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The Permanent ProblemAuthor: Brink Lindsey
In dozens of provocative essays published on his Substack and cross-posted here, Brink Lindsey has explored what John Maynard Keynes called humanitys permanent problem: the quest to live wisely and agreeably and well with the vast resources and powers that capitalist prosperity has bestowed upon us. That quest, unfortunately, has gone awry in the 21st century. In Lindseys analysis, capitalism is now experiencing a triple crisis: a crisis of dynamism, as economic and technological progress had slowed; a crisis of inclusion, as a deep new class divide has opened up along educational lines; and a crisis of politics, our best hope for addressing the other two crises, as the values, norms, and institutions of liberal democracy are now embattled around the world. Beginning in January 2024, Lindsey started the Permanent Problem podcast to supplement his ongoing essay series. The podcast focuses on capitalisms triple crisis and especially on the prospects for defusing the crisis and revitalizing social progress. Brink Lindsey, the podcast host, is a senior vice president at the Niskanen Center. You can access his essays on The Permanent Problem on his Substack and here. You can find all episodes of the podcast on his Substack, here, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Language: en Genres: Government, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Responding to the crisis of liberalism, Jonathan Rauch
Episode 20
Wednesday, 12 August, 2026
Liberal values and institutions now face aggressive challenges from both right and left extremism, so how should defenders of the embattled liberal center respond? It's become clear now that the question exposes an important fault line running through today's contemporary center-left and center-right. On one side are those convinced that the rise of extremism represents a misguided response to serious and neglected problems afflicting contemporary society, and thus that it is now imperative for liberals to move boldly to identify and address those ills. On the other side are liberals who think that their side is losing ground largely because of a failure of nerve -- a lack of confidence in their own ideals and an insufficient supply of fighting spirit. Each side thus has reasons to think the other is making matters worse: the latter fear that conceding that the extremists have a point will only add fuel to the fire, while the former believe that complacent denialism brought us to this point by creating a vacuum for extremists to fill. In today's episode of The Permanent Problem podcast, Jonathan Rauch joins host Brink Lindsey to explore this internal division within liberalism and look for ways to bridge it. Their starting point is on opposite sides of the divide -- Lindsey's book The Permanent Problem offers an unsparing diagnosis of deep problems within contemporary liberal societies, while Rauch has written repeatedly on the dangers of excessive liberal self-criticism -- but throughout the conversation they probe for common ground while clarifying where they disagree.
