The Collapse of Global Liberalism

And the Emergence of the Post Liberal World Order

By: Philip Pilkington

Narrated by: George Wesley Holland

In the 1990s, a vision emerged of a frictionless world of globalization in which the West would become ever richer on the basis of a tech-based service economy, all underpinned by a rules-based liberal international order. It became the basis for the mainstream politics of center-left and right.

Philip Pilkington argues that this vision was always delusional and is now dying. It is based on a doctrinaire and unrealistic form of liberalism and has given rise to hollowed-out financialized economies and disintegrating societies that can barely even reproduce their population or meet their energy needs. The US and UK find themselves ill-equipped to compete with China and other non-liberal states within an emerging post-liberal order in which what really matters is industrial capacity, realpolitik, and military strength. Only by abandoning our liberal delusions and advancing our own brand of hard-headed post-liberalism can the West survive.

No clearsighted observer of contemporary geopolitics can afford to miss this bracing diagnosis of the West's malaise and bold agenda for renewal.

©2025 Philip Pilkington (P)2025 Tantor Media

Great observation synthesized as tradcath slop

I think Pilkington is pointing at some really great observations that are concrete and well assembled. I find his synthesis of these points often times a bit flat with some cringey metaphors.
It feels like he fails to examine or fully support the conclusion he draws of by saying it’s “intuitive understanding” while overlooking any of his own deeply rooted ideologies, and personal eschatology.

Overall good listen. Finger on the pulse. I was hoping for a more well founded synthesis of his personal ideas.

The ideas

The voice is very robotic and was challenging to push through to make sense of the content