In his book, The Righteous Mind, professor Jonathan Haidt highlights the vast values gap that exists between the “Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic” nations (WEIRD), and nations that prefer an “ethic of community” or an “ethic of divinity.” In these latter, Haidt writes, “the personal liberty of secular western nations”—including the unrestrained freedom of expression—“looks like libertinism, hedonism, and a celebration of humanity’s baser instincts.”
What has transformed this rather amorphous values consensus into a discernible global agenda for a new world order is the growing sense that the West, though still dominant in power, wealth, and resources, lacks the cultural and spiritual capacity to deal with many emerging global crises.
At www.nationalinterest.org
