Enlightenment values—rights, reason, contractual limits on power—aren’t exactly a majestic civilizational achievement so much as a deal we made with people who historically loved stomping on peasants for sport.

Enlightenment rights often boil down to:

“Well, the king can’t legally murder me for no reason, which is… yay?”

We signed a contract with a school bully which said “I won't bully you so much, I promise”. This is a very low bar but it's not nothing, I guess.

“We form a society to protect ourselves from violence.”

“Cool! But who enforces it?”

“The guy with the biggest stick.”

“And how do we protect ourselves from him?”

Enlightenment rights don’t aim high—they prevent the worst abuses and call it moral progress.
They don’t give meaning.
They don’t give purpose.
They don’t tell us what a flourishing human life is.
They’re basically a minimum-viable-product approach to civilization.