Something I haven’t seen mentioned in this conversation is the idea that we might want to slow down the rate of progress even if we absolutely do see it as progress. Some of the changes we’re contemplating, especially regarding the nature of work and the desirability of capitalism—-as opposed to those surrounding race and sex/gender—-strike me as dangerous not because of how they’d change the West’s internal workings, but because they might weaken the West in the context of global competition. Things like UBI and UHC are left-wing ideas that I sympathize with even as a right-leaning individual, because I think that they’d objectively improve our quality of life across the board. At the same time, I worry that they might do so at the expense of overall national strength, and I don’t want to see Western nations eclipsed on the global stage by nations that are far more right-wing than the West is now.

This is a dilemma as old as human civilization. There have been countless instances of societies that were on their way to becoming left-wing utopias being brutalized by far-right elements, whether internal or external. This has happened so many times that I wouldn’t be surprised if the maxim “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” is literally a (subconscious?) recognition of this exact phenomenon.

I know that where I fall on the political spectrum is partly due to my psyche being particularly susceptible to influence by feelings of fear and disgust. I’ve read about how right-wing people are less open, more fearful, etc. I’d like to propose a less negative-sounding interpretation of this phenomenon: I am alarmed. I see China’s accelerating rise and I find it alarming, not because I have an irrational fear or hatred of Chinese people, but because I have a perfectly rational fear of my grandchildren living in a world dominated by a society that is objectively brutal and inhumane. I see Europe’s increasingly porous borders with the Middle East, and my concern is not that ten years from now the percentage of the population that’s non-white or non-Christian will be “too high”, but that fifty years from now people who currently live free will live under sharia.

When we on the right voice these and other similar concerns, we’re told either that we’re just xenophobes who are arguing in bad faith, or that we’re being manipulated by fear-mongers. I can’t speak for others on the right, but for me these concerns aren’t rooted in ignorance but rather in a knowledge of history.

What I find most alarming of all is that those on the left, and even in the center, seem to be convinced that the secularism, liberalism, and other Enlightenment goodies currently enjoyed by Western nations couldn’t be taken away. It doesn’t matter how many immigrants we take in from non-Western countries, or how rapidly—-they will invariably be awe-struck by our progressive values and will assimilate. We don’t need to worry about military aggression from a non-Western power—-the global economy is too interdependent for large-scale war to be profitable to anyone. Never mind that all throughout history conquerors have had no qualms whatsoever with obliterating stable, profitable international economic orders. More controversially: it’s not a big deal that the nuclear family is disintegrating; it’s a good thing, even. Never mind that the West is not in a position to fall back on a mode of social organization based on the extended family. Don’t worry about the atomization of society into isolated individuals, even though it’s almost certainly responsible for the depression epidemic. Hey, if you’re really worried about the destruction of functioning modes of social organization that evolved over hundreds of generations, take a look at this pamphlet from the 19th century; it’s got a solution that seems reasonable. The first few trial runs were huge disasters, but we’re pretty sure we’ve got all the kinks worked out.

Sometimes I just want to grab people and shake them. I don’t hate people who are different from me; I don’t think that a global cabal is pushing for left-wing policies; I haven’t been brainwashed by the Koch brothers into “voting against my own interests”. I’m just a guy who thinks we have it pretty good right now and doesn’t want to see it all burn to the ground because things aren’t perfect and we don’t have the patience to take care as we continue to make things better.