The second Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference happened in London, UK, February 17–19. It’s best known for having Jordan Peterson at the helm. This year roughly 4000 conservatives from countries across the globe gathered in the docklands of East London. 

It’s a gathering for conservatives, one that profiles a red carpet of celebrity thinkers. People like Douglas Murray, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Niall Ferguson, Nigel Farage, Mary Harrington; a mix lower on politicians and higher on public intellectuals. Yet “celebrity” deserves air quotes; quite obviously were I to share conference highlights with the neighbours here in suburban Ottawa, outside of Jordan Peterson, I would be met with very blank stares. Indeed, I may have read Rod Dreher’s Crunchy Cons on summer vacation 20 years ago, but along with bringing The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire as beach reading to Hawaii, I recognize my choices are not mainstream.

At ARC however, they are. And this, partly, is what is good about such conferences. I am not alone. People who value family, marriage, duty, obligation, self-reliance, strong community and self-sacrifice are all around us. A shared value at ARC is that our culture is in decline; with their presence, those who attend are saying they prefer not to go down with the Good Ship Western Civilization, but rather to propose solutions and work on them. And part of the solution is to add profile and praise for the many people saying and doing unpopular things that are different from the status quo.  

It’s rare to be at a conference not overtly planned by a church where religion and faith are accepted as a desirable part of life. Certainly, living in Canada as a conservative means setting the bar for expectations low: If you don’t turn a blind eye to burning churches, if you don’t assume Christians are motivated by hatred, we already have much in common. And at ARC no one thinks these things. 

Alongside learning, I was there to promote my think tank Cardus and our newly published book I…Do? Why Marriage Still Matters (buy one today!). I went to as many breakout sessions on the family as possible. Tammy Peterson hosted a conversation about whether we can have it all today in the balance of work and family life. Erica Komisar, author of Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters talked about how mothers are the antidote to rising anxiety in our children. Polish academic Paula Olearnik Szydlowska spoke about creating a world in which we have children not as an act of self-sacrifice, but rather because having children makes adults more of who we really should be. Stephen Shaw, producer of the documentary Birthgap—Childless World, brought us the sad details of global demographic decline. 

The ads on the London Tube, by the way, fall just short of promoting demographic decline. One dominant ad was for a “long-established UK egg freezing clinic.” You do you, they say, whilst profiting off anxious women, who are buying into a failing model. (Egg freezing intends to delay child bearing, and IVF has quite a low success rate for older women.)    

Are there problems with the conference? Yes. Some worry the speakers do not all present a unified vision, asking whether we are, in fact, rowing the ark together. Others are concerned a focus on returning to “Judeo-Christian civilization” is code for Christian nationalism. Still others remarked our political moment was inadequately addressed as President Trump was rarely mentioned. 

For me, I was happy to be there. Little thoughts crystallized in travelling abroad too, in conjunction with listening to Chris Lunsford sing his surprise hit Rich Men North of Richmond. For example, why does my municipality expend energy on bike lanes? I saw many people in London using their bike lanes in February—they had a temperature well above freezing and no snow. Meanwhile, I returned to Ottawa—breathtakingly cold and covered in ice but with municipal politicians who love nothing better than ensuring our aging population can pedal their way to the grocery store. Enough dumb decisions over time from all levels of government combined with a declining standard of living—you do end up with hand wringing from various sources about populist waves in voting.

ARC seemed to profile those who wish to do things differently. That path will not be a straight line, nothing ever is, but we do need different thinking from the kind that has landed us where we are, as Lunsford sings: “sellin' our souls, workin' all day, overtime hours for bulls** pay.”