We live in a post-truth age. No longer is there any such thing as objective reality. On both Left and Right, the media, commentators and politicians present their own subjective reality, primarily based on feelings and lived experiences. These alternate realities allow facts to be denied, history to be altered and new ‘facts’ to be created which are more conducive to the mindset of other people who live in this particular simulacrum of ‘real’ reality. When facts do not matter, when a lie is believed even when all the evidence points to the contrary, when we cannot or refuse to agree that what we empirically experience through our senses is the same for everyone, then the Scientific Method that we have used since the Enlightenment to understand reality becomes redundant. Rationality itself becomes redundant. No longer do we have to believe six impossible things before breakfast; now everything that we want to be possible is possible in our own mental universes.
OK, but how do this relate to the Liberal Democrats? The question is often asked – how do we as Liberal Democrats attract and keep a voter base? Well, I believe part of the answer is in the above paragraph. Liberalism grew out of the Enlightenment and the Scientific Method; the values at the heart of liberalism – universal rights, the concept of the individual, personal autonomy, progress, the freedom to think and act as one’s conscience or nature dictates, property rights, free cooperation, freedom to trade as one wishes, accountable and limited government – all derive from a belief in an objective reality that can be understood through empirical evidence. Reform, the Conservatives and Labour are all, in various ways, post-truth parties. They present a reality to voters, create a tribe around it, and go into ideological battle with the other tribes with their absolutely false counter-realities. British politics is a Manichean struggle between parallel universes. The Liberal Democrats, being liberals, are different. We believe in evidence. We believe in rational responses to issues. We believe in an empirical approach. We are willing to cooperate, engage with and learn from other parties. We are daughters and sons of the Enlightenment.
The next time, for example, someone observes that the Liberal Democrats are good at dealing with local issues, perhaps we should be explaining why, the values and philosophical framework that brings that about. Want a committed voter base? Tell people why the Liberal Democrats are different: because we are liberals. Intelligent people who are tired of the post-truth war of factual attrition offered by other parties will recognise that the values that we embody are those that they share. And vote for us. And not as a protest, but as a positive statement of what they believe. Many people are longing for something different, something non-tribal, something non-doctrinaire, something that is not a cult, something that is real. Do not be afraid to spread the gospel of liberalism – it is the Liberal Democrats best kept secret, and most effective recruiting tool.
* Mark Paine is a Liberal Democrat member
5 Comments
“What is truth?” is famously attributed to Pontius Pilate by the writer of the Gospel according to John. He is portrayed as a weak politician, ultimately prepared to be swayed by the mob rather than fulfilling his responsibilities to the rule of law, such as it was in the Roman Empire. It seems that Rome was not too bothered by events in troublesome Palestine, fertile soil for populism, where being Governor was never going to be the pinnacle of your career.
I recall a friend telling me that ‘your problem, William, is that you don’t go to enough football matches.’ He meant that I assumed too readily that everyone else was rational and open to argument, and failed to understand how important emotion is in social and political life. In the Brexit campaign I ran into many voters who accused me of being ‘patronising’ when I tried to make reasoned arguments for staying in the EU. To be successful (and to defeat populism) we have to combine reason with emotion, while fighting against those who use emotion to dismiss reason..
This is an interesting post that raises fundamental issues about the nature of truth and reality, which I feel really should be better understood in politics. But I fear Mark you’re being too optimistic about us. I’ve spent time in all three major parties – Labour, the Tories and the LibDems, and one thing I’ve observed is that people in ALL parties (including the LibDems) are just as prone to see the evidence that supports their existing views and not notice the evidence for the other side (Maybe I’m the same and I just haven’t seen it )
An example: A truly evidence-based party would surely have taken on board the evidence from the Cass Review. But so many evidence-promoting ‘liberals’ instead looked for excuses to dismiss the report, apparently because the conclusions didn’t match what they wanted. In a way that kind of behaviour is unsurprising because – well, it’s probably human nature. It’s no different from how conservatives often dismiss evidence about climate change, for example. But it should remind us that to be truly evidence-based requires a high degree of introspection and willingness to question one’s own beliefs. Do we have that?
Even so, it’s great that the LibDems do at least think in principle about being evidence-based. I think that does often show in a greater thoughtfulness in LibDem responses to various debates.
Oddly enough the theme of the SLF Conference next month is “Alternative Realities”. You must come along.
https://www.socialliberal.net/2025_slf_conference_in_st_albans
Logical argument has its moments. We live in a changing world with more freedom to express your unique take. A modern political party has to accept this. What is needed is a deeper understanding of our true nature and a tailoring of our messages to reflect this.