Esa's Notebook

There has been a lot of discussion in forums lately about the connection between wokeism or “woke” and left-wing social ideology.

Woke means awareness of social injustices such as racial prejudice or discrimination. In the 2010s, it has increasingly used in a collective sense to mean sensitivity to social inequality, women’s inequality and discrimination against gender minorities. In some countries, wokeism has also been associated with environmental awareness and climate policy.

In a broad sense, wokeism is a trend of social awareness that sees Western societies as failing to promote equality.

It is no wonder that wokeism is characteristically a movement of the social left. It may not have been perceived as such from the beginning, but over the years this has become more apparent. In some countries, people have even started talking about a left-wing political movement. Some use the term cultural Marxism.

As wokeism has gained ground in society, for example in education, academia and the media, it has become more obvious that certain aspects of it make it almost identical to the leftism of the past decades. Belonging to this woke group has become a prerequisite for becoming a socially significant position, a researcher, journalist or school or university teacher, or for opinions to be socially accepted and heard in certain media. If you belong to a politically correct group such as feminists, transgender people, climate alarmists, greens or leftists, it is easier to get accepted in society. Not belonging to this group, on the other hand, can be an obstacle or hindrance to a person’s advancement to a certain position in society or to be heard in society. Such a person is even subject to cancellation and isolation. This emphasis on political orthodoxy is fundamentally no different from the demand for political orthodoxy of the 60s and 70s, which opened doors to socially significant positions.

Author James A. Lindsay has stated that wokeism is a fusion of neo-Marxism’s critical theory and radical activism. Marxism was originally an economic policy ideology. In the early 1900s, however, it was linked to Freudism and other social theories, making it an ideology that shaped culture in a broader sense. In the 60s and 70s, this Marxism was radical and violent, but then eased from street rioting to changing societies through schools and universities. Now, in the 2000s, it can be said that Marxism appears in Wokeism as a force seeking to change society. The backgrounds of feminism, transgender activism and even the eco-rebellion movement are otherwise difficult to understand.

The term woke capitalism has come to refer to a phenomenon in which companies productise certain social groups whose discrimination and grievances woke has addressed. Recently, U.S. investors have begun to abandon green funds as this woke capitalism or “greenwashing” begins to provoke public backlash ( https://www.ft.com/content/026b736b-2e63-474a-acf0-12fa8729a188).

Woke ideology is a totalitarian ideology in which the individual is not an individual, but a victim because he belongs to a certain group. The woke idea robs individuals of their own agency and power to be individuals. Woke is collective victimization. 

Woke is a left-wing ideology infiltrating society dressed in a veil of “awareness.” As such, there is nothing wrong with awareness, after all, it is important to address the shortcomings of society. All that matters is that history is read and learned. In this case, ideological history.