Combatting Cancel Culture: Why we need moral righteousness checked by humility

In this essay, Civitas research intern and recent Theology graduate Leo Fennell examines the phenomenon of cancel culture, declared by some to be in decline or even “dead” since its peak in the early 2020s. Amid changing policies and the rise of free-speech platforms such as Elon Musk’s X, Fennell looks beyond the landscape of current debates to consider the deeper roots of the phenomenon. He argues that cancel culture is not merely a product of contemporary politics or technology, but a manifestation of a more fundamental tendency in human nature: our propensity towards pride, self-righteousness and a belief in our own moral innocence.

Drawing on the contrasting accounts of human nature offered by St. Augustine and Enlightenment thinkers, in particular Rousseau, Fennell explores how the idea of humanity’s original innocence has shaped modern Western attitudes towards moral responsibility and judgement. Against this, he presents Augustine’s doctrine of original sin as a more realistic account of the human condition which recognises our capacity for wrongdoing and tendency to overlook our own failings. Fennell argues that combatting cancel culture requires more than changes to government policy or merely defending free speech. It demands a deeper reconsideration of human nature and, above all, a renewed appreciation of the virtue of humility.