Interesting to think of "woke" in conjunction with/opposition to "saved" -- woke is active, you do it to yourself, you awaken into new information and reality --- whereas saved in the evangelical Protestant sense is passive, it happens *to* you, and initiates you into a new regime of obedience.
The backlash against "woke" and DEI has been startling and unsettling. So much energy behind that backlash just to make sure people are not "awake, alive or well". As always, I so appreciate your reflections, Saeed! Be well!
I don’t remember exactly when I first heard the term, but I do remember that woke wasn’t standing on its own. It was part of a command, stay woke, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the people who have turned it into a pejorative have both removed the verbal command and the condition of being present in the term, and mostly turned it into an adjective, as in woke policies. The command is more active, and it also tells the hearer that it’s a goal to worked toward and maintained, not a puzzle that one solves or a position one attains. Removing that part of it and turning it into a descriptor reduces the power the term has and makes it easier for the people who want to caricature it to do so, which is exactly what they want.
This resonates with me, because to me, following your thoughts, the opposite end of the spectrum from woke would be zombie, so if you're anti-woke, then.... QED. You have the same issue with words as descriptors either way I admit
Love this. Really aligns with my more inchoate thinking/feeling about the backlash against "woke" and "wokism" ... I've been troubled by the meanness of the ridicule aimed against it. Not a term I've embraced either because, to be really open/vulnerable about it, I wondered whether it would be ok/cool for me as a White-embodied person to use it. I do enough unintentional cultural appropriation to begin with, why add another term that should be preserved for a people group I don't belong to? BUT back to Saeed's analysis: brilliant articulation of it. Thanks.
They have the same thing with their red pill, or blue pill (I can't remember.) A point of knowledge from which you can never see the world the same way again.
Interesting to think of "woke" in conjunction with/opposition to "saved" -- woke is active, you do it to yourself, you awaken into new information and reality --- whereas saved in the evangelical Protestant sense is passive, it happens *to* you, and initiates you into a new regime of obedience.
Oh, snap. That's a brilliant point.
The backlash against "woke" and DEI has been startling and unsettling. So much energy behind that backlash just to make sure people are not "awake, alive or well". As always, I so appreciate your reflections, Saeed! Be well!
I don’t remember exactly when I first heard the term, but I do remember that woke wasn’t standing on its own. It was part of a command, stay woke, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the people who have turned it into a pejorative have both removed the verbal command and the condition of being present in the term, and mostly turned it into an adjective, as in woke policies. The command is more active, and it also tells the hearer that it’s a goal to worked toward and maintained, not a puzzle that one solves or a position one attains. Removing that part of it and turning it into a descriptor reduces the power the term has and makes it easier for the people who want to caricature it to do so, which is exactly what they want.
Forward together. Not one step back.
This resonates with me, because to me, following your thoughts, the opposite end of the spectrum from woke would be zombie, so if you're anti-woke, then.... QED. You have the same issue with words as descriptors either way I admit
Love this. Really aligns with my more inchoate thinking/feeling about the backlash against "woke" and "wokism" ... I've been troubled by the meanness of the ridicule aimed against it. Not a term I've embraced either because, to be really open/vulnerable about it, I wondered whether it would be ok/cool for me as a White-embodied person to use it. I do enough unintentional cultural appropriation to begin with, why add another term that should be preserved for a people group I don't belong to? BUT back to Saeed's analysis: brilliant articulation of it. Thanks.
They are regularly prepared to take vernacular that we created, pervert it, then throw it in our faces. Woke used to be ours!
They have the same thing with their red pill, or blue pill (I can't remember.) A point of knowledge from which you can never see the world the same way again.