The classical liberal project—individual freedom, universal rights, free markets, and limited government—is undeniably in crisis. Observers such as eigenrobot have argued persuasively that the United States and other Western nations are already postliberal in practice, having abandoned their foundational liberal commitments.
Eigenrobot accurately diagnoses the current illiberal state of politics in America, dominated by two parties each hostile to classical liberal values. Democrats increasingly promote identity-driven policies that explicitly reject neutrality, universalism, and meritocracy, embracing instead illiberal frameworks of equity and identity politics. Republicans have shifted towards a centralized, personality-driven nationalist model, inspired by the authoritarian caudillo style. Institutions such as public education, the Boy Scouts, and civic organizations—historically bastions of liberal civic identity—have collapsed or transformed into ideological battlegrounds.
The international picture mirrors this domestic erosion. Europe’s technocratic managerial state has provoked populist backlash, and the UK has introduced increasingly authoritarian speech and cultural regulations, described by eigenrobot as a "blue culture police state."
Yet, this seemingly dire narrative misses a vital, hopeful development described by Balaji Srinivasan. While eigenrobot mourns the geographic decline of liberalism, Balaji identifies liberalism’s migration and rejuvenation on the Internet—a decentralized "cloud" of ideological and institutional innovation.
Balaji acknowledges the growing illiberalism of states but counters with the insight that the Internet, cryptocurrencies, and decentralized technologies form the backbone of "Internet liberalism." This digital sphere replicates—and potentially enhances—traditional liberal values: open exchange, voluntary association, strong privacy protections, and global cooperation.
In this emerging digital liberalism, individual rights are safeguarded by cryptography, blockchain, and smart contracts, providing stronger and more reliable protections than traditional legal frameworks. Internet nations such as Bitcoiners represent the first of potentially many decentralized communities united not by geography but by shared values, financial systems, and governance structures.
Balaji’s vision does not merely preserve liberalism; it revitalizes it, making it robust against governmental overreach and authoritarian tendencies. Unlike state-based liberal institutions, cloud-based liberalism is resilient, decentralized, and difficult for oppressive states to dismantle.
Thus, the apparent contradiction between eigenrobot’s pessimism and Balaji’s optimism resolves into complementary insights:
Eigenrobot accurately diagnoses liberalism’s geographic and cultural collapse.
Balaji reveals liberalism’s simultaneous digital rebirth and resilience.
Rather than signaling liberalism’s demise, the current moment marks a transition point. Liberalism is evolving beyond state boundaries, becoming a genuinely global phenomenon rooted in technological resilience.
This digital liberalism is not merely an abstraction—it increasingly shapes real-world interactions, economies, and societies. Cryptographic protections ensure freedoms previously guaranteed only by fragile political institutions. As state liberalism retreats, cloud liberalism expands.
In this dual reality lies hope: liberalism is not dead, merely evolving. Its geographic core is collapsing, but its ideological core, stronger than ever, is now secure in the decentralized infrastructure of the Internet. The classical liberal tradition is thus poised not only to survive but to flourish anew, unconstrained by borders, more robust and universally accessible than ever before.