Some critics of Western civilization—from radical environmentalists to radical Muslims—may have identified its real weakness, writes Douglas Murray: an inability to give people a sense of purpose. As a society becomes increasingly secular, Murray argues, it loses its sense of meaning and with it the will to defend itself:
Today the antagonists of Western culture and civilization throw many accusations at us—almost all of them untrue. . . . But on one single thing it is possible that our critics are on to something. They do not identify it well, and when they do identify it they prescribe the worst possible remedies. But it remains a problem worth identifying, not least in order to raise ourselves to answers.
The problem is one that is easier to notice and feel than it is to prove, but I would suggest that it is something like this: that life in modern liberal democracies is to some extent thin or shallow. I do not mean that our lives are meaningless, or that the opportunity liberal democracy uniquely gives to pursue our own conception of happiness is remotely misguided. On a day-to-day basis most of us find deep meaning and love from our families and friends and much else. But there are questions which remain, which have always been at the center of each of us, and which liberal democracy on its own not only cannot answer but was never meant to answer. . . .
The search for meaning is not new. What is new is that almost nothing in our culture . . . says: “Here is an inheritance of thought and culture and philosophy and religion which has nurtured people for thousands of years.” At best the voice says: “Find your meaning where you will.” At worst it is the nihilist’s creed: “All this has no meaning.” Meanwhile politicians—seeking to address the broadest range of people—speak so widely and with such generalities as to mean almost nothing. Almost nowhere is there a vision of what a meaning-filled life might be.
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