The Soviet collapse gave birth to an era of liberal teleology

Evidence

During the twentieth century, both major schools of post-Enlightenment thought—Marxism and liberalism—had professed that history was going somewhere. They disagreed on the destination, of course. When the “Second World” led by Moscow fell to pieces in the 1990s, liberal democracy appeared to be the only coherent ideological project that resonated across the entire planet. (When we talk of “liberalism” here, and throughout the book, we mean the broader philosophical tradition that prioritizes property rights and individual freedoms, not the US meaning that indicates something like “progressive,” or “center-left.”) The idea that history is moving toward something, that it has an ultimate end, can be called teleological—from the Greek word telos, or “end.” Put simply, the end of the Cold War gave birth to the era of liberal teleology. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 155

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the book-wide definition of liberalism and introduces the term ‘teleology’ from Greek telos.
• XREF: connects to: The Soviet collapse bred a Western belief that democracy would spread worldwide — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 514

Broader Connections

• The Soviet collapse bred a Western belief that democracy would spread worldwide #exemplifies (0.92) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 514