From Hollywood to Hegel, many have drawn comfort from the idea that history has a moral direction, and that “the good” will win out in the end. This thinking has influenced Marxist movements and shapes current progressive appeals to being on “the right side of history." But while the view that there is a moral direction to progress has traditionally won out, there is strong evidence that this is a mistake. Communist systems collapsed into nightmares. Liberal democracies have decayed. Recurring contemporary crises — pandemics, wars, climate change, and technological upheaval — leave us directionless. Increasingly it seems the good does not win out and social change fails not only to guarantee progress but lacks any moral direction at all.

Should we see moral and social progress as a dangerous fantasy from which we need to escape? Is the idea of a direction to history simply a means to justify our prejudices? Or is progress essential if we are to create purpose in a universe that otherwise offers no promise or triumph?

Titan of the radical left Tariq Ali, leading Chinese intellectual Wang Hui, and celebrated economic historian Deirdre McCloskey debate whether history has a moral direction.