Some years ago I was surprised to come across a person whose politics I knew to be conservative at a Greens fundraiser. When I asked him why he was there, he said he supported any gay candidate, irrespective of party. It is this emphasis on identity against values that most annoys American philosopher and writer Susan Neiman. She could well have echoed Cate Blanchett’s character in the film Tar, an acclaimed conductor who is appalled when one of her students discards Bach’s music because he was a white, cis male. Tribal identities, for Neiman, are undermining the traditional claims of...