We are living through a frenzy of conformity

Reality seems thinner these days. As I walk along the high street, passers-by drift apart as though afraid of crossing auras. Three months of lockdown has made this repulsion of human contact a matter of instinct. I can’t help but see this tendency reflected in the escalating intolerance and hostility on social media. So at the start of the week I decide to spend a few days away from Twitter. It’s not the ideal forum for civilised debate at the best of times, but even some of those I respect are now behaving like poorly socialised children who’ve just learnt some flashy new expletives. J.K. Rowling is bombarded for holding views about biological sex differences that would have been considered self-evident only a decade ago. In these ongoing culture wars, it never ceases to amaze me how much those who are supposedly on ‘the right side of history’ seem to thrive on bullying and dehumanising those who disagree. They’re like the inquisitors of the Middle Ages, incinerating the Cathars in the name of love.

It’s been quite a week for the high priests of social justice. The notion of collective guilt is enjoying a resurgence, and ‘whiteness’ is the modern-day Original Sin. The latest article of faith is ‘systemic racism’, which is now routinely invoked by politicians, celebrities and media commentators. Even our universities are said to be simmering crucibles of white supremacy. That the available statistics suggest the opposite is taken as further evidence of oppressive systems that refuse to acknowledge the lived experience of marginalised groups. The genuinely liberal approach is to resist all instances of racism, sexism and homophobia. The religion of social justice, on the other hand, sows division by assuming that hatred of minorities is all-pervasive and that collective atonement is the only remedy.