The west needs to defend its shared values

The foundational document of the United States, in declaring that country’s independence, claims for every man the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These fundamental rights, asserted in the face of oppression and paid for in blood, have been the cornerstone not only of American democracy but of western civilisation for the duration of our lives. The idea that government derives its power from the consent of the people, and that politicians of a different party are “my opponent, not my enemy,” as Bob Dole said in his concession speech in 1996, have been the source of the west’s moral and economic strength since the end of the second world war.

Today, these values and principles are under threat. In an age where people have been given unprecedented power to create their own realities, the political opposition is the enemy to many US citizens. When major party candidates for the most powerful job on earth are calling for each other to be imprisoned, declaring the election rigged, or denouncing each other’s supporters as “deplorable,” it is unsurprising when the losing candidate’s supporters react to defeat by rioting and protesting in the streets.

We live in an age where universal values are maligned. During his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of a “dictatorship of relativism” and “an attack on truth” that defined the modern era. This is on display when a candidate with close financial ties to despotic middle eastern regimes can be the flag bearer of liberal feminists, while cultural and religious conservatives line up behind a candidate who brags about dodging sexually transmitted diseases being “his personal Vietnam” and who was recorded boasting about committing sexual assault.

It is now possible to choose media sources so as to never read or watch a news story that challenges one’s point of view. This is a problem that affects both sides of the political divide. Its consequence is first and foremost a devastating loss of empathy in our society—an increased intolerance for dissenting views and voices that is seen in the comments sections of conservative websites and the safe spaces on our college campuses. Fewer and fewer values are viewed as common, shared or universal and this is an urgent danger.

First, it is a danger because shared values do not just bind us together as societies, but as an international community of western nations. Whatever else one thinks of Donald Trump, his message that it was beyond time that America’s allies ceased to be so dependent on it for defence seemed to resonate with many voters. The President-Elect has signalled a far greater apathy towards Nato and a greater openness to Russia than any of his recent predecessors. This is concerning because a world in which a common system of values and beliefs is replaced with self-interested pragmatism will be a perilous one.

Second, the decrease in shared values is dangerous domestically. Twice in the last decade the European Union chose to simply ignore the result of democratic votes. Twice more it demanded that democratic votes be re-run until the correct result was achieved. Unsurprisingly, an increasing number of people frustrated at their inability to change a system now support leaving it. In the UK, some of my fellow Remainers are now arguing that the Leave vote should be overturned by parliament. In the US, millions of people have signed a petition demanding that the electoral college overturn the result of the election. In the west, we are seeing the beginning of movements that reject democracy itself. These movements share a view that the values of their group are more important than the common, shared value, of government by consent.

Of course, each of these movements serves only to legitimise the next one. Rejecting the result of one referendum makes it easier to reject the next, and in turn makes it easier to reject the result of an actual election. Banning a controversial speaker from campus makes it easier to protest a lecturer who makes a controversial statement, and in turn makes it easier to have a lecturer fired for a politically incorrect remark, or a baker put out of business for declining to ice a cake according to your beliefs.

In each of these cases, the shared western values of free speech, personal liberty, and respect for conscience are being ignored in deference to the particular values of the mob. This mentality, which is so encouraged by our ability to choose a reality in which everyone shares our views, is the most dangerous threat to the preservation of liberty in the west.

A famous photo was taken in Hamburg in the year 1936. Adolf Hitler is passing and the crowd raises their arms to salute—aside from one man, who stands with his arms folded. This image is not just an icon of resistance to Nazism, for there are many who dutifully saluted in public while working to undermine Hitler in private. It is, rather, an icon of resistance to the mob. In an age where the mob is ascendant, and our common values are under attack, schoolchildren should be shown this photo and taught what it means—that sometimes the crowd is wrong, and the lone dissenter is right.

Defending the dissenter’s right to freedom of speech, his right to his conscience, and his right to liberty, and most importantly, his right to be heard, is the cornerstone of our freedom. When we take those things away from him, he will rebel—and President Trump and Brexit may not be the end of his insurrection.

Declan Ganley will be speaking on threats to liberty in the west at the Acton Institute’s "Reclaiming the West: Freedom and Responsibility" conference on 1st December in London.