The Crisis in Liberalism
Modern liberalism. The political ideology which has dominated Europe and the US since the end of the second world war. Is it facing its current incarnations end? In Europe we are seeing the complete destruction of left wing liberal parties in Greece, the Netherlands and even France. Then the greatest blow to the liberal elite of Europe, Brexit. That dreaded six letter word which rocked the European Union, a supposed liberal democratic creation of European liberals,who wished to unify Europe, to its core and, depending on its outcome, could prove to be the deathblow the Euro collapse failed to be. Finally we have Donald Trump. The man who was considered an international “racist, Islamophobic misogynist and who opposed the very core of liberal ideals” became the president of the most powerful democratic nation on the planet which leads the western world. These blows are considered by some to be the end of the liberal elitist world order who have run the world since the end of the second world war.
Yet why? Why had the ideology which was supposed to a will of the people movement become so despised by such a large amount t of the western world? I believe the answer is in how modern liberal arguments and agendas have been dictated and operated. Identity politics, blocking of arguments- through phrases such as racist and narrow minded- and attempting to take the moral high ground are all favoured techniques of liberal groups,and the people have had enough. Enough of a form of politics in which political correctness destroys potential debate points, reasonable arguments are destroyed by social justice and crowd insults of opposite views present one side as “wrong”. These ideas-which we all saw during the Trump and Brexit campaigns- of how things should be done, which can be seen in the ways most universities in the UK have given lower over to a greatly left wing population which have spiralled out of control. For example South Bank university have censorship rules against...blasphemy. That's right. A centre of education in which all ideas are to be challenged and destroyed to be rebuilt again, has censorship to this degree.
With the dominance of liberalism in both government and social attitudes we have seen generations becoming more and more intolerant while preaching their actions are in the name of tolerance. Having any form of idea or criticism of a movement that does not line up with the majority means you are crucified by the growing social justice warriors. As a result of this normal people, those who work every day of their lives and do not become indoctrinated, are seeing those who come from bastions of liberalism- universities, middle class households and movements like Black Lives Matter and third wave feminists- in either increasingly ridiculous ways or see them as a dangerous sign of when things go out of control. This is degrading the power and influence these groups and institutions possess over the electorate and the people to the point we see today.
The general populace has had enough of them being told “No you can't say that someone might have their feelings hurt” and being censored as a result. People have had enough of soft hearted weak willed fools running the state and being to the slightest pressure from groups on the chance they would claim they are being offensive. The country wants leaders who have weathered the brutal unfiltered nature of the world,not the safe space mothering liberals have imposed. As a result the old world order had dramatically imploded and now the elite ate sitting in their homes wondering what went wrong. Unless views change and liberalism becomes more accepting of other views and allows actually debates to take place the right wing will have centre stage something which is already occurring across Europe and America.
By Sam Geeve
