How Europeans destroyed Europe: “The worst we have done is spiritual. We privatized morality and destroyed the moral order. We took that essential moral order that keeps people together and decided that it is up to you to find your own values.”
“If what is right and wrong depends on what each person feels, then we are outside the bounds of civilization. Without a strong moral order it is hard to have trust, it is hard to find your meaning in life,” says author and political commentator, David Brooks in his 2025 ARC speech in London.
David Brook’s reflections (read the transcript here) offer a profound critique of the consequences of elite-driven inequality, moral relativism, and institutional decay—problems that resonate deeply in contemporary American society.
His point is that the educated elite have designed a meritocracy that does not include all citizens, but perpetuates inequality and creates a caste system that benefits the highly educated. The worst element that has happened is the privatization of morality which leads to moral fragmentation, undermining shared values and societal trust.
The elite has purposely destabilized traditional institutions and moral norms without offering a positive conservative vision. Mental health issues, loneliness, and societal despair have risen sharply as a consequence of these cultural shifts.
How Europeans destroyed Europe: David Brooks reflects deeply on his personal background as a member of the educated elite, and the role his social class has played in shaping modern America and Western society.
In his speech at the 2025 Alliance for Responsible Citizenship in London, he explains how the educated elite have influenced society in three critical ways: by creating vast inequality, dismantling shared moral values, and undermining key societal institutions.
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How Europeans destroyed Europe: The result was entrenched economic and social stratification that perpetuated a caste-like system with distinct life outcomes based on education and class. They also argue that the privatization of morality—where individual feelings replace a shared sense of right and wrong—has eroded trust and community cohesion, contributing to spikes in mental health issues, loneliness, and despair in America.
Brooks states: “Put moral formation at the centre of your society. Without a strong moral order, it’s hard to have trust. It’s hard to find your meaning in life. And so America, and I think Britain too, has become a sadder society. Rise in mental health, rise in suicide. 45% of high school students say they are persistently hopeless and despondent.
Since 2000, the number of Americans without close personal friends is up by fourfold. Since 2000, the number of people who say they are in the lowest happiness category is up by 50%. We’ve just become sadder.”
Politically, the educated elite birthed figures like Donald Trump, not because he is an outsider populist, but because he is a product of their own Ivy League culture that rejects the progressive left without offering a constructive conservative vision.
Despite these immense challenges, Brooks is somewhat optimistic. Just as history has demonstrated that civilizations may endure periods of cultural degradation with corresponding corruption and decay, this vicious circle may be reversed. National crisis may, if good leaders appear who have the best interest of the people in mind, lead to a resurrection of cultural greatness as spiritual and cultural legacies are revived.
He says: “When you have a spiritual, moral, and relational crisis, the job is to shift the culture. And we are moving, I think, from a hyper-individualistic culture the last 60 years toward a communal culture. I didn’t like the social justice movement, but it was an attempt to find community. I’m not particularly a big fan of MAGA, but it’s an attempt to find community. Culture change is about a shifting of the heart. It’s about providing new answers to the question, how should I live my life? It’s about soul craft. And it isn’t done the way you do political change. Culture change works differently.”
David Brooks speaks highly of the Judeo-Christian ethos and the principles of classic conservative thought, and envisions a cultural shift toward a more communal, morally driven society where ethics of how we treat each other based on trust is revived, moving away from the hyper-individualism that has had such a detrimentally negative influence on Western culture.
They emphasize that culture change is driven by small groups living exemplary lives that others wish to liken, and thereby see as role models. These groups should be rooted in spiritual and moral renewal, attentive human relationships, and strong civic engagement.
The talk closes with an inspiring invocation of “defiant humanism,” quoting James Baldwin to remind us that even amid societal brutality, recognizing each other’s full humanity is essential to forging a better future.
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