Dependent Ideologies and the Illusion of Revolution (Jonathan Emerson-Pierce, 5 Jun 2025, Quillette)
This is the paradox of dependent ideologies: they presume what they dismantle, demand what they did not cultivate, and function only so long as the old scaffolding holds. Once the structure collapses, they cannot stand on their own. And so they fall, not because they are attacked from without, but because they are hollow within.
Every viable order arises from long and often painful accumulation: habits forged over generations, trust earned through patient civic practice, institutions formed by the slow convergence of prudence and tradition, and an understanding of human nature that resists both cynicism and naivety. These are not the accessories of civilisation; they are its very substance.Nevertheless, today’s ideological movements treat this inheritance with contempt. They cast it not as a legacy to steward, but as a burden to escape. They promise radical transformation while quietly assuming the stability they do not know how to create. They deconstruct tradition but retain its syntax. They inhabit a moral grammar that predates them, yet claim authorship of its every clause.
This is not progress. It is iconoclasm dressed as enlightenment. It is cultural amnesia parading as moral vision. It is the wilful disavowal of what sustains meaning and coherence, the attempt to harvest fruit while cursing the roots.