Klaus Schwab's WEF gets a swipe from wrecking ball Javier Milei. Image generated and/or edited with AI.
Javier Milei on the Rampage against the World Economic Forum: Ironclad yet Fundamentally Worthless
President of Argentina Javier Milei has told the Western political class straight what they do not want to hear. His razor-sharp analysis of and criticism of the World Economic Forum's woke-globalism was harsh and to the point. However, the ‘solution’ he proposes is exactly the cause of the symptoms he claims to be fighting.
Wrecking Ball at the WEF
Javier Milei's speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) hit like a bomb. Without hesitation, he labelled woke as a ‘mental illness’ and a ‘cancer that must be eradicated’. According to Milei, it is the great epidemic of our time, which has colonised the institutions of the West and is undermining society with radical Malthusian-Marxist agendas, such as feminism, abortion, (trans)genderism, immigrationism and climate politics.
Klaus Schwab gets a Swipe from Javier Milei
‘Until we remove this pathological ideology from our culture, our institutions and our laws, Western civilisation - and even the human species - will not be able to return to the path of progress,’ Milei argued. He addressed the WEF directly with a cutting indictment: ‘You have worshipped this sinister and murderous ideology for decades as if it were a golden calf, and moved heaven and earth to impose it on humanity.’ The audience was visibly uncomfortable - but can you blame him?
Javier Milei's Contagious Courage
At a time when politicians are weighing their words so as not to offend anyone, Milei is a breath of fresh air. He speaks without fear of consequences. His attack on supranational institutions and the political class showed an inspiring determination. While many whisper lukewarmly about what is wrong with the West, Milei shouts it from the rooftops, and that deserves praise.
Read also: How Liberals Turned Freedom into Tyranny
Javier Milei's Symptom Relief
Still, we should always be careful with politicians. History shows that big words do not always lead to big deeds. And while Milei's rise and achievements so far are impressive and promising, his ideological foundation remains problematic. For while he fights the symptoms of the moral decay of the West, he defends the brutalist liberalism that underpins it: a ‘freedom’ that is strictly premised on the individual, without being at the service of the objective moral order of natural law. And a ‘freedom’ like this is doomed to corruption.
Brutalist Liberalism fosters Wokeness
Milei praises liberalism as the ultimate solution to the West's crisis. And in the strictly political-economic sense, this is a given: central planning of the economy by government is proven destructive, both theoretically and practically. But brutalist liberalism, which focuses exclusively on property rights and individual freedom, without any ethical or social responsibility, opened the very door for the moral degeneration Milei claims to be fighting.
Don't miss anything and sign up for the newsletter!
Subjectivism of Liberalism
According to the reductionist liberal moral framework, every action is morally acceptable as long as no one suffers involuntary direct harm. However, this limited ethic does not explain why, for example, hypersexualisation, gender ideology or the breakdown of the family are destructive. Thus, elevating individual freedom to the highest good in this way inevitably leads to moral relativism. Indeed, in doing so, the opinion of the individual comes to be the measure of right and wrong, rather than the objective moral order of natural law.
Read also: Donald Trump deletes Abortion Ban from Party Platform
The Revolution
The crisis of the West is not just economic or political, but mostly spiritual. Absolute truths and values have been replaced by absolute relativism and valuelessness. This process did not begin with woke-ideology. It began with the liberal undermining and breakdown of the objective moral order of natural law. It began with the Revolution against the order of creation - against the order of God.
Freedom is a Means, not an End
Milei is brave, but until he turns against the true cause of this decay, the Revolution, his diagnosis remains incomplete. He acknowledges the moral degeneration, but his solution - more freedom - without integrating it into the objective moral order of natural law, leads to the very problems he denounces. And thus it remains symptomatic.
Javier Milei acknowledges the Role of Jesus Christ
There is hope that Milei will further sharpen his vision and criticism and see the full picture. In his speech, for instance, he also emphasised the crucial role of ‘Judeo-Christian’ values as the foundation of Western civilisation. He argued that the moral and philosophical principles of the ‘Judeo-Christian’ tradition were essential for the emergence of individual freedom, property rights and the free market.
Read also: Why Modern Law Clashes with the Social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ
True Freedom in Christ
This shows that Milei rightly senses that only freedom rooted in a Christian moral order can stand firm against the forces of decadence and nihilism, against the downfall of the West. When he comes to understand this truth fully, he will see that the West can only be restored to its honour and full glory when it refocuses on the only true freedom: that in Christ.