The Great Exchange: Replacing The West’s Story of Decline with a Better Story
By: Akos Balogh
The West is in trouble.
On the surface, things might feel ok. But when we look under the hood of Western societies, we see many challenges. Consider some of the following:
- We’re facing a demographic crisis of below-replacement-rate births.
- We’re facing a growing mental health crisis where increasing numbers of young people struggle with anxiety, depression and disconnection.
- We’re facing increasing opposition from external enemies: Russia, Iran, China and North Korea.
However, perhaps the most pernicious challenge is the internal division between those who see the West as inherently oppressive and not worth celebrating versus those who see the West as imperfect but decent.
Right now, it seems that those telling this negative story about our history and culture have the louder microphones (especially in the media, universities and public schools). They seem to be winning the hearts and minds of many – especially our younger generations. And that matters.
Why?
Because our stories shape our identity, and our identity shapes our actions. If the story we’re consuming about the West is inherently negative, then it’s no surprise that the West is in decline. Why bother defending and celebrating something we believe is oppressive?
Telling a Better Story
And yet, the declinist story is not the only one on offer.
Last Tuesday, I went to a conference dedicated to exploring, discovering and telling a better story about the West: about our history, about our present, and about our future.
That conference was the ‘ARC’ conference: The Alliance of Responsible Citizens.
It wasn’t a Christian conference (although many of the presenters and delegates were Christian). The ‘better story’ on offer wasn’t the story of the gospel.
And yet, it was a story that draws heavily on the fruit of the gospel that has permeated and impacted Western society over the last 2000 years. A story that sees human beings as made in the image of God (or ‘made in the divine’ as one conference leader put it), and therefore having inherent worth and dignity. A story that owns up to and acknowledges the sin of the past while not being defined by it as we look to the future. It’s a story that sees enormous opportunities for individual, family, community, and societal flourishing.
At its core, ARC sees human responsibility and human agency as the key to making this happen – hence the title Alliance of Responsible Citizens.
The conference was interesting. It was thought-provoking. It was the brainchild of people like former Australian deputy PM John Anderson, Jordan Peterson, and Christian author Os Guinness. But ARC isn’t merely a conference (although they’ve had a few conferences since last year, notably their inaugural one in London). They’re also a movement for cultural and societal renewal, advocating for better ideas (better stories) in key areas such as family, government, free markets, and energy policy.
The conference speakers included former Treasurer Peter Costello, former PM Tony Abbott, historian Niall Ferguson, and Jordan Peterson.
The content was excellent (and you can view some of it on the ARC website). There were 700 people from all walks of life – retirees, students, Christian ministers, politicians, business people, stay-at-home mums, you name it.
My 30 brief takeaways
While the conference was just a taste of ARC and its vision of societal renewal, here are 30 ideas that caught my attention, broken into the five sections of the conference :
1) The Australian story is a story not told, or told selectively with a touch of embarrassment
Tony Abbott argued that the Australian story has its dark side, but how much do we really know about the positives of our nation? 56% of young people today want Australia Day to be renamed ‘Invasion Day’ and feel there’s more to mourn than celebrate about our nation.
2) The West has a crisis of confidence, even though we should be confident
Journalist Greg Sheridan pointed out the greatest opposition to the West comes from within (at least for now), while many other nations are increasingly confident about themselves, and who they are (e.g. Russia).
3) Disenchantment has robbed Western society of belief in goodness, truth and beauty
As the West has grown more secular, and Christianity has receded, there’s no substitute grounding for goodness, truth and beauty.
4) All over the Anglosphere, similar cultural battle is being played out, driven by ideologies that seek to divide us, rather than unite us.
According to Niall Ferguson, we need to have a better conversation to assert the idea of human equality before the law.
5) Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran are increasingly on war footing, but we in the West aren’t taking these threats seriously.
Greg Sheridan pointed out that Xi Xingping has told his military to be ready to retake Taiwan by 2027.
6) Australians are formidable when action is needed but lax when everything is going well.
Free Markets and Government
7) The Bigger the Government, the smaller the citizen (and their freedoms)
According to Peter Costello, the more authority government has, the less responsibility and freedom citizens have.
8) Even as we’ve become wealthier citizens, we now expect the government to do more and spend more on us.
We’re now borrowing money to fund our budget, the majority of which is social services.
9) The threats are coming at us not just at the political level but also at the grassroots level.
We need to engage these challenges at our schools, workplaces, and clubs.
10) As we consider policies, we need to keep in mind what they’ll mean for our kids and grandkids
As voters, we’re often just focused on our hip pockets. But that’s myopic, and will lead our kids and grandkids with debt.
11) Many social institutions are in decline, but one is getting bigger: The government.
12) While individuals and families can’t go into debt for long, we think Governments can (because we can’t see it)
13) Governments need to be limited for the sake of freedom: they need to have clearly defined responsibilities, and we need to hold them accountable to those responsibilities.
Social Fabric and the Family
14) If we want our kids to become responsible, active citizens who contribute, we need to model that as parents.
15) The push for institutional childcare for kids under 3 is bad for them
Author and psychoanalyst Erica Komisar pointed out that until 3 years of age, a mother’s care and attention soothe a child. But if the child goes to childcare for long periods before the age of 3, this puts their system into fight/flight. This has massive ramifications as they grow older.
16) Parents need to resist the narrative that their careers are more important than their children.
This modern secular lie is harmful for our kids, and our parenting.
17) Kids are not an inconvenience, and stay-at-home mothers are not sellouts or second-class citizens. We need to celebrate them (and dads!)
18) We can choose to make the hard decisions now, for all our sakes, but especially for our kids and future generations.
19) Australia has hit a new low in our fertility rate. This is bad for our future, but our leaders aren’t discussing it.
20) How do we turn this around? Support mothers, most of whom would like more time at home with their kids rather than being forced to go back to work.
21) Only 60% of Australians who are having children are in a registered marriage.
Energy and the Environment
22) Cheap, clean, reliable, and secure energy drives economic growth.
23) A better story for energy: the denser the energy source, the cleaner and cheaper it is
24) When it comes to energy transition, let’s not turn any power generation off until we have an alternate source that we can turn on.
25) The people that will bear the brunt of the current energy transition (i.e. our race to move to renewables) are people with low incomes. This is deeply uncaring.
What Next?
26) A civilisational turnaround starts with a creative minority living differently with different values.
27) A better story about ourselves and our future can give us hope and reduce anxiety
Jordan Peterson explained how the stories we tell ourselves impact us for good (or for bad).
28) We’re not built for comfort and pleasure but for responsibility and purpose.
29) Sacrificing ourselves for the sake of others gives our lives deep meaning and purpose.
30) We must be part of ‘The Great Exchange’ – exchanging a negative defeatist story about the West for a more hopeful, true and beautiful story.
My Assessment of ARC as a Christian
As a Christian, I feel comfortable engaging with and supporting the ARC conference.
While ARC’s better story of the West falls short of the amazing story of the gospel, ARC isn’t a religious organisation competing with Christianity; instead, it’s complementing the gospel, by thinking through how we can order our wider society in line with Paul’s prayer in 1 Tim 2:1-4. It’s about how to build a platform that furthers human flourishing, rather than detracting from it. ARC is taking the best of Western history – the worth and dignity of each person, responsibility rather than victimhood, religious freedom rather than thought control, and promoting that story as the better one for our future.
I’ll be praying their better story replaces many of the more negative and harmful narratives that are shaping the West today.
If you wish to find out more about the Alliance of Responsible Citizens and how you can be a part of it, visit the ARC website.
Article supplied with thanks to Akos Balogh.
About the Author: Akos is the Executive Director of the Gospel Coalition Australia. He has a Masters in Theology and is a trained Combat and Aerospace Engineer.
Feature image: The Parthenon replica, Nashville. Image: canva
