Powerful are evil, powerless are good
Global Woke movement also goes after merit that rewards hard work
America’s Woke movement is going global. I’m not certain that’s the name of this movement. Sometimes it depicts itself as socialist, or the power of the poor against the evil rich. At other times, the movement is the coalition of the colonized against colonizers. The movement also shuns merit and describes it as an unfair gauge because it does not take into consideration the uneven socioeconomic circumstances of people. As such, merit to measure achievement between underprivileged and privileged people becomes an anomaly that should be cancelled and replaced with compassion as a measure of fairness.
But what is fair? It is hard to tell. Woke want people not to mind their image if they are overweight, and not to mind their under performance in school, sports or at work. If anyone is overweight or underperforming, it is never their fault, but rather the fault of the powerful: White people, colonialism, rich people and even people of color who worked hard to ascend the ranks are all to blame.
Such world view elevates the victim to levels of infallible sainthood. There is nothing an overweight, non-binary, unemployed, school drop out can do to improve their lot. People are always in dire situations because of others. Failure becomes an unfair disadvantage that the successful inflicted on those who failed. The successful should always feel sorry and remorseful toward failures. Overweight is what those who are fit — who exercise and watch their diet — use to shame those who do not.
In this upside-down world, hard work and merit become evil, while laziness becomes good. From everyone according to their ability, to everyone according to their need, is how the world sums up such philosophy. But even Communism envisaged an equal society of people who are fit and hardworking, not a nation of flabby, lazy and unmotivated humans.
In ancient mythology, the world was built on two: Wisdom and power. Wisdom was first and was darkness. It gave birth to power, which was light whose powerful rays penetrate darkness and overcome it. But power, like youth, is temporary. It fades away, dies off, and is then reborn. Darkness, however, is immortal.
Because power was not wise, ancient mythology warned against its trappings. Power might become arrogant and — if unchecked — might end up hurting itself.
Yet, nothing in mythology, old or new, ever rewarded laziness. All ideologies, since the dawn of history, encouraged hard work and rewarded it. Even deities, the most loving and forgiving of creatures, expected believers to engage in some hard work to prove their love and devotion to the divine in order to be rewarded accordingly.
But the global Woke movement that is sweeping America and the world is a new dawn by itself. Pronouns stop carrying their meaning, merit is discouraged, power is evil. Victims are good, ethical and correct at all times. Victims are always infallible, cannot commit any sin or error.
The new Woke movement is so totalitarian that it prefers to cancel everything, especially debate. Things are black or white, and black is always right no matter what.
In the real world, this means that the American Republic, the best model of human government no matter how imperfect, becomes ultimate evil, while violent militias, like Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas, are good, because they are the underdogs and can claim victimhood.
Israel is evil too, no matter the context. Israel has a strong economy and a powerful army, and was the first country to successfully vaccinate all its citizens against Covid19. For all its success, Israel cannot but be evil.
Saudi Arabia is evil because it managed to use its energy resources to build one of the world’s top 20 economies. Iran, which has an equal amount of energy reserves as Saudi Arabia, sponsors rogue militias and terrorism worldwide, and has a free falling economy. For its failure, Iran gets America begging it for a deal, while for its success, Saudi Arabia gets calls to be punished, shunned and isolated.
The logic of the global Woke movement is bizarro world. How far and deep this upside down logic has penetrated, and how long it will last, is anybody’s guess. But for the interest of humanity, and sanity, this twisted Woke logic better fade away, and fade way fast.