Skip to content

"Today, the defenders of the Enlightenment are in retreat"

60
Graduate
Chimera Difficulty Score
a synthesis of Flesch-Kincaid, Coleman-Liau, SMOG, and Dale-Chall readability metrics
"Today, the defenders of the Enlightenment are in retreat" Michael Wood on the evolution and erosion of universal human rights I’ve just returned from a trip to Versailles. On a bitterly cold, end-of-winter afternoon, the great symbol of French monarchy, gilded anew for the 2024 Olympics, gleamed against a steel-blue sky. The crowds were huge: it’s one of the biggest tourist draws in France after ...
The narrative frames the current status of universal human rights as a retreat, suggesting that the rules-based international order has collapsed, allowing states to act purely out of self-interest globally. This framing relies heavily on the historical claim that the Enlightenment ideals are fundamentally European, yet simultaneously asserts their universal applicability, creating a tension between historical origin and contemporary reality. The assertion that the defenders are in "retreat" fun...