We dismiss the culture war at our peril: Unless we win the culture war, society will never meet the needs of ordinary people.

Time and again, media commentators insist that the culture wars are a distraction from the big issues of our time, such as the cost-of-living crisis. They often argue that ordinary people do not care about cancel culture or arguments over trans rights. Many suggest that the only people who care about the culture wars are Tory mischief makers, trying to deflect attention from the economic mess that they have created.

A recent essay by Henry Mance in the Financial Times claims that battles over identity politics feel ‘contrived compared with the cost-of-living squeeze’. He also argues that ‘economic identities have come to the fore again’.

Yet history tells us that people do not understand their predicament and react to it solely in terms of economics. Hence, many on the left will often be found asking after every election defeat: ‘Why does the working class vote against its economic interests?’ What they’re really asking is, why do people vote the ‘wrong’ way?

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This is because the main target of today’s woke culture warriors is the historical legacy of Western society. They are seeking to discredit the values and behaviour associated with this legacy. The aim and effect of this crusade against the past is to detach people from their traditions, communities and even their families. However, as a society becomes detached from its past, its individual members lose a sense of their place in the world. They become morally and culturally disoriented.

This disorientation and confusion actually affects people’s ability to deal with the big issues of the day, such as the cost-of-living crisis. An assertive and purposeful response to the crisis would require a self-confident public, with a sense of where it stands and what it wants. But today’s woke crusades are making that impossible. People are no longer sure where they stand or what they want. The culture war against the past is depriving people of the cultural resources they need to achieve moral clarity in the present.