Every generation seems to think we have outgrown the ideas that make a free society work. Today, people are debating what comes next after liberalism. Newspaper headlines herald the end of democracy, and experts warn of its decline. It may be worth taking another look at classical liberalism.
In 1933, German economist Wilhelm Röpke gave a lecture on why liberalism remained important. Shortly after Hitler became chancellor, Ropke risked warning a large audience that Nazism was much more than a mere political change.
Ropke saw liberalism as more than just a political or economic idea and opposed the idea that it led to moral weakness. He saw it as a tradition that combined Greco-Roman philosophy, Judeo-Christian ethics, natural law, and Enlightenment thought.
He also stressed that a free society depends on moral habits such as responsibility, self-control and respect for others. Law alone cannot produce these qualities. Free institutions depend on moral foundations that they cannot build on their own.
Small habits are often more important than we realize. Mr. Ropke often said that a healthy society depends on daily actions such as honesty, responsibility, and being a good neighbor. No government or revolution can create such habits. Without them, freedom will not last.
From this perspective, the Nazi movement was more than just a political project. It was a rebellion against reason, freedom, and truth. The regime has denied individual dignity, replaced the rule of law with state power, and prioritized propaganda over truth.
By appealing to myths, emotions, and racial identity, they ignored the moral boundaries that protect people from abuses of power.
Ropke argued that economic hardship alone could not explain the rise of Nazism. He believed that the deeper reason was that people had turned away from the moral and cultural traditions that underpinned liberal societies.
Many people, including intellectuals, chafed at constitutional restrictions and were willing to give up their freedoms in exchange for the promise of unity and national renewal. A familiar danger has emerged: people have stopped thinking for themselves. Liberalism was seen as a weakness associated with relativism, moral decline, and national decline. At the same time, conservatives often abandoned liberal restrictions in the name of order and renewal.
Dignity, freedom, and respect for reason have diminished, and the institutions of a free society have been weakened. Markets, the rule of law, and constitutional government have lost their power. Movements that promised unity, strength, and purity became more appealing.
Mr. Ropke’s warning had real consequences for him. Shortly after the lecture, he lost his job at the university and left Germany. After the war, he helped develop the ideas behind West Germany’s new economic and political system.
Although this warning was issued at another time, the questions it raises remain important. History may not repeat itself, but it often sounds nostalgic.
In retrospect, Ropke’s lecture stands as an early defense of a kind of liberalism based not just on markets and rules, but on human dignity, the discipline of freedom, and the search for truth through reason. Without these, a free society cannot be sustained.
As the late Roger Scruton, one of the most eloquent defenders of the conservative tradition, said: “Good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created.” Free institutions are one of these fragile outcomes. They depend on customs and traditions, and once lost they cannot be quickly rebuilt.
Lord Acton, the historian and moralist, left little doubt. A free society depends not only on institutions but also on the belief that no authority, whether political, religious, or popular, is above truth and justice. “There is no greater heresy than that an office sanctifies its holder. . . . It is like hanging a man who has no office.”
Before moving beyond liberalism, we might first ask whether the moral and cultural foundations that sustain free societies remain strong enough to endure.
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, an anxious population did not react with widespread alarm. Even Germany’s main Jewish organization, the Central Association of German Citizens for Judaism, claimed that despite the Nazis’ anti-Semitism, “no one dares to touch it.” [their] Constitutional Rights. ”
One chronicler of life under Hitler said that with the street lights turned off, “life for Berliners in 1939 went on much as before, albeit with less light.” Attendance at movie theaters has increased. Later, while much of the city was reduced to ashes, one resident reported enjoying a lively operetta. golden cagethe joke was “so bold.” None of this surprises us.
Even in dark times, life maintains some semblance of normalcy. One learns to adapt, to carry on, and to not see what is right in front of one’s eyes. Many people welcomed lower food prices and the so-called economic recovery. And after the humiliation of World War I, all about germany Or “Germany First” was unmistakable.
Lepke’s advice is as applicable today as it was before Hitler. A free society begins to crumble when its defenders forget the ideals that hold it together.
Despots often come quietly, not with a thud, but in the form of a shrug and another night out.
notes and reading
Wilhelm Ropke (1899–1966), a German economist and social philosopher, argued that markets and political institutions depend on moral and cultural foundations that they cannot build on their own. In works such as modern social crisis (1942) and humane economy (1960), he defended a humanistic and community-based liberalism. He helped form the intellectual foundations of postwar West Germany’s social market economy.
Wilhelm Röpke’s political economy—Samuel Gregg (2010). A clear intellectual biography that explains the advocacy of a “humane economy” based on a moral culture, strong communities, and limited government.
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Some contemporary “liberal democrats” or “centrist liberals” seek to maintain the classical liberal framework while adapting it to modern conditions. Among them is philosopher Martha Nussbaum (1947-). ability approach It connects human dignity and democratic citizenship. Amartya Sen (1933-), Nobel Prize-winning economist whose work connects development and freedom. Ann Applebaum (1964-) is a historian and journalist who studies authoritarianism and defends constitutional government, civil society, and the liberal democratic order.
roger scruton (1944–2020), British philosopher and cultural critic, discussed in works such as: meaning of conservatism (1980) and how to be a conservative (2014) argue that free societies depend on inherited institutions such as law, property, and civil society, and that once these institutions are lost, they cannot be easily rebuilt.
Lord Acton (1834–1902), British historian and liberal Catholic thinker. Excerpt from a letter to Archbishop Mundell Clayton (April 5, 1887). “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” etc. online.
Lionel Trilling—liberal imagination (1950). A collection of prominent essays that argues that liberalism is not just a political doctrine, but a moral and cultural tradition shaped by literature, philosophy, and historical considerations.
Ian Bulma—Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945 (2026), quoted in Elizabeth Colbert “Lying Low” new yorker (March 16, 2026). A work depicting daily life in Berlin under the Nazi regime, which was in ruins.
Where is God in war?
Preservation of appearance
Approximately 2+2=5
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
