Back to the future
Now that history has stormed back with a vengeance, liberalism needs to fight its ground all over again. Part of the task is to find the language to make a principled, enlightened case and to take on people like Ms Le Pen and Mr Trump. The flow of goods, ideas, capital and people is essential for prosperity. The power of a hectoring, bullying, discriminatory state is a threat to human happiness. The virtues of tolerance and compromise are conditions for people to realise their full potential.

with a vengeance：激しく
stand one's ground： 意思を貫く
hectoring：脅す
bullying：いじめる
discriminatory：差別扱いをする

Just as important is the need for policies to ensure the diffusion of prosperity. The argument for helping those mired in deprivation is strong. But a culture of compensation turns angry people into resentful objects of state charity. Hence, liberals also need to restore social mobility and ensure that economic growth translates into rising wages. That means a relentless focus on dismantling privilege by battling special interests, exposing incumbent companies to competition and breaking down restrictive practices. Most of all, the West needs an education system that works for everyone, of whatever social background and whatever age.

diffusion：拡散・普及
mired：ぬかるみ・窮地
deprivation：窮乏すること
compensation：補償
social mobility：社会的流動性・社会的地位
dismantling：解体する
incumbent：現在の
restrictive practice：制限的な慣行

The fight for liberalism is at its most fraught with immigration. Given that most governments manage who comes to work and live in their country, the EU’s total freedom of movement is an anomaly. Just as global trade rules allow countries to counter surges of goods, so there is a case for rules to cope with surges in people. But it would be illiberal and self-defeating to give in to the idea that immigration is merely something to tolerate. Sooner than curb numbers, governments should first invest in schools, hospitals and housing. In Britain new migrants from the EU contribute more to the exchequer than they take out. Without them, industries such as care homes and the building trade would be short of labour. Without their ideas and their energy, Britain would be much the poorer.

fraught：はらんだ
anomaly：異常・異例
self-defeating：自滅的な
exchequer：資産・資力

Liberalism has been challenged before. At the end of the 19th century, liberals embraced a broader role for the state, realising that political and economic freedoms are diminished if basic human needs are unmet. In the 1970s liberals concluded that the embrace of the state had become smothering and oppressive. That rekindled an interest in markets.

smothering：抑制する
oppressive：圧制的な
rekindled：再び燃え立たせる

When Margaret Thatcher was prime minister, amid the triumph of Soviet collapse, an aide slipped Mr Fukuyama’s essay on history into her papers. The next morning she declared herself unimpressed. Never take history for granted, she said. Never let up. For liberals today that must be the rallying cry.

unimpressed：感動しない
Never let up：決してやめない
rallying：集まる

木曜日。今日はこれまで。自由主義は放棄するべきではない。経済の繁栄とともに、賃金も上昇するべきだ。移民も物と同様に自由に移動するべきだ。そうしたことが必要だとエコノミストは言っている。メイ首相は今後、こうしたことを踏まえていくのだろうか。

昨日はいつもの昼食会があって楽しく過ごした。夜は海野塾があり、これも楽しかった。今夜は大学の仲間と会食がある。これも楽しみだ。ではまた明日。