One longstanding theme of this blog has been the weakness of our liberal and western convictions and their increasing dependence on material wealth and consumerism. Our principles and institutions feel hollow - the anti-keynesian elite politics of globalization and liberalization almost in sole favour of capital and finance sector are on several levels undermining the Western society, atomizing it, making for ever increasing cynicism and scepticism.
Ground fertile for nasty sentiments, nasty regimes (one very close to my native Finland), for hatred and brutality whether (still) only in sentiment or even in deed. There seems to be next to no elite understanding that the enlightenment values do need vigorous and convinced defence - the society is in desperate need of liberal idealism and liberal defiance. Instead we have faceless technocrats catering for the finance industry.
Our enlightened values are truly deserving of militant, passionate backing: the values of liberty, of reason, of human value, compassion and sympathy are so vastly superior to this creeping nastiness and baseness and dishonesty, to Trump and Putin, to alt-right, to religious fundamentalism of all kinds.
Our liberal world view is under attack and on retreat. A fight has started and it needs to be joined.
