Have the courage to rewrite story of Western decline

Across the West today there is a growing sense of decline, division and anxiety.

The words permacrisis and polycrisis are starting to be heard. Too many people have lost trust in the values and institutions that are the bedrock of our civilisation, feel disenfranchised and left behind, and do not remember – or, worse, reject or rewrite – our history. Too many people no longer know where they have come from, who they are or where they are going.

The West is weak: culturally, we are witnessing the deconstruction of the value system that laid the foundations of our freedom, prosperity and, in Australia, our valued egalitarianism.

This has been facilitated and enabled too often by political leaders who have lacked the courage to push back or, worse, have actively pushed a deconstructionist agenda. Politically, we are polarised and divided. Socially, we are unstable, confused and incoherent.

These feed the policy sclerosis that is weakening our economies and in turn reducing the prosperity that is so desirable for human flourishing, at the same time as building unconscionable debt burdens for our children, born and unborn.

In the words of our friend, social critic Os Guinness, we are at a “civilisational moment”. A critical turning point where the choices we make now will define the world our children grow up in.

Some would argue that decline is inevitable. They say there is nothing that can be done, that every civilisation has a cycle and we just happen to be on the downswing. Oswald Spengler was the most famous proponent of this story of the rise and fall of civilisations. His story says great civilisations start with the pioneers, whose initial outburst of courageous exploration pave the way for expansion and growth.

This leads eventually to development, affluence and flourishing. But affluence is a double-edged sword. It not only enables wealth but seeds a complacency that over time leads to overexpansion, overcomplexity and decline marked by decadence, cynicism and pessimism.

There will be some who look at Australia, and the West writ large, today and see that story of decline.

There are many who believe that is it, and there is nothing that can be done, or they think the tired source of civilisational inspiration must be replaced.

But we believe decline is not inevitable and there is hope for renewal. The choice is in our hands and it is our responsibility not only to tell a better story but to build a better story.

We have studied great movements of history and what sits behind an upswing: historian Niall Ferguson calls it the power of dense networks of senior leaders; philosopher Arnold Toynbee called it the gathering of a creative minority who will live differently.

That is why we established the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship and convened 1500 leaders from across the world in an extraordinarily successful conference in London last year.

And that is why we are bringing together more than 600 people at the ARC Australia conference in Sydney this month. We believe a true in-country and international network of courageous, adventurous people who believe in staring down challenges rather than being defeated by the prevailing darkness is not only possible but is the only alternative to the zeitgeist. People are looking for leadership and hope.

Almost 200 years ago, political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville observed that what made democracy work was the importance of robust institutions and a strong civil society, with people voluntarily joining with one another to strengthen the social fabric.

That is what is required today. Good policy cannot be developed from bad or silenced debate. That is why we believe in providing a platform for the free exchange and exploration of ideas, bringing together people of courage from across the world in politics, industry, academia, the arts and media. People who will create and not simply complain, build rather than tear down, and – through relationships – work for long-term change.

At ARC’s Australia conference we will explore “the better story”, by reminding ourselves of Australia’s incredible history, with the hope of restoring belief in our core values of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and human dignity, and trust in the institutions that defend them.

We will examine our social fabric and why strengthening it matters profoundly to our society and economy. Whether it is family breakdown, identity politics, demographic changes or the mental health epidemic, we face grave challenges with serious implications for our wider prosperity.

And we will seek to promote solutions that will serve the prosperity of all Australians: from asking how we can provide a pathway for young people to have a greater stake in this society to underlining that our way of life is sustained by affordable energy.

The West is at a defining moment with some clear choices before us. Do we rediscover, re-lay and renew our values and vision, drawing inspiration from our past as we work for a better future; or decline in the face of threats, internal and external, to those values?

Australia has a vital role to play in this existential debate.

Baroness Philippa Stroud is co-founder and chief executive of the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship. John Anderson is a co-founder of ARC and a former deputy prime minister of Australia.

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This article first appeared in The Australian on the 19th of October, 2024.