Britain is experiencing a ‘silent revolution’. We are now in the early stages of a transition away from liberal democracy and towards a new type of authoritarianism. One in which our capacity to speak and hear the views of others is ever more tightly regulated by the government. The form of the political system might stay the same in terms of being formally a multi-party system but the ideological content we can give expression to will be highly compromised. In appearance we will still be living in a democracy, but not in reality.
This transition is incremental in nature and there is no clearly identifiable movement that is proud to take philosophical ownership of it. Historically, illiberal regimes and groupings, whether fascist, Marxist or the religious fundamentalist have honestly proclaimed their desire to limit freedom of expression to one belief system and party. By contrast, the latter-day authoritarians employ an Orwellian doublespeak, suggesting that their project is in some way designed to enhance liberal-sounding values such as ‘equality’, ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusivity’.
The innate, underlying illiberalism of this speech-prohibitionist tendency is perfectly captured by the words of the Labour MP Nadia Whittome when referring to transgenderism: “We must not fetishise ‘debate’ as though debate is itself an innocuous, neutral act… The very act of debate… is an effective rollback of assumed equality and a foot in the door for doubt and hatred.”
The logic of Whittome’s position is that the more censorship of narratives and opinions she subjectively judges to be transgressive the more free trans people will be. The starting point of what I label the ‘Culture-Control Left’ (CCL) – though this tendency has fellow travellers in big business and among some Conservatives – is diametrically different to that of liberalism. For the new left, the entirety of our society’s culture represents a network of oppressive ‘power structures’ that marginalise members of the various identity groups they have identified.
It follows that the role of government is to bring about a transfer of cultural power between those groups defined as having ‘privilege’ and those who are said to be the oppressed. This, in turn, necessarily means restricting the right of individuals to give expression to the values the CCL see as responsible for this informal, non-verifiable asserted form of oppression. ‘Hate speech’ is the key ideological technique deployed to shut down debate and to discourage nonconformity concerning the CCL’s most sacred positions.
Incredibly, the police have awarded themselves the power to harass individuals – who they themselves admit have not committed any crime – for expressing views they allege to be motivated by some vaguely defined interpretation of incitement. Hence the sinister ‘Non-Crime Hate Incident’ database now includes tens of thousands of names that can be accessed through DBS checks. This register of non-convicted persons represents the police, together with other parts of the state machine, ceasing to have any disciplined commitment to being politically non-partisan. This is merely one indication of the proverbial slippery slope into a post-liberal society we are now on.
The drift into neo-authoritarianism now requires those of us who are political and cultural liberals, regardless of our differences on economics, foreign policy, or other issues, to come together to form a broad ranging coalition. A ‘popular front’ of the mind that asserts our natural right to express whatever opinions we desire to. Human beings can only live in a state of true civilisation if we enjoy equal rights of citizenship to one another. It is the only way in which political disputes can be peaceably resolved through the democratic process. Once a particular ideological perspective, whatever that may be, awards itself the right to terminate free debate we cross the Rubicon into a qualitatively different type of world.
Marc Glendening is Head of Cultural Affairs at the Institute of Economic Affairs.
‘Dictating words: The Culture-Control Left and the war against free speech’ is a new report from the IEA (Institute of Economic Affairs). Read it here.
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