What “Woke" Means To Me

The term “woke” is being used of late to describe a state of mind that is capable of seeing beyond the official political narrative. Although there appears to be two official narratives, the liberal and conservative models, the range of debate within those two contrasting positions is so narrow that the two merely represent modest extremes of a single central narrative. The term is best associated with Caitlin Johnstone, author of a book of poetry called Woke as well as an impressive amount of political commentary and journalism. I would like to speak a little about what “woke” means to me, before the term is co-opted by Democrats, who co-opt any concept uttered by legitimate leftists and water it down until it has lost any meaning. 

I sometimes wonder if such a term as “woke” is a little too far out there for the average person to take seriously. In reality, all it implies is that one is able to consider ideas beyond those put forth within that narrow frame of debate as established by the two political parties and the corporate media that provides us with all the context we are supposed to require. Being woke in the political sense, then, is simply refusing to fall in with either of the two narratives we are given as choices. And if you want an example as to how limited those choices are, opposing war is always going to fall outside of them. You simply can’t argue for peace within the parameters set by those who define what is acceptable thought. If you ignore their definition of reality, you are woke.

There are deeper dimensions to the term “woke”, of course. Being politically woke is almost always accompanied by a deep cultural awareness, as well as a desire to explore one’s own psychological and spiritual needs and motivations. It is really not much different than what Sociologist/Psychiatrist Erich Fromm would call becoming an adult. 

Being woke, to my mind at least, is to emerge from the desire for an authority to tell you what to do and how to behave and instead become an active agent in the world. To be something less than woke, something less than a fully emerged adult, is to escape into childish fantasies, to allow others to assume your responsibility to the world you live in. I see it in academics, who find no issue so important that they can’t escape from putting their ass on the line by parsing words until meaning—and hence the impetus for action—is lost. I see it in our political leaders who retreat down the path of least resistance because they really don’t believe in their ability to effect meaningful change. I see it in our artists who don’t feel they have any further obligation to their audience than to entertain them, just as I see it in their audience, who demand nothing more of art than distraction. I see it in everyone who goes to work doing a job that is harmful to society as a whole, because profit has taken the place of meaning. And I see it in the pundits and the journalists. God, do I see it in the pundits and the journalists. They are nothing but actors on a stage reciting the words written for them by anonymous authority. And finding it necessary to prove themselves worthy of the obscene wages they receive, they use all of their skill to project passion and conviction into the role they play. But there is no will in them. Whatever individuality is within them they cede to their paymasters. They are not adults but children eager to please those with power and authority.

The concept of being “woke” is not only not new, it is quite possibly as old as recorded human thought. It bears an unmistakable resemblance to the Upanishads, which date at least back to 6^th Century B.C. 

Plato spoke of the very thing in The Republic circa 300 B.C. It is nothing more than a transcendence of our more primitive/bestial/childish way of perceiving the world we live in and our relationship to it. The Book Of Genesis (circa 6^th Century B.C.) offers a similar vision as Erich Fromm’s in describing the fall of man. Man once lived in the Garden Of Eden, unaware of death, no different than the animals or a child. But by eating of the fruit of knowledge, he can no longer live like an animal or a child, and is evicted from the garden, can never return to that early state of innocence. In place of the Garden of Eden which he was forced to leave upon evolving, he cannot hope to revert but can only work towards evolving further still to a new relationship with the world in which he lives as an adult.

Humanity cannot hope to go back to how things were, as you now see Democrats and Republicans so fervently trying, each in their own ways. We can either confront the situation as it is or else deny it, as those within the primitive binary Republican/Democrat paradigm are attempting to do. We can either accept reality or rationalize everything until it fits within our outmoded model. We must struggle to understand truth or else retreat into fantasy. We can vainly endeavor to find our way back to the Garden, some imagined idyllic past not unlike Hitler imagined for the German people, or else work our way to a promised land that all our great thinkers—and evolution itself—push us towards. 

On it's surface, there is really nothing mystical at all about the idea of being "woke". It is merely becoming wise to a viewpoint that has limitations that have been pushed to their limits. It is merely recognizing that what is presented as solutions are not sufficient to help us create the world that needs to be. It is just accepting the facts at face value. But I do not wish to dismiss the deeper elements to the idea of being woke. Because there is a wonderful and immense depth to what can be unearthed once we transcend the limitations set for us by ourselves and others. Becoming an adult, tapping into our adult capacities for conviction and commitment does not do away with miracles, it makes them possible.