Iraqi-American Faisal Al Mutar is a human rights activist and the founder of Ideas Beyond Borders, a non-profit organization countering extremism and misinformation through global access to new ideas.
This conversation is about how the decline of religious belief has opened the doors to alternative manifestations of tribal and authoritarian impulses. What is the alternative belief system behind woke ideology? My "2026" Substack recently covered this topic in "The Ideology that Captured Our Culture" at https://2026.substack.com/p/the-ideology-that-captured-our-culture
It’s not that the Enlightenment, in & of itself “failed.” It’s that its purpose was to destroy the fundamental underpinnings of Western Civ by terminating any link between Athens and Jerusalem.
As we see with the very close relationship between to two major global ideologies today, Islam & Woke, man both needs and wants a relationship with a higher power. The Enlightenment destroyed this relationship, one that had been building & progressing toward liberty for mankind, leaving a vacuum in its wake. Islam & Woke are filling that vacuum.
Whether the Enlightenment “failed,” then, is a completely subjective question. For those demanding the authoritarianism of the globalists - which now includes the Pope & Church - it succeeded by destroying what we had and creating the vacuum they could fill.
This was a terrific, and terrifying, conversation. I can’t say it leaves me optimistic, but I am glad to learn that someone has a better handle on it all than what I get from the MSM or the “educational” bureaucracies.
This conversation is about how the decline of religious belief has opened the doors to alternative manifestations of tribal and authoritarian impulses. What is the alternative belief system behind woke ideology? My "2026" Substack recently covered this topic in "The Ideology that Captured Our Culture" at https://2026.substack.com/p/the-ideology-that-captured-our-culture
Fantastic Gentlemen! Please don't ever let the enemies of rationalism get you down.
It’s not that the Enlightenment, in & of itself “failed.” It’s that its purpose was to destroy the fundamental underpinnings of Western Civ by terminating any link between Athens and Jerusalem.
As we see with the very close relationship between to two major global ideologies today, Islam & Woke, man both needs and wants a relationship with a higher power. The Enlightenment destroyed this relationship, one that had been building & progressing toward liberty for mankind, leaving a vacuum in its wake. Islam & Woke are filling that vacuum.
Whether the Enlightenment “failed,” then, is a completely subjective question. For those demanding the authoritarianism of the globalists - which now includes the Pope & Church - it succeeded by destroying what we had and creating the vacuum they could fill.
For those wanting liberty, it failed utterly.
This was a terrific, and terrifying, conversation. I can’t say it leaves me optimistic, but I am glad to learn that someone has a better handle on it all than what I get from the MSM or the “educational” bureaucracies.