Being Woke vs. Being Awake

Like the term “progressive activism” that came before it, the word “WOKE”, in cancel culture vernacular, has come to connote something completely different from what it appears to mean. In the progressive movement being “WOKE” has taken on the completely opposite meaning of being spiritually"AWAKE".

"WOKE" has become a stamp of approval, a label, a self-promoting selfie, a "like" on Facebook. Most importantly, it’s a line in the sand ideologically separating people. The word has become a signifier serving as part of an ever expanding P.C. litmus test with ever increasingly radical actions required to pass the test. Despite the intellectual rhetoric of THE WOKE, their actions demonstrate that emotionally what they really crave is the thrill of creating the chaos that separates people, not what unites them.

What does it mean to be woke? Amanda Hess, writing in the New York Times, explains:

“Think of ‘woke’ as the inverse of ‘politically correct’.  If ‘P.C.’ is a taunt from the right, a way of calling out hypersensitivity in political discourse, then ‘woke’ is a back-pat from the left, a way of affirming the sensitive. It means wanting to be considered correct, and wanting everyone to know just how correct you are.”

It signals that cultural progressivism is a secular spirituality in want of a coherent theology. In the catechism of this ersatz religion, woke is a kind of creed. It epitomizes the decay of deep engagement with cultural and moral issues into a cheap buzzword which mutes debate and confounds discourse. “Are you woke?” is a question meant to be answered with a simple yes or no, but the only acceptable answer is YES. 

“Woke and cancel culture are both signs of a judgmental culture, not a mentally mature one. A world where you cannot even speak to another person without worrying about what they are going to think of you, has not advanced much from the days when the white people used to own slaves. Let me tell you this, if you are kind, if you are compassionate, if you hold no discrimination towards people whatsoever, if you hold no discrimination towards people whatsoever, then you have no reason to worry about whether you are woke enough.”

Abhijit Naskar  

People who profess to be "WOKE" proclaim to know the TRUTH. They see things only as black or white, positive or negative, good or evil. They demand not just the right speak, but they also demand full and complete acquiescence to whatever they say. Not satisfied with that, they hypocritically maintain it is their sovereign right to silence (or cancel) anyone who does not agree with they have to say and what they have to say is often no more than the echoed cries of a frenzied mob.

People who are"AWAKE" on the other hand, realize that they do not know the TRUTH. They have only an opinion that comes from perspective, not facts.  They do not see things only in black or white, but in shades of grey and often they are able to perceive the artifical colorization of propaganda that has been politically photoshopped into an argument. Those who are AWAKE not only advocate for the right of all people to be able to speak, but they uphold the right of people to be able to hear others speak as well.

People who proclaim themselves to be "WOKE", especially on university campuses, seem self-righteous about their having a monopoly on the truth to the point that many of them see no reason to allow dissenting views to be expressed. Such unpopular views, so they claim, make them feel "unsafe." They profess to feel safe only if the opinions they personally hold are exclusively the opinions allowed to be expressed.

 "Feeling 'UNSAFE' is the new trigger word for demanding censorship."

Alan M. Dershowitz

 University students do not have the right to be safe from controversial ideas. The whole reason for being at university is for them to become exposed to differeing ideas, whether they are comfortable with them or not and for the students to develop the acumen to be able to judge ideas on their intellectual merit and not on emotional reaction. Any student who wishes to censor certain people or ideas because they fear what they might hear does not belong at a university.

No one should reject any idea if they refuse to hear it and no one should accept any idea if they refuse to question it. It is the function (and obligation) of the universities, their educators and the students themselves to confront and question all ideas, without the censoring of any person or idea that makes them "feel unsafe". It is in this way and only in this way, that students can be dispassionately educated and truly become "AWAKE".