Beyond the left-right divide, the universal quarrel

Le Regard Libre N° 77 - Jonas Follonier

The left-right divide still exists on some issues. These include the minimum wage, the single insurance fund and, more generally, the question of how a society can, and should, reduce poverty. Some observers of Swiss political life, such as Vaud historian Olivier Meuwly, even see in the positions taken on the management of Covid-19 a general opposition between those who prioritize equality and those who put it second to freedom. The the very definition of left and right according to the liberal-radical thinker.

But other fundamental divisions exist within society and in intellectual, political, academic, and ideological debates. Pro- and anti-globalization forces, for example, do not exactly align with the left and the right. Typically, there is a sovereignist right wing that is hostile to globalization and which, on this issue, may find itself in agreement with a segment of the trade-unionist left. The recent debate over Switzerland’s framework agreement with the European Union demonstrated this.

One of the new divides in the West—the significance of which must be urgently recognized—is the one between Republicans and communitarians. Should we, in civil matters, be indifferent to ethnic origin, gender, or sexual orientation, and consider that the only community that matters is a political union? Or should we view society solely in terms of white people, Black people, cisgender men, lesbians, and non-binary vegans, and create laws to combat «structural racism» and the «rape culture» of that society?

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It is a certain segment of today’s left that has embraced this second idea, reviving «racial» studies, gatherings closed to one of the two sexes—in short, differentialism and («affirmative») discrimination. Come to think of it, this is not surprising; all the totalitarian regimes of the 20th^th a century that, at its core, has something to do with the left.

Anti-racism is a good starting point for this essential discussion; so is feminism. Today, there are at least two types of feminism that are radically different from one another. On the one hand, there is universalist feminism, which simply defends the uniqueness of human beings and the rights of every individual, regardless of who they are. On the other hand, there is intersectional feminism, which seeks to defend women as an oppressed and political entity, on the same footing as the (post-)colonized or «LGBT people.».

However, if this battle of ideas between the Republicans and the clanists can take place, it is precisely because the former have not (yet?) lost it. To defend the model of liberal democracy is to defend the pluralism of viewpoints that tolerate one another. And it is to defend a political system in which no demand is supposed to infringe upon individual freedoms.

The Quebec sociologist Mathieu Bock-Côté has chosen a side, taking a stand against the «diversity regime.». His fascinating analysis is, of course, open to debate. And it is precisely because of liberal, republican democracy itself that opponents of this view will be free to criticize it.

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

Drawing: © Nathanaël Schmid for Le Regard Libre