Much of the Western world is being pulled into a false choice between two increasingly ideological extremes. On one side sits the woke left, on the other a rising woke right. They present themselves as opposites, but in practice they are reflections of each other. The only way to straddle this divide is to return to Western principles that reject both.

The woke left, which has wrought such damage to Western societies over the past decade, begins from the premise that society is defined by systems of power and oppression, and that individuals are best understood as members of identity groups. The white group are evil oppressors. The black group are their hapless victims. And the purpose of politics is for the latter to turn the tables on the former.

It is an overtly ideological approach that replaces reasoned argument and facts with compelled belief. Language is policed, institutions are pressured to conform, and dissent is treated as moral treason. Free speech is recast as a tool of domination, free trade as a vehicle for capitalist exploitation, and the outward projection of Western values as illegitimate. State power, the ideology contends, should be employed to punish the oppressor class. The result is a far-left, deeply harmful, and divisive form of politics in economies that become increasingly uncompetitive.

Across much of the West, and most prominently in America, is emerging the inevitable counter from the far right.

This new “woke right”, as it should rightly be cast, rejects the conclusions of the left but adopts its strategy and tactics.

It rejects individualism to frame politics through group identity rooted in culture, nation, or nationalist identity. In parts of the West, this is rapidly hardening into a post-liberal ideology. Free speech is dismissed as the reckless handing of platforms to ideological rivals. Free trade is seen as enabling the export of jobs and technology to economic enemies. The ideology prescribes an inward turn to safeguard the interests of the nation at home and not to bother with seeking to advance freedom abroad. State power must be employed to ensure nationalist survival.

The symmetry between the two sides is striking. Both reject individualism in favour of group identities. Both reject free speech and trade. Both substitute facts and reasoned argument for compelled belied and treat dissent as treasonous. Both embrace state power to be maximised in the pursuit of an ideological objective.

The antidote to Western societies slipping ever more deeply into poles defined around these two extremes is a return to traditional Western liberal/conservative values (the term liberal as traditionally employed in Europe is roughly equivalent to the term conservative as traditionally employed in America).

That tradition holds that individuals, not groups, are the primary unit of society – and that the individual has sovereign worth. It values free speech, open debate, and allows facts and reason to override compelled beliefs. It supports free trade and market-driven growth. Crucially, it is wary of state power and insists that this be limited.

The emphasis on the sovereign worth of the individual matched against an openness to facts, reason, and market economics resulted in the creation of the freest and most prosperous societies in all of human history. Because people were free, they were allowed to think, because facts and reason overcome superstition, technological advancement occurred, and because market economics was embraced, very rapid economic growth occurred.

No other approach to how the world should be ordered can replicate a similarly powerful cycle of political and economic freedom. The lessons of that are very important if the deep ideological divides in the West are to be overcome and are of equal importance to any well-thought-through effort at securing South Africa’s democracy while setting its economy on a path of recovery.