Responding to a World Gone Woke by Chris Stefanick from RealLife Catholic for EDIFY
VIDEO
Chris Stefanick - Responding to a World Gone Woke
Woke-ism. It’s the new worldview made popular by a convergence of movements seeking to right the wrongs in the world.
Where did it come from?
Some think that woke-ism finds its roots in the postmodern deconstructionist movement that exploded in French universities in the last century.
Philosophers there set out on a mission to deconstruct what they called “meta-narratives.” These are overarching views of life and history that help people make sense of reality such as religion and the natural sciences.
These philosophers taught a generation of students to be cynical of everything handed on to them from past generations by encouraging them to be critical of any and every meta narrative.
All this academic theory had little impact on real life until the 1980’s and 90’s when “applied deconstructionism” exploded in college classrooms in the form of: postcolonial theory, queer theory, critical race theory, intersectional feminism, and more. Driven by themes of social justice, these theories went beyond the French deconstructionists and labeled most meta-narratives not just false, or blocks to reality, but oppressive and evil.
When we “wake up” to the belief that everything is about the conflict of the oppressed versus the oppressor, and after we deconstruct our own inherited oppressive thinking and set out on a mission to dismantle everything in our inherently oppressive world view, then we are considered members of an elite class known as the “woke.” Everyone else, of course, is asleep.
So, what’s right with it?
The good thing about wokeism is that it recognizes that there IS historic and systemic injustice in the world. By no means are we trying to undermine that fact.
Racism, sexism, and the mistreatment of those who self-identify as LGBT, is all very real, and can, in some places and times in history, become systemic. Meaning, the injustice perpetrated by individuals has seeped into laws, social interactions, workplace policies, and in the way we communicate history.
That said, every movement of social upheaval in the past century that went disastrously wrong was rooted in some legitimate fight against real injustice. Communists, Nazis, French Revolutionaries… they all called for liberty, equality, and fraternity in their fight against very real injustices in their time. They also labeled anyone who questioned them enemies of liberty, equality and fraternity, which, not surprisingly, stopped anyone from questioning them. Because who wants to be a jerk? For a while, this made their movements unstoppable, as they shifted from philosophies to movements obsessed with gaining and using power to remake the world. Not that I’m saying the woke aren’t Nazis, I’m just saying that just because I agree with the woke that there’s real systemic injustice doesn’t mean I have to agree with wokeism.
So, where does wokeism go disastrously wrong?
Maybe a better name for wokeism to reveal its flaws is: “nothing-but-ism.” While I’d agree with the woke that people who identify with LGBT have been mistreated, I don’t agree with the woke that the nuclear family is nothing but a system to oppress people who identify as LGBT. That America, although it has racism in its past and present, is nothing but a political expression of systemic racism. That Capitalism is nothing but a racist economic system. That the message of the Gospel, the best news in human history - that God loves us, died for us, calls us to life on high forever - is nothing but an oppressive and obsolete system spread by colonial powers that the world is better off without.
All this reductionist thinking has led to the plan of the woke to just cancel those who are non-woke, and who are, naturally, “nothing but” oppressive and deserving of nothing but removal from society. Hence, the birth of cancel culture, a cruel form of social excommunication.
So how should good people respond?
First: Set your heart on what you LOVE.
Too many people see recent cultural trends, get obsessed with them, and get filled with anger. Saints and heroes were aware of what’s wrong in their world, but they didn’t fill their hearts with what they hate, they filled their hearts and minds with what they love. That’s why, even though the world might love to hate Christians, Saints are irresistibly, universally attractive.
Two: Act with courage. I know it’s not easy. But the silent majority needs to stop being silent. Because if we don’t, we’ll surrender the world to those who want to re-form it into a place no one wants to live in.
Three: Offer the world a better meta-narrative than woke-ism and cancel culture.
Wokeism is a meta-narrative all its own. It’s one that leaves people suspicious of everything, including themselves. It’s one that destroys people and cultures. We need to offer people something better - not just complain about the problems in the world as it is, we need to offer a community of believers that stands with the oppressed, cares for the needy, and fights injustice, not because everything is nothing but broken and bad, but because God is love, and He found us worth dying for.
That is a metanarrative I’m proud to live and die by. Because it’s redeeming, and also, because it’s true. No secular movement or worldview in history remotely compares with it.
Woke-ism. It’s the new worldview made popular by a convergence of movements seeking to right the wrongs in the world.
Where did it come from?
Some think that woke-ism finds its roots in the postmodern deconstructionist movement that exploded in French universities in the last century.
Philosophers there set out on a mission to deconstruct what they called “meta-narratives.” These are overarching views of life and history that help people make sense of reality such as religion and the natural sciences.
These philosophers taught a generation of students to be cynical of everything handed on to them from past generations by encouraging them to be critical of any and every meta narrative.
All this academic theory had little impact on real life until the 1980’s and 90’s when “applied deconstructionism” exploded in college classrooms in the form of: postcolonial theory, queer theory, critical race theory, intersectional feminism, and more. Driven by themes of social justice, these theories went beyond the French deconstructionists and labeled most meta-narratives not just false, or blocks to reality, but oppressive and evil.
When we “wake up” to the belief that everything is about the conflict of the oppressed versus the oppressor, and after we deconstruct our own inherited oppressive thinking and set out on a mission to dismantle everything in our inherently oppressive world view, then we are considered members of an elite class known as the “woke.” Everyone else, of course, is asleep.
So, what’s right with it?
The good thing about wokeism is that it recognizes that there IS historic and systemic injustice in the world. By no means are we trying to undermine that fact.
Racism, sexism, and the mistreatment of those who self-identify as LGBT, is all very real, and can, in some places and times in history, become systemic. Meaning, the injustice perpetrated by individuals has seeped into laws, social interactions, workplace policies, and in the way we communicate history.
That said, every movement of social upheaval in the past century that went disastrously wrong was rooted in some legitimate fight against real injustice. Communists, Nazis, French Revolutionaries… they all called for liberty, equality, and fraternity in their fight against very real injustices in their time. They also labeled anyone who questioned them enemies of liberty, equality and fraternity, which, not surprisingly, stopped anyone from questioning them. Because who wants to be a jerk? For a while, this made their movements unstoppable, as they shifted from philosophies to movements obsessed with gaining and using power to remake the world. Not that I’m saying the woke aren’t Nazis, I’m just saying that just because I agree with the woke that there’s real systemic injustice doesn’t mean I have to agree with wokeism.
So, where does wokeism go disastrously wrong?
Maybe a better name for wokeism to reveal its flaws is: “nothing-but-ism.” While I’d agree with the woke that people who identify with LGBT have been mistreated, I don’t agree with the woke that the nuclear family is nothing but a system to oppress people who identify as LGBT. That America, although it has racism in its past and present, is nothing but a political expression of systemic racism. That Capitalism is nothing but a racist economic system. That the message of the Gospel, the best news in human history - that God loves us, died for us, calls us to life on high forever - is nothing but an oppressive and obsolete system spread by colonial powers that the world is better off without.
All this reductionist thinking has led to the plan of the woke to just cancel those who are non-woke, and who are, naturally, “nothing but” oppressive and deserving of nothing but removal from society. Hence, the birth of cancel culture, a cruel form of social excommunication.
So how should good people respond?
First: Set your heart on what you LOVE.
Too many people see recent cultural trends, get obsessed with them, and get filled with anger. Saints and heroes were aware of what’s wrong in their world, but they didn’t fill their hearts with what they hate, they filled their hearts and minds with what they love. That’s why, even though the world might love to hate Christians, Saints are irresistibly, universally attractive.
Two: Act with courage. I know it’s not easy. But the silent majority needs to stop being silent. Because if we don’t, we’ll surrender the world to those who want to re-form it into a place no one wants to live in.
Three: Offer the world a better meta-narrative than woke-ism and cancel culture.
Wokeism is a meta-narrative all its own. It’s one that leaves people suspicious of everything, including themselves. It’s one that destroys people and cultures. We need to offer people something better - not just complain about the problems in the world as it is, we need to offer a community of believers that stands with the oppressed, cares for the needy, and fights injustice, not because everything is nothing but broken and bad, but because God is love, and He found us worth dying for.
That is a metanarrative I’m proud to live and die by. Because it’s redeeming, and also, because it’s true. No secular movement or worldview in history remotely compares with it.