Rise of the intolerant liberals

The highlight of the year I spent as a postgraduate at Harvard was a speech given by Tom Wolfe to the graduating class of 1988. His theme was the decline of Christianity in America and the extraordinary freedom that had given rise to. Until quite recently in American history, he argued, people’s personal behaviour had been circumscribed by their sense of right and wrong, which was largely dictated by the morality associated with various puritan sects dating back to the first European settlers. When it came to sex, for instance, their choices were limited by a fear that certain practices would cause irreparable spiritual harm. Not any more, said Wolfe. America had embraced an ‘anything goes’ philosophy and that had resulted in unprecedented levels of freedom, particularly in the sexual arena.

Wolfe predicted that puritanism would reassert itself in the form of a resurgence of Christianity, but he was only half right. Twenty-five years later, many aspects of puritan morality have indeed made a comeback, but they are disguised as secular liberalism.

For instance, the attitude of the British Humanist Society towards the teaching of creationism in faith schools is reminiscent of the attitude of Christians to the teaching of the theory of evolution at the beginning of the last century. There are also traces of old-fashioned, Bible-thumping puritanism in the environmentalist movement, the hounding of anyone suspected of sexual harassment, the campaign to ban Page 3 and the attack on tabloid licentiousness spearheaded by Hacked Off. It’s almost as if the progressive left, having won the culture war, has unconsciously taken on many of the least attractive aspects of its Christian opponents.

The left has always had a puritan streak, but what is fairly new is the extent to which it has abandoned libertarianism, leaving the right to take up the cudgels on behalf of free speech and other individual rights.