TRUST in our institutions has plummeted. The supposed unity of ‘the public’ has fractured as loyalty to ‘identity’ groups replaces civic and national allegiance. Genuine opposition (where it exists) is harried, popular demonstrations suppressed, all in the name of ‘the rule of law’. Elites openly scorn the middle and working classes; their activist proxies stoke a degrading climate of self-censorship.
It wasn’t meant to be like this. The Western Liberal tradition was founded on sacred concepts, seeded in 17th-century England before blooming in the Enlightenment. The social contract, the sovereignty of the people, the ‘public good’ – these things ensured its continued hegemony. When the Soviet Union collapsed, we complacently proclaimed the ‘end of history’.
