The real struggle is now between Authoritarianism and Democracy
For most of my life, I’ve thought that, despite its reductiveness, Left vs Right is a fundamental axis of difference in human social values, so it makes sense that politics be organized around it. After all, “Left” represents the impulse for collective wellbeing while “Right” represents the impulse for individual advancement. From these two impulses come political differences over the size of the welfare state, the rates of the top and bottom tax brackets, the degree that trade be free or regulated, etc.
However, this is true only under democratic governance, where collective decisions on where to be on this Left-Right axis are made through rational public debate and voting. When a country’s democratic culture is strong, her people will be able to accept each other’s differences as natural and thus can live together peacefully and productively through negotiations and compromises.
Authoritarianism is unfortunately now on the rise in many parts of the world. Authoritarians are not interested in public debate, negotiation, or compromise. For authoritarians, might makes right. This is not to say authoritarians do not have a well-development discourse on why they are morally right. They all do. In fact, they almost always up the ante to claim absolute morality. To think like them is to be absolutely “Good” and the…