How the West Was Lost

Civilisational decline is a theme raised elsewhere in this issue in books by William Ophuls and John Reed. This stimulating analysis proposes a diagnosis of what the West is in terms of its positive moral purpose, how it was lost, and recommendations about how it can be re-gained. The author identifies three Christian and Enlightenment ideas as central: progress towards a utopian moral endpoint, Republican values of liberty, equality and fraternity (he calls this solidarity), and universalism - the idea that these values can be globalised. All these ideals have run up against challenges, for instance of excessive individualism or demands for total conformity in the name of liberal equality. In addition, the decline of official religion has removed another unifying factor, although we are still to some extent living off Christian moral capital. The crisis is that we have no truly shared set of collective values.

The second part looks in more detail at the fading of the European project, the loss of religious faith, the rise of nationalism and authoritarianism, the squeezed middle class, challenges of the rising generation in terms of employment and housing, and questions raised by migration, Islam and Western values. In the US, 'corporate America, in the name of freedom, is now running public life' (p. 117) without regard for inequality and in the face of a breakdown of American solidarity and the sense that we are all in it together. The right represents the business elite and the left the intellectual elite, while both are isolated from the majority. As the author points out, our economic model is now 'undermining the equality and solidarity that are needed to balance commitment to liberty' (p. 157) We are also losing intergenerational solidarity, not only in terms of economics, also of planetary ecological prospects.

The third part addresses our loss of confidence in our own myth, especially since 2008. We need to take into account the mind represented by ideals and purpose as well as the soul based on existential belonging. The author suggests a redemptive project based on environmental politics and a shared story of a cleaner, safer world; then a form of moral internationalism as a continuation of the commitment to universalism while balancing the demands of liberty and equality. The final chapter discusses the crucial issue of restoring solidarity, the third value that has been overlooked at the expense of emphasising one of the first two. This is based on the idea of obligations: 'what is owed to people within society.' (p. 241) A key element is rebuilding civil society with an emphasis on the overall common good, and at this time the scope needs to be planetary with a real sense that we are all in it together - the environmental predicament is the key context here, inviting us to go beyond narrow nationalisms and a New World Order based on fear and control; this also involves seriously tackling inequality and a move towards stakeholder capitalism. Will all this be enough, even if implemented? My own view, articulated above in my review of Priorities for a Planet in Transition is that we need a deeper articulation and application of universal spiritual principles beyond techno-scientific ingenuity that brings together mind, heart and will in a common shared vision of mutual flourishing – as a reminder, these Deunov principles are Love (compassion), Wisdom, Truth, Justice and Virtue or Goodness.