As 2016 comes to an end, liberalism will be given a place on the roster of the year’s notable deaths, slotted in somewhere between Harper Lee and Muhammad Ali. In the year of Brexit, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, liberalism has been declared dead and buried. “The liberal pageant is fading,” writes John Gray, the dystopian philosopher, and “all that really remains of liberalism is fear of the future.” He is not alone. All around us, a “post-liberal” era is being announced.
在2016年行將結束之際,自由主義將會在今年的著名死者名冊上占據一席之地,位置介于哈珀?李(Harper Lee)和穆罕默德?阿里(Muhammad Ali)之間。在英國退歐、唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)勝選和弗拉基米爾?普京(Vladimir Putin)大出風頭的一年里,自由主義已被宣告死亡并被埋葬。反烏托邦哲學家約翰?格雷(John Gray)寫道:“自由主義已經曲終人散……真正殘留下來的只有對未來的擔憂”。并非只有他這么認為。環顧四周,已經有人宣布“后自由主義”時代來臨。