A South African reality show that glorifies polygamy has set British cultural diplomacy ablaze with indignation, a spectacle that would make even the most decadent of Roman emperors blush. Here we are, in the twilight of the West, debating whether multiple spouses constitute a ‘valid lifestyle choice’ while our own marriage rates plummet. The show, which I refuse to name for fear of granting it further oxygen, is being touted as a ‘bridge between cultures’ by the usual bien-pensants. But let us not be fooled: this is not dialogue. This is the intellectual decadence of an elite that has forgotten why monogamy mattered.
In the Victorian era, when Britain still possessed a spine, we would have politely explained that polygamy is a relic of tribalism and patriarchy. Today, our cultural attachés are instead organising ‘listening exercises’ and ‘safe spaces’ for its advocates. The irony is thick enough to cut with a scythe. We have become so desperate to prove our tolerance that we embrace the very practices our ancestors wisely rejected.
Of course, the defenders will cry ‘cultural sensitivity’. But sensitivity to what? To a system where women are treated as commodities and children as dynastic tools? I would remind them that the Victorians, for all their faults, were not afraid to say that some cultures have better ideas than others. The abolition of slavery, the push for universal education: these were not acts of cultural imperialism but of moral clarity.
What we witness today is the opposite: a moral vacuum. Our cultural diplomacy no longer seeks to elevate but to placate. It treats all customs as equally valid, even when they fly in the face of individual autonomy. The South African show is merely the latest display in the freak show of globalised identity politics. The audience claps, the critics are branded xenophobic, and the cycle continues.
Let us be clear: I do not advocate for a return to Victorian prudery. But I do insist that we stop pretending that all family structures are equally conducive to a free society. Polygamy historically correlates with despotism, with the hoarding of women by powerful men, with reduced social mobility. To ignore this is to betray the Enlightenment principles we claim to uphold.
So here is my challenge to the cultural diplomats: organise a debate on why monogamy advanced civilisation. Invite anthropologists, historians, and yes, feminists. Let them speak without cries of ‘Islamophobia’ or ‘Afrophobia’. Let us have an actual dialogue, not a staged performance of virtue.
Until then, I will be here, watching the empire crumble one reality show at a time.
