Artist X

Demoralization gradually breaks down a civilization’s sense of we and inverts its telos (its ultimate purpose). People lose sight of who they are and why their civilization is worth preserving. Some lose the will to defend their inheritance, while others come to believe that dismantling it is a moral duty. As these divisions deepen, demoralization gives way to destabilization. The we rests on shared history, loyalties, and obligations to future generations. It weakens when people are taught to regard their past as shameful, when national identity is reduced to little more than legal status, or when loyalties to one’s own ethnos or faction displace a common sense of belonging. Today we can barely agree on what it means to be American. Large-scale immigration without assimilation can also deepen the problem, losing the sense of “we.” Some newcomers may retain stronger loyalties to their own ethnos than to the country they’ve entered, valuing what it provides without feeling obliged to sustain what made it possible. Political movements may also seek to mobilize migrant communities against the existing order, even when the migrants themselves have no revolutionary aims. The inversion of its telos turns this loss of identity into a moral project of leftist activism. Within left framed, western civilization’s history, institutions, and traditions are interpreted through theories of class, race, sex, and colonial oppression. So, what once justified preserving society becomes evidence that it ought to be overcome. Defending it then is cast as selfish, backward, or immoral. Dismantling it becomes justice, liberation, and progress. The civilization’s highest moral purpose becomes its own overcoming. Some feel ashamed or defeated and stop resisting. Others sense what is being lost and push back, though they struggle to explain what still binds them together or why it matters. Revolutionary activists, convinced the inherited order is oppressive, work to dismantle it as a moral duty. Many sincerely believe they’re repairing the civilization they’re undermining. Demoralization gives way to destabilization as those resisting the changes clash with those pursuing them. Many stand aside while the conflict feeds on itself, and the people and institutions promoting demoralization escape much of the scrutiny.