The 'Woke-Mind Virus' is Fictional, But the Fear of it is Very Real
We ignore the anti-woke movement at our peril.
I remember working in psychiatry many years ago. I was struck by the power and intensity of many of the delusional belief systems I came across. One in particular still sits with me. This was a young guy who believed he was a participant in ‘Big Brother’ - perhaps it would be more appropriate to say, Truman in the ‘Truman Show’. He believed firmly that he was under constant surveillance and his life was being watched by millions for entertainment. I remember the intensity of the belief. There was no reasoning with it, at all. Whatever evidence you provided to rebuke his belief, he would find an explanation that allowed his belief to hold true. It was, as per the definition of delusion, a fixed belief that was resistant to any evidence to the contrary.
The complexity of his delusion was quite remarkable, but what sat with me more was the actual suffering it caused. He was an intelligent, somewhat shy young man, still able to communicate well and engage in many normal aspects of life, but restricted and hypervigilant to the point where anxiety was his main companion. The delusion was very clearly fictional, but the fear and the limitation it caused were very real indeed.
It’s hard not to see those who carry an obsession with the “woke-mind virus” in a similar light. Some seem to genuinely believe that there is a contagious ‘wokeness’ that is spreading through the population causing social unrest, restricting life, and even leading to splits in families. And while we can diminish or even mock such a belief, it would be unwise - as we face down the rise of authoritarianism - to dismiss such fears altogether.
As a term initially used in the 1930s (yes, the parallels are notable) to counter endemic racism, ‘woke’ was reanimated in 2010 as a rallying cry for social justice and to bring an end to discrimination. It was remarkably effective as a rallying cry. As the financial crisis took hold and highlighted that the greatest cause of misery was the consequences of extreme greed, this one single word ‘woke’ managed to convey a real sense of urgency to become socially conscious.
The timing of this one-word war cry was perfect and the images it conjured up of awakening from some sort of zombie-like or sleepwalking state could not have been more apt. Yes, we had been sleepwalking right into a major financial crisis. Yes, we had been slaves to consumerism - unaware that our sense of self-worth and pleasure were dependent on wealth and consumerism. Yes, we were oblivious to the ravaging of the planet and the unfolding climate crisis. To ‘Get Woke’ worked across many of the major challenges humankind faced (and still faces) and, for a time, the rallying cry worked.
Soon other social movements adopted the term for their own battles. True, the war cry has been overused, misused and even abused (more on that later) but in terms of a galvanising slogan for those facing the barriers to progress of greed and prejudice, it has carried an impact akin to some of the more powerful right-wing tropes.
It’s unclear where the concerted effort to turn the term ‘woke’ into a pejorative term first started. What is clear is how, over only the last few years, the rallying cry of ‘get woke’ has been almost completely neutralised as the progressive force it once was. The campaign to undermine the term has been so successful that the term ‘woke’ has now taken on a negative connotation among right-wing ideologues and even amongst some moderates and neutrals.
The success of the term ‘woke’ in rallying progressives to speak up about their beliefs is only matched by the success of the oligarch-owned media’s takedown of it. If the ‘woke’ era teaches us anything, it should be that the power of legacy media to coordinate anything that threatens its hold on the people is unmatched. Progressives getting organised or stimulating any sort of social awakening will always have to account for the brut force of a media already coopted by consumerism and authoritarianism.
This is a quote from the back cover of a book specifically about the harmful effects of the ‘woke’ movement:
“The modern woke-industrial complex divides us as a people. By mixing morality with consumerism, America's elites prey on our innermost insecurities about who we really are.”
I suspect this highlights the real fear behind the ‘Get Woke’ movement. Undoubtedly, when the public realises that applying one’s morality to consumerism can lead to completely revolutionising the consumer model - away from consumption and exploitation and to utility and contribution - there will follow a massive and costly change to the bottom line of the consumption industry. Imagine if we only spent our money on products where the companies were socially conscious - treat their employees well, use a sustainable business model, are actively involved and contributing to their locality, are appreciative of diversity, etc…
Whatever the reason for derailing this slogan-fuelled movement, the ‘anti-woke’ sentiment found plenty of traction. It is this part of the ‘woke’ story that I wanted to discuss a bit more.
‘Woke’ is just a word. What it represents is being socially conscious. That is, as adults living in a civilisation, we must respect others in that civilisation and regulate our impulses if we are to remain part of that civilisation. In truth, this is not always easy. It can require considerable effort to learn and adapt our speech and behaviours to ensure we are not being overtly or subconsciously prejudicial or discriminatory. Refraining from saying whatever pops into your head, shooting from the hip, or acting on whatever urge comes over you, for some, is difficult.
Indeed, some struggle mentally to process new information and why a particular individual or group would be offended or suppressed due to their words and actions. There is an actual brain block to such things as cultural sensitivity, political correctness, or affirmative action. It is not that they inherently disagree with it or believe in some other social order, they merely struggle to think about it.
There is a significant proportion of the population who have no desire to improve themselves or be better in any way. They simply want to be able to scratch that itch whenever they like. They want to be able to say, do, eat, whatever they feel like. They don’t want to have to think before they speak. Certainly, by adulthood, most of us realise that civilisation is based on a degree of civility. We cannot stand outside a school and swear freely. We cannot belch our way through a job interview. No, our wives are not our property to use as we see fit. No, we cannot allow our anger to bring up our kids. Civilisation necessitates some regulation of our emotional impulses. Most of us understand and develop this kind of maturity in our teenage years and early 20s. Sadly, some have failed (or have been failed) in this regard.
For such individuals who struggle to understand the not-so-subtle intricacies of civility and/or have no interest in maturing, the anti-woke trope was a get-of-jail-free card. Now, instead of feeling uncomfortable when being insensitive or frankly prejudicial, they can simply tell the offended person not to be so woke. Instead of engaging with the difficulties their child is having with sexuality or gender, they can simply dismiss or even punish such ‘wokeism’. Indeed, so successful has the ‘anti-woke’ excuse become that any progressive sentiment can now be labelled as nonsense and dismissed with comfort and ease, and indeed, even satisfaction, as if they are fighting a noble fight against the ‘woke-mind virus’.
For such people, woke is now a source of all the woes that come with society, relationships, emotions, and almost anything relating to politics. Wokeism has become the bin into which all complexity - the complexity of the human character and relationships - can be dumped and forgotten. No need now to put the effort into understanding others or the major issues at the heart of societal breakdown and climate collapse. It’s easier - it requires less thought - to simply put anything difficult, anything that requires emotional investment, and anything that stops the insatiable appetite to follow any impulse at any time, into the bin labelled ‘woke’.
One would be forgiven for simply pushing back on the ‘anti-woke’ sentiment. It would be easy (and I think legitimate) to rip down the false wall of the ‘woke-mind virus’. But we must do better. Not for those using anti-woke to justify their insatiable and destructive greed. Nor for those using the ‘anti-woke’ movement as an excuse to vent their deep-seated racism. For these people, who are using ‘anti-woke’ as cover to continue their nefarious or abhorrent behaviours, I suspect there is little we can do to rescue them from their shallow and meaningless existence. More likely they are at a psychopathic level of fervour. But for those who reject ‘wokeism’ on the basis that they cannot understand the issues at hand, or those who fear the consequences of allowing the issues at hand to see the light of day, we must try harder.
And here we must come to a common fault in social consciousness and the appreciation of diversity. It is a problem that has led to, what some term, the mindset of ‘wokeism’. A situation whereby one is constantly policing speech and behaviour, looking for some sort of breach to inclusivity and the respect of diversity. The truth is that woke is just a word. If the term woke was never brought back into common use, the same desire for social consciousness would exist and the same people who pursued it relentlessly without an appreciation that such progress is hard for some would still exist. It is likely the term ‘woke’ as a rallying cry empowered people to speak up more and challenge others with greater confidence. This of course is fine, so long as we appreciate that intentionality is important.
I will delve into this more in a future instalment (and perhaps on the next podcast episode), but those who are ignorant of cultural sensitivity or neutral terminology not only struggle with adapting to progress but can also be upset and offended when corrected - the embarrassment of being seen as ignorant or uncivil. There are, of course, some who are offended simply because they have been called out as a bigot. Most, though, are simply ignorant and intended no harm or offence.
Ignorance is no excuse for blundering through life and failing to take into account other people’s diversity, but it is not the same as willfully trying to offend and upset. So, it shouldn’t be met with the same ferocity of correction. Any outrage the ‘woke mind’ may feel towards those who never intended to offend is, I submit, lacking in civility. For such individuals who may struggle or who may simply not know, we need to engage and correct with more kindness.
Just as the resurgence in the term ‘woke’ has shown us the pervasive desire for a better and more inclusive civilisation, the attachment to ‘anti-woke’ has revealed that some people have a genuine fear about what a ‘woke’ society may look like and how they will cope with such a change in thinking and behaving. The all-encompassing nature that the ‘woke-mind virus’ has taken on is not real, but the fear about change and progress remains very real indeed. And given we live in a shared civilisation and are part of a maturing democracy, we must engage this fear and try and alleviate it if we are to continue humankind’s march forward.
As a rural white man, I'm trying to get more "woke". Hope to be one-quarter as woke as Jesus by the time I die. I sometimes lampoon people raised by progressive parents when they are so concerned with social issues it starts to cut into their enjoyment of life. Have to say that all of us who were raised in more traditional or conservative settings are so lucky all those woke people did the work to get rights for women, minorities, and people who are different - otherwise we would be living in a pre-1950's society!
I am fairly progressive and attuned to social justice but found that a lot of far left liberals really went a bit overboard in their expression of it, to the point that even someone like myself started to feel alienated and attacked. I tried to reason with friends who felt they had to pass judgement and cancel anything not to their liking that they might get a better reception if they considered dialing it back, or taking a more nuanced approach. I don’t think I ever got them to understand that the level of criticism and self-righteous judgement was going to have backlash but here we are.. being lashed. I agree it’s important to pay attention to this anti-woke ideology as well as to try to listen to the other side and find commonality and community first.