According to legend, St George, a Roman knight, freed a Libyan town from the cruel attentions of a sea-dragon by killing it. It’s a metaphor, of course. And any politician who has since dared face down fierce vested interests or kill off harmful prevailing orthodoxies has similarly been branded a dragon slayer. So in honour of England’s patron saint, we’ve asked our contributors to slip into some chain mail this week and nominate the contemporary tyranny they would put to the sword.
We’ve heard a lot in recent years about “the global village”. This often gives rise to a peaceful, happy place where neighbours trade and get along with one another. The truth, however, is that the village, at least those parts in the West, is under attack from a vicious dragon. That dragon is Global Elite Condescension.
The propensity of intellectual, political, and business elites to think of themselves as “citizens of the world” is well recognised. The annual Davos World Economic Forum is akin to a pilgrimage for the self-annointed global elite, a ‘journey’ during which they can worship their god and network at the same time. Such transnational bonds are not uncommon. The world’s great religions all engender such feelings and loyalties. So, too, have the great ideologies of past and present. Liberals and socialists alike continue to gather in international conclaves to celebrate something that unites them across national borders.
But Global Elite Condescension differs in that it sees itself as superior to the nation state and to non-believers. If global trade causes some people within a nation state to suffer, those claims for redress are dismissed as the yelps of the uneducated. If global migration causes tight communities to unravel, and places some citizens in economic competitions they cannot win, opposition is dismissed heatedly as racist in nature. If political leaders gain support for explicitly nationalist or traditionalist goals, they are frequently derided as authoritarian, fascist, or simply anti-democratic.
It is telling that these labels are levied even though anti-globalist or traditionalist leaders obtain the support of their fellow citizens in free and fair elections. “Democracy” for those suffering from Global Elite Condescension does not mean the rule of the people. It means, instead, that the people consent to the rule of their betters, whose judgments alone can prevail. When the people reject those judgments, the squeals can be deafening, as anyone in the United Kingdom or United States can attest to.
Worse, those under the influence of GEC often call for re-runs of the elections they lost or refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of their defeat. That’s what “not my president,” calls for a second Brexit referendum, and efforts to punish or ostracise Eastern European nations such as Hungary or Poland are about.
This tendency is fatal to the liberal democratic capitalist regimes in which we live. Liberal democratic capitalism can only survive if it is widely understood that all men are created equal. That means acknowledging that your views can lose elections justly. It means recognising that one can disagree without disparaging the underlying humanity of the person with whom you disagree. Those beliefs are what gave rise to a uniquely Western idea of “the loyal opposition”: to disagree on policies does not mean one is sundered from the nation.
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