I'm only 35, of course I'm not 'woke'
I didn't like Normcore, I didn't like Hipsters and still don't, I didn't like Emo and I've forgotten what came before that, Nu-metal? I didn't like that much either. That though was all easily attributed to my being too old, the Abe Simpson "I used to be 'with it', but then they changed what 'it' was. Now what I'm with isn't 'it' and what 'it' is seems weird and scary to me and it will happen to you."
But 'woke' I can't get with because I'm too young, too inexperienced, I do not have the requisite life experience or knowledge to have any confidence in either distributing or accepting 'wokeness'. In fact, it's really really really hard to take claims of 'woke' seriously. It reminds me of Mr Show's Youth Program 'No Adults Allowed' moment when Bob Odenkirk says 'Totally Grungefied.'
And sure I laughed when in Dear White People the guy made that Tinderesque ap for rating people as 'woke or not-woke' because conceptually 'woke' is a hilarious concept to me.
Thus I felt sympathetic embarrassment the first and only time I ever heard someone use 'woke' unironically at a media launch event in Los Angeles. When the woman described a Shanghai hip-hop enthusiast for being 'so totally woke' at first I laughed then realized she was serious.
Because woke may sound like some urban ebonic youth slang, but in my mind at least, it appears to be the semantic equivalent of a bunch of youth started claiming they were 'enlightened'. Which would clearly be a non-starter, if people were like 'Yeah I'm 17, and I've achieved enlightenment.'
Maybe I carry a residual traumatic impression from 1999's Season 2, Episode 7 sketch from the Micallef Programme 'An Open Letter to the Prime Minister' wherein Sean Micallef invites a 14 year old school girl onto set to read her Open Letter to the Prime Minister, which if you follow the link you can watch but he says 'Just 14 years of age and yet you communicate with the Prime Minister of this country on equal footing. Arrogance on your part or an accurate assessment of his intellectual ability?'
Perhaps because of this sketch and my retention of it, resonance with it... a 14 year old from 1999 would now be 34 years old, which is still younger than me... my intuition is that one should be embarrassed to be referred to as 'woke' claim to be 'woke' or claim to be able to assess and recognize being 'woke'.
In some sense, claims to 'enlightenment' as shared with the Buddha are somewhat more modest, because it could manifest as an enlightened approach to management of one's personal conduct.
But for a bunch of tertiary undergraduates to claim they is 'woke' to how society works, how to reform taxation and the corporations act to ensure improving quality of life and sustainability with less concentration of wealth, how to redistribute current wealth more equitably while preventing capital flight, recession, food insecurity and civil unrest...
This to me seems it would require a major innovation in our education system such that I, at 35 can be still baffled by the conundrum of the Inclosure acts simultaneously beginning the widespread disenfranchisement of the working class and the major contributor to wealth inequality and the necessary incentive for the private land owners to innovate agriculture and greatly increase food production and food surpluses of which modernity depends.
That is just one example of a complex problem that doesn't suggest an easy answer, such that while I don't plan to pursue a life in public office, I feel that maybe in 20 more years of contemplation I might have the requisite confidence to take a punt on making a decision that might improve the lot of ordinary citizens without fucking the delicate balancing act completely.
My impression of people that use 'woke' unironically, and that's a very small sample is that of people who have in their possession a bunch of truisms like 'racism is bad' and 'sexism is bad' and 'inequality is bad' and then a suite of really easy answers that boil down to 'stop being bad.' Which is to say, I've never had it impressed upon me that 'woke' culture, legitimate as their complaints may be, have any answers at all.
But they have a lot of confidence.
But 'woke' I can't get with because I'm too young, too inexperienced, I do not have the requisite life experience or knowledge to have any confidence in either distributing or accepting 'wokeness'. In fact, it's really really really hard to take claims of 'woke' seriously. It reminds me of Mr Show's Youth Program 'No Adults Allowed' moment when Bob Odenkirk says 'Totally Grungefied.'
And sure I laughed when in Dear White People the guy made that Tinderesque ap for rating people as 'woke or not-woke' because conceptually 'woke' is a hilarious concept to me.
Thus I felt sympathetic embarrassment the first and only time I ever heard someone use 'woke' unironically at a media launch event in Los Angeles. When the woman described a Shanghai hip-hop enthusiast for being 'so totally woke' at first I laughed then realized she was serious.
Because woke may sound like some urban ebonic youth slang, but in my mind at least, it appears to be the semantic equivalent of a bunch of youth started claiming they were 'enlightened'. Which would clearly be a non-starter, if people were like 'Yeah I'm 17, and I've achieved enlightenment.'
Maybe I carry a residual traumatic impression from 1999's Season 2, Episode 7 sketch from the Micallef Programme 'An Open Letter to the Prime Minister' wherein Sean Micallef invites a 14 year old school girl onto set to read her Open Letter to the Prime Minister, which if you follow the link you can watch but he says 'Just 14 years of age and yet you communicate with the Prime Minister of this country on equal footing. Arrogance on your part or an accurate assessment of his intellectual ability?'
Perhaps because of this sketch and my retention of it, resonance with it... a 14 year old from 1999 would now be 34 years old, which is still younger than me... my intuition is that one should be embarrassed to be referred to as 'woke' claim to be 'woke' or claim to be able to assess and recognize being 'woke'.
In some sense, claims to 'enlightenment' as shared with the Buddha are somewhat more modest, because it could manifest as an enlightened approach to management of one's personal conduct.
But for a bunch of tertiary undergraduates to claim they is 'woke' to how society works, how to reform taxation and the corporations act to ensure improving quality of life and sustainability with less concentration of wealth, how to redistribute current wealth more equitably while preventing capital flight, recession, food insecurity and civil unrest...
This to me seems it would require a major innovation in our education system such that I, at 35 can be still baffled by the conundrum of the Inclosure acts simultaneously beginning the widespread disenfranchisement of the working class and the major contributor to wealth inequality and the necessary incentive for the private land owners to innovate agriculture and greatly increase food production and food surpluses of which modernity depends.
That is just one example of a complex problem that doesn't suggest an easy answer, such that while I don't plan to pursue a life in public office, I feel that maybe in 20 more years of contemplation I might have the requisite confidence to take a punt on making a decision that might improve the lot of ordinary citizens without fucking the delicate balancing act completely.
My impression of people that use 'woke' unironically, and that's a very small sample is that of people who have in their possession a bunch of truisms like 'racism is bad' and 'sexism is bad' and 'inequality is bad' and then a suite of really easy answers that boil down to 'stop being bad.' Which is to say, I've never had it impressed upon me that 'woke' culture, legitimate as their complaints may be, have any answers at all.
But they have a lot of confidence.
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