Jonathan Sacks

Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks of Aldgate in the City of London, (born 8 March 1948) has been Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, since 1991.

Multiculturalism

In 2007 Sacks emerged as a prominent critic of multiculturalism. Sacks begins his 2007 book, The Home We Build Together, with the words ‘Multiculturalism has run its course, and it is time to move on,’ arguing that multiculturalism ‘has not led to integration but to segregation’ and has made societies ‘more abrasive, fractured and intolerant than they once were.’ An extract of the book was published in The Times in October 2007 (available online here) under the headline: ‘Wanted: a national culture – Multiculturalism is a disaster’.

In The Home We Build Together Sacks argues that the political movements of the 1960s led to a collapse in moral consensus, a decline in traditional class identity and most importantly a shift towards a culture and philosophy of individualism. This he argues ultimately gave rise to a decline in ‘civility’ and an increase in political violence as activists stressed the role of power rather than reason in politics:

[A] series of events that began in the 1960s fundamentally changed the terms of society and moral debate. Until recently, serious thinkers argued that society depends on moral consensus. Without that, there is no such thing as society, merely the clamour of competing voices and the clash of conflicting wills. This view began to crumble with the rise of autonomy, existential choice, or the will to power. If morality is private, there is no logic in imposing it on society by legislation.

[…]

So moral consensus disappears and moral conversation dies. Opponents are demonized. Ever-new ‘isms’ are invented to exclude ever more opinions. New forms of intimidation begin to appear: protests, threats of violence, sometimes actual violence. For when there are no shared standards, there can be no conversation, and where conversation ends, violence begins.’

Sacks goes on to describe what he calls ‘a fundamental shift from classical liberalism to neo-Marxism spliced with postmodernism’. This he argues has led to a focus on oppressed groups rather than individual rights and, drawing on the writings of the American political scientist Michael Walzer, a rise in identity politics and what he calls ‘the politics of competitive victimhood’.

Ultimately Sacks argues for a defence of ‘liberal democracy’ through the promotion of marriage, the protection of civil society institutions (especially from ‘campaigns to boycott this, ban that, protest something else’) and events such as a ‘Britain Day’ or ‘citizenship ceremonies’ to ‘celebrate our shared belonging’.