Author Archives: Dennis Delice

The desire for a sense of control is a deeply futile effort, because despite being individuals, we find ourselves in a social paradigm, shaped by what is beyond our control – for example, where we are born. The person we grow into is also often a product of their environment, often not only inheriting their parents’ genes, but also their ideas and mannerisms. We are all woven in a tapestry of human experience, for we were not born in the wilderness and raised by wolves, without any social contact.

In our growingly atomised age, where our identities are now less bound to our nationality and class as they used to be but increasingly linked to our protected characteristics, conservative backlash bears electoral fruit. It is therefore no longer surprising that in developed countries, we vote not in economic terms, but primarily social now – previously hardened identities of old, such as class or gender, become blurred and less well-defined. This leads to a mismatch between increasingly academic and arbitrary language and lived experiences, which far too often translates as resentment towards liberalism, which feels moralising and detached. For example, Labour struggles with capturing the working-class vote, whilst the Conservatives have lost their affluent but socially liberal support. The left-right axis is becoming ineffective at describing political persuasions as Reform voters are ambivalent on economics, yet hardcore on social conservatism. The floor for liberalism has opened as an alternative, but communicating it without alienating people, as progressives did during the Brexit vote, is key.