Post-modern liberalism has abandoned many of its core principles, originally a merchant ideology with economic freedom on its agenda, much of which centred on enriching the country and its people. Reforms resulted in a huge increase in living standards between 1850 and 1950, but have since slowed down. Although our gadgets are constantly improving, this does not necessarily mean increased comfort, at least not to the extent that earlier technological innovation contributed.
Liberalism’s main points are now about increasing migration and regulating the economy in response to the climate threat. Most of it seems to centre on these two issues.
How important is increased migration? Is it something that will benefit us in the long run? Moving people across the globe obviously does not bring any clear benefits. We have had culture clashes, religious controversies, increased crime, insecurity and a huge amount of tax money spent on maintaining the project, in the form of welfare payments for all newcomers who cannot find work. Yet there is still a push for increased migration, most political parties seem to agree, although some say otherwise.
Migration policy has contributed to the greatest transformation of our societies since the medieval migrations, perhaps ever. Yet the project appears clumsy and aimless. Politicians have not properly prepared the infrastructure, schools, housing, businesses, etc. And it does not contribute to any obvious good for the country as a whole. Citizens have never been given a concrete explanation as to why millions of people are being moved to their country.
The environmental problems and the societal changes in its wake also appear obscure. Most of the world’s pollution does not occur in our part of the world, but in Asia. Yet it is the West that is paying the price in the form of huge fuel taxes, and the increased cost of everything that requires oil or petrol to manufacture or transport. We also see our city centres changing, as not so many years ago we could park along city boulevards, close to shops, restaurants and entertainment. These side parking spaces have instead been turned into cycle lanes, complicating traffic and killing shops.
This has been seen as part of the goal of making it harder to drive, creating traffic jams to encourage people to leave their cars at home and cycle, walk or use public transport. At the same time, cars have become better and cleaner. Much of the hatred of cars is unjustified and seems to be due to ideological lockdowns. We are also tearing down functioning nuclear power plants, and attempts to replace the loss with wind and solar energy often result in increased use of oil and coal, which is completely counterproductive in terms of the environmental issue as a whole.
Migration and climate taxes are the great political projects of our time, which together are fundamentally changing our societies. In addition, these are not issues that the parties voted for, they are not promises to the people, they are not something that citizens asked for, but instead they appear to be an elite project whose aims are both difficult to understand and directly illogical. Migration and climate taxes appear more like the fruits of a royal decree than a publicly supported democratic process.
Other key issues in recent years have been LGBT rights and the Ukraine war. But none of them have come close to the two top issues. Furthermore, helping people in their daily lives with safety on the streets, better healthcare, reasonable pensions, family issues, lowering the tax burden, etc. – such issues were extremely important in the past, but don’t seem to be in vogue anymore.
It can’t just be about feeling sorry for people in poor countries – we can’t take care of all the poor – as our country [Sweden] and its people are among the smallest on earth. And when did we become so puritanically self-sacrificing that we risk our own societies to make others better off? And the environmental issue should, of course, be decided in the countries where the pollution takes place. Westerners paying more taxes does not necessarily solve emission problems on the other side of the globe. Yet these issues are considered extremely important, given our politicians and their actions, there is nothing more pressing. Everything else is sacrificed in order to continue with migration and environmental taxes.
