Liberalism is hanging on the ropes. Or almost dead. It is under siege from without and within. Nationalism and authoritarianism, strongly reinforced by technology, have come hand in hand together to exercise new forms of control and manipulation over human beings.

The fall of the Berlin Wall has not swept away prejudice, ignorance, greed and domination. Anti-rational forces are everywhere these days, in Marine Le Pen’s France, in Donald Trump’s America, in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, throughout much of the Middle East and last but not least in North Korea.

In an age of declamation, shouting and yelling, of polarisation and vilification, of politics-for-sale and the insidious submersion of politics in fact-lite entertainment, the emergence out of nowhere of Trump is as unsurprising as it is menacing.

It’s no wonder Putin admires Trump! Russian authoritarianism under Putin is all about the muscular trappings of power and popular adulation cultivated through fawning media for a Czar-like figure.

The desire to dominate at all costs, to exert authority, to pursue power are forces that are as strong as the desire for peace and stability, prosperity, liberty, justice, happiness and equality.

In Russia, China and now in countries from Hungary to Poland, forms of authoritarianism are ascendant and liberalism (or even modest liberalisation) are in quiet retreat. History does not end.

It comes back and forth.

Authoritarianism is dramatically in upper mode and with it anti-rational bigotry.

The serious threat for liberal Western societies is from within and without. Liberalism may be feeble as a battle cry, but nothing is more important for human dignity and decency.