Policy Forum 

# Weltschmerz: How the West Lost Its Mojo and What Liberals Can Do to Fix It 

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Date and Time 

March 21, 2022 11 AM - 12:30 PM EDT 

Location 

Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 

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##### Featuring 

[![Dierdre N. McCloskey cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-10/dierdre-mccloskey-pic-cropped.jpg?itok=CE5OEUFL)](/people/deirdre-n-mccloskey) 

[Deirdre N. McCloskey](/people/deirdre-n-mccloskey)

Distinguished Scholar Isaiah Berlin Chair in Liberal Thought, Cato Institute

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](https://x.com/DeirdreMcClosk) 

![Jonah Goldberg cropped photo](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2022-03/jonah-goldberg-cropped.jpg?itok=O-gtLzN6) 

Jonah Goldberg 

Asness Chair in Applied Liberty, American Enterprise Institute; Editor-in-Chief and Cofounder, *The Dispatch*

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](https://twitter.com/JonahDispatch) 

[![marian-tupy-crop-temp.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2022-08/marian-tupy-crop-temp.jpg?itok=zdX_3JzR)](/people/marian-l-tupy) 

[Marian L. Tupy](/people/marian-l-tupy)

Senior Fellow, Cato Institute

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](https://x.com/Marian_L_Tupy) [ 

](mailto:mtupy@cato.org) 

A generation ago, humanity witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, the disappearance of the Eastern European bloc, and the breakup of the Soviet Union. Many thought that the victory of liberal democracy and competitive enterprise over communism and central planning would usher in a lasting era of peace and prosperity, but now the West appears to be undergoing an existential crisis. Across some of the most successful societies in history, liberal institutions are under attack from the far left and the far right. What brought about this stunning crisis of confidence in Western values and institutions and the ascendency of political and economic populism?

Please join us to hear two leading thinkers and commentators on the rise of free societies explain the reasons for the growth of illiberalism and what, if anything, can be done to reverse that trend.

Cato Policy Forums and luncheons are free of charge.

*This forum was made possible through the support of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.*

[![Media Name: Berlin-Wall-protesters.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/promo_block/public/wp-content/uploads/Berlin-Wall-protesters.jpg?itok=reGRvNuR)](https://www.cato.org/commentary/human-progress-not-inevitable-uneven-indisputable) 

##### Related Article 

### [Human Progress: Not Inevitable, Uneven, and Indisputable](https://www.cato.org/commentary/human-progress-not-inevitable-uneven-indisputable)

The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary defines progress as “advancement to a further or higher stage, or to further or higher stages successively; growth; development, usually to a better state or condition; improvement… applied especially to manifestations of social and economic change or reform.”

In a world where we are constantly bombarded with bad news, it can sometimes be difficult to think of “progress” and “humanity” in the same sentence. Are there not wars taking place, people going hungry, children at work, women being abused, and mass poverty around the world?

[Read more](https://www.cato.org/commentary/human-progress-not-inevitable-uneven-indisputable) 

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