I value words therefore with deep sense of anguish I use this word:
woke. I refused to give in as the word was being appropriated and vandalized.
Woke is a beautiful word that traces to 1930s black American call for staying
politically and culturally awake “stay woke, keep eyes open”. Essentially it
means to be alert to racial
or social discrimination and injustice, along with being aware of what's going
on. It was widely used during BlackLifeMatter movement and quickly broaden to
include other issues, seeping into frivolous posturers hence lost intend, very
soon the backlash saw it being used as sarcasm for ‘performative activism’ and
mocked as ‘overrighteous liberalism’. Now the word is used as a sort of abuse
in social media. ‘Woke culture’ ‘woke mind virus’ is free for all space for all
kinds of slur. It is a study on valued word being reduced to insult. So I too will
go along with it since it appropriately abstracts the contemporary context that
is becoming too common. We are therefore living in woke world where everyone is
performing for attention, righteousness has clientele in West and fits in
narration of angst. Western angst is a feeling that arise when you know you are
compromised and want to cover it up with overindulgence of righteousness that is
essentially at the expense of others. This angst is carefully packed to
showcase themselves as benign arbitrators, the civilized presence. It doesn’t
ask for systems change nor critical scrutiny since it will negate their
significance and expose their complicity. Woke is fake indulgence that severely
degrades society. Woke’s performative activism takes matter to extreme to show
its hold over common people as also a challenge to its competitors in the game
of righteousness. It also cleverly morphs their role in systems that
perpetuates the same. Historical injustices must be studied and understood to
the context of time, and when you understand you realize that there are systems
which controls and nurture individual actions essentially to perpetuate the
system. A primitive society nurture such institutions and unevolved humans in
different stages of barbarity will thoughtlessly indulge in these atrocities. Hence,
it’s important to remove systems that nurtures injustices and discriminations. Systems
that undermine democratic ideals, equality and liberty. Performative activism is
carefully orchestrated to avoid questioning the system. Wokeism is here and now
without any complexities or difficult questions.
Horrors of slavery and untold trauma
committed on blacks as they were dislocated from Africa and transported to Europe
and US has no parallels in history. Hence no one should attempt to play surrogates
for blacks. It must be understood clearly that racism against blacks is not
same as racism against Asians or anyone else, it is also woke travesty to
conflate racism with religion. Which also means any institution and system that
nurture racism against blacks have no place in contemporary world and must be
dismantled. Any racism against black must be dealt severely with all the
understanding and significance of historical injustice. Which also means the
humans living now are not to be treated as extension of past instead every
attempt be made to remove any injustice in the present. Dismantling systems
that continue injustice of past must be priority with quality education and nutritional
security for children. Woke performative justice creates dissension and is
meant to keep the infighting going for benefits. They rarely question anything
that doesn’t benefit them. Clearly, performance is orchestrated for benefits. They
uniquely lack compassion (except as posturing in front of audience) and are
mostly obnoxious people with serious attention seeking needs. They cunningly use
people to score points among their ilk. They stampede for power, awards,
extract benefits from those whom they are purportedly fighting, they grab as
they playact their woke concerns that is increasingly disjointed from realities
of people they are vying to save. Comfortably placed, and rarely affected by vicissitudes
of life that engulf most people, they actively vitiate the situation to gain
attention as savior. They are clever status quoist conniving to replace and not
change anything. Their beliefs are tailored to the need, a ruse to exact price
for effort and a tool to compete for status. Hence the effort is always
symbolic, lacking any motivation to improve the system, positioning themselves as actively
involved representation. Their self-obsession is matched by stampede for self-aggrandizing
relevance that will keep attention on them. The one on the left side of wokeism
seek puritanical idealism that is further disjointed from common people, and is
meant for scoring high moral grounds and intellectual bearing. They manipulate egalitarian
intents and democratic institutions to their specific needs and narrow
interests, not surprisingly against the interest of people whom they seek to
represent. Beleaguered people also face backlash that is directed against woke
making situation worst for them.
Minority rights matters in a democratic society, but to reduce diversity into extremism of narrow religious identity, and to fixate humans into this primitive conception, is woke. Also, not to question transgression of religion into democracy is woke. Not to question how it segregates and dehumanizes gender (and race in US) is woke. To tolerate intolerance is not democracy. Issue of migrants is having serious ramification all across Europe and consolidating rightist response. Migrants are important contributors in any society but migrants don’t have divine right to enter any nation-state. Illegal migrants are a threat anywhere in the world. The state in its wisdom and compassion will take its call understanding the consequences and impact on its society, importantly citizenship to migrant has to go through stringent process. Invoking history doesn’t help, nobody is interested. Speak the contemporary reality. Even recent migrants to US (now citizens) don’t want new immigrants to the country and seek stricter control of migrants. They voted for Trump. This is what happens when elitism loose contact with reality of common people. They will vote for any plain-speaking charlatan to protect what they estimate as threat to their livelihood and security.
LGBTQ rights are important, they are vulnerable minority who are prosecuted in most part of the world. Compassion to their plight is what defines humane society and to institutionalize their rights is democratic. But this cannot be taken to extreme. They cannot start asserting (“identifying with”) all kinds of nonsense and create nuisance in public space. Nor can it be allowed to diminish and override women’s right. Individual right is valued and must be protected but not over others. Woke is arrogant estimation of one’s special place in people life and complacency of this self-assuredness. A compassionate leader would easily understand the problem common people perceive and actively involve to assuage. If Trump speaks of children coming back from school with gender change it is not about facts but putting the centrality of issue into people’s daily discourse. Whether you criticize or not you end up discussing it, and once you discuss you bring in your bias. So even though it has nothing to do with you or your reality you have fallen for the divisive agenda. Woke inflated for righteous indulgence and presented to charlatans to play savior. It is easy choice for common people. A logical compassionate leader would have clearly asserted that children cannot decide hence there will be law for no sex change until they are adult nor any violations on their body until they reach age of consent. Period. Since woke values did not allow this, charlatans worked overtime to exploit this minor matter into major threat posed to idea of family and really worked into common people's fear. If Trump talked nonsense about Haitian immigrants eating pets. It is not about pets. It is about migrants. It is a devious strategy to trigger and inflate the issue in people’s mind. Fantastical the claims the better. And if it has even a sliver of experience to their life or what they have understood from media as a threat they will latch on. It is not difficult to present pattern of migrant violence in Europe, it may be biased or minor incidents in spiraling violence but that inconsequential sliver of truth creates a narration and is inflated into their reality and conflated to their problem. Issues related to transgender is too insignificant matter but they are exaggerated with general threat to way of life. They didn’t vote for stuttering old wind bag, they voted for a man who took vulgar potshot against insular elites. He himself is the rich elite was lost since woke was worked to represent elitist threat.
Views must be engaged and responded
with skills of argumentation and critical thinking faculties and not cancelled
if it doesn’t fit in one's narration. Nor should it be classified into silos of
binary and dismissed. Those in public space as leaders and opinion influencers
have arduous task and immense responsibility. Not to fall into cliché and
actively pursue to create narration that address challenges of contemporary
world. Unfortunately, very few people understand gravity of Nazi association and
horror, they have no time nor caliber to contemplate on history. They go by
easy narrations that synch with their world and challenges they face or made to
perceive -we live in world of perception primed by neoliberal system. If responsible
compassionate people don’t get actively involved in deciphering complexities
into simple terms for common people, then opportunist charlatans will provide
the simplistic versions to occupy the mind and vandalize. One shouldn’t undermine
the misogynistic framework that is nurtured by patriarchal values of religion. That
‘cheap grace’ estimate women as second grade citizen who cannot even have
control over their body is easily extended to resistance to women in leadership
position. Kamala Harris was way better than Trump on every parameter but she
lost has also to do with toxic masculinity fostered by religion in its sickening
patriarchal moral euphemisms that comes alive in modern institutions and crucial
discourse. Even a man of the stature of Pope -a moral authority for millions of followers, couldn’t locate
the evil in simplest of binary choice is indicative of predicament of common
people.
