
In the James Bond spy universe, a many-tentacled octopus symbolizes the evil SPECTRE organization that is bent on world domination. This not-so-subtle imagery depicts a sinister outfit that has infiltrated every sphere of influence.
Like SPECTRE, the “woke” phenomenon infests nearly every Western institution: government, academia, corporations, and even churches. Its tentacles include transgender ideology, DEI, CRT, radical feminism, abortion, the homosexual lobby, climate change activism, and anti-capitalism. Over the last 30 years, these ideologies have successfully executed a “long march through the institutions,” achieving complete cultural capture during the upheavals of 2020.
But those long, slimy limbs are starting to lose their grip.
As a result of the pandemic, parents became more involved in school governance and fought against critical race theory indoctrination. The Black Lives Matter movement lost steam as it replayed the same tired script amid revelations about its founders personally enriching themselves from contributions. Transgender ideology morphed into a losing issue for the left when parents began to protest sexualization of their children by initiatives such as “drag queen story hour.” Movies (such as Lightyear and Strange World) and streaming shows (such as The Acolyte and Queen Cleopatra) with woke content flopped to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Then, on Election Day, the many-limbed hydra took a stone to the forehead.
Trump Was Our Fist Raised in the Air
Despite being the target of every epithet in the woke arsenal (racist, sexist, fascist, transphobic, etc.), Donald Trump became the first president to win a second nonconsecutive term since Grover Cleveland in 1893. Even before his inauguration today, a profound shift seems to have been taking place in America.
Before the election, admitting to being a conservative or a Trump supporter was at best “uncool” and at worst, a career-ending blunder. As of now, standing on the right might even be considered trendy. Athletes are shimmying to the Trump dance all over the world, DEI departments are falling like dominos, and even Facebook is reversing its censorship policies. Trump winning not just the electoral college, but also the popular vote, sent a firm signal to formerly woke industry and entertainment executives that they better bend with the wind if they want to make money. Change is truly in the air, and the woke behemoth is on life support.
But despite his stunning victory, Trump is more of a reaction to woke culture than he is its slayer. He loves America and promises a return to common sense, but he does not hold a fully orbed Christian worldview or a consistent conservative ideology. Sensing that the extreme left is out of touch with normal Americans, Trump attacks elements of wokeness, but has never fought wokeness as a system.
What We Fight and Why
To truly understand what is killing wokeness, we need to first define wokeness itself. The term is so broad and slippery that it can get lost among the writhing tentacles. What is the core that ties them all together?
Every woke offshoot exhibits three qualities that set wokeness apart from other ideologies. First, woke ideology is immoral. With a religious fervor, absent any scientific justification, it promotes the sterilization, castration, and mutilation of children. Wokeness inverts celebrations of sinful acts such as “Pride Month” and “Shout Your Abortion.” This ugly ideology accepts violence as legitimate, if committed by a favored group in service of a favored cause.
Second, woke ideology is irrational. It embraces absurdity to an extent even beyond previous major anti-Christian ideologies of the twentieth century, such as Nazism and Communism. Woke ideology is built not on insights or facts but bumper-sticker cliches, such as “Silence Is Violence,” “Love Is Love,” and “My Body, My Choice.” It also hammers home claims that men can become pregnant and that math is racist. Manipulation of the language, meaningless platitudes, intentionally vague slogans, and contradictory ideals are hallmarks of wokeness.
Third, woke ideology is totalitarian. Because its beliefs are morally bankrupt and intellectually vapid, it cannot tolerate honest debate. Free speech is the enemy of wokeness, and the rise of censorship by tech giants under government pressure is not a coincidence. In pushing woke ideals such as personal pronouns or same-sex marriage, no freedom of religion or conscience is allowed. Those who publicly refuse to conform, like the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado or Paivi Rasanen in Finland, will be cancelled or punished.
Wokeness Is a New, Phony Gospel
There’s no doubt that wokeness is an immoral, irrational, and totalitarian collection of beliefs and values. But can we distill the definition even further?
The heart of woke ideology is a rejection of God’s created order. It insists that mankind can define reality, and that truth is defined by an individual or a society. In philosophical terms, wokeness asserts that truth is subjective (coming from inside a person) rather than objective (coming from outside a person). Woke culture is, in short, a militant style of relativism.
In spiritual terms, wokeness recapitulates the very first heresy in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:4-5). It joins a long line of anti-Christian doctrines, ideologies, and systems that entail the idea that Man can be God. Inevitably, blurring or reversing the distinctions that God has baked into creation – man/woman, parent/child, good/evil, beautiful/ugly – results in chaos, confusion, and sin (Romans 1:21-24).
Yet despite its formidable pedigree, woke ideology is on the wane in America. Read Part 2 of this article to find out why.
Brandon Aldinger is a chemist with a doctoral degree who works in an industrial research laboratory. He’s had lifelong interest in issues of science and faith, and he is passionate about training fellow Christians to think clearly about and stand firm on their beliefs within a hostile culture.
The post The Ebbing of the Woke Tide appeared first on The Stream.
Subscribe Below To Our Weekly Newsletter of our Latest Videos and Receive a Discount Code For A FREE eBook from our eBook store: