In our attempt to offer equal dignity to all regardless of background, and to stand up to institutions that fail to safeguard people’s dignity, we liberally oriented people have enabled an ideology that makes people suspicious of institutions per se and the traditions that uphold them. We have convinced people that the only way to make their lives meaningful is to discover their own path, encouraging them to cut ties with any institutions that stand in their way: from churches and mosques, to movements and parties, to families and friendships. In the process, we have separated them from crucial sources of meaning and belonging and have made it increasingly difficult to work together towards common goals. Meanwhile, in order to govern these increasingly disparate individuals, we have invented a mode of public reasoning that is in principle agreeable to anyone, regardless of their background and positionality, but which appears to appeal to no one. Because such reasoning is thought to require indifference and a high level of education and thus cannot be entrusted to just anyone, we have come to accept an understanding of politics as something that is done to people, or on their behalf, rather than by them and with them. And every so often, when people revolt, usually from the right, we either stand our ground like mighty old-growth trees in a forest fire, hoping we’ll be left in one piece and that, in time, a new forest will emerge around us, or we make mild concessions to right-wing populists and nativists, dredging up the symbols of yore such as faith, flag and family. In either case, possibilities for genuine reform and renewal are lost. In this chapter I explain how we got here and why it matters.

Given the sensitive and divisive nature of the topic, it is important to stress again that I do not wish to dismiss liberalism outright or rediscover some lost golden age. I cherish the many liberties that have been achieved in contemporary Western societies and I do not wish to revive oppressive structures of the past. My argument is subtler than this.