European peoples, whether in Europe, the Americas, Australasia, or elsewhere, are unique among the races on earth and unprecedented in human history. We’re freely giving up our countries, cultures, and races as no others imagine.
Fighting back, a small majority in Britain voted in June 2016 to leave the European Union. Promising to restore American borders and defend her national interests, Donald Trump won the Republican Party nomination for president. The primary division in the West is no longer between left and right, liberal and conservative. It’s between nationalism and globalism.
Western individualism has become globalism, catering to the self-righteous and self-absorbed. It’s ideology, unconcerned about reality and the harm people suffer.
Outside the West, the world remains nationalistic. Nationalism is togetherness, community, and morality, caring for a person’s people and country. The nation state is in people’s individual and collective interests, on social, economic, and cultural grounds.
Examining how we came to this point and where we‘re headed, Western individualism, nationalism, and globalism are the subjects of eleven non-fiction books I’ve written. I draw upon history, current events, and people’s personal experiences.
I, the author, am present on Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter. Please feel free to engage with me at the foot of this page or wherever else you feel comfortable.
Dear Simon
I have read through several of your works. I share your views about individualism, multiculturalism, and the cultural and social decline of the West that we are living through (though I suspect we are just at the beginning of the process).
I have over a period of 30 years explored the various options for what might counter this process. Broadly, my conclusions point to community life and mutuality of the kind that were formed by religious traditions in the past, and added to by communitarian movements of various kinds (family and kinship in times of stronger extended families, co-operatives and mutuals in business, voluntary associations in community, faith groups in belief).
I support a stronger Australian nationality (less multiculturalism, stronger social cohesion) but while a ‘nationalist’ response to these issues may address some of the angst felt by significant sections of the population, nationalism does not recreate the social bonds and strong familial and communal ties that alone can counter individualism.
With a number of other thinkers and activists, I favour a mutualist response, carefully defined and developed, over a nationalist response. We are in the process of forming a social movement to take this forward, called The Mutual Society. Here is an excerpt from our Manifesto:
“The Mutual Society is a response to social and institutional gridlock and the exhaustion of the political ideologies that dominated the 20th century. It is a social movement, a voluntary association of members, which builds new institutions in society (large-scale businesses, community infrastructure, and instruments of political voice) to enable members and their loved ones to live a good life.”
The project has a strong statement of identity and purpose which is:
a) centrist in politics (against both Big Government and Big Business)
b) relational in social philosophy (emphasis on family, friendships, communities)
c) open to the communal purposes formed by faith traditions (personal discipline, reciprocity in relationships, living in community)
Our project is about building social antidotes to individualism and anomie through practical initiatives in areas such as communities, health care, schools, adult education, etc, based on this set of values and purpose.
If this is of interest, I’d be happy to have a conversation.
Vern Hughes
0425 722 890