liberal hegemony but instead offer competing visions of international organization. For Moscow, the appeal centers on sovereignty, tradition, and hard power in defense of their traditional spheres of influence, as evidenced by Russia’s recent intervention in Ukraine. For Beijing, development and stability provide an alternative to permanent crisis management. The Shanghai Co
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