The West in the Face of an Irrational Movement: Woke

Abstract

The objective of the article is to present how the woke ideology proposes a rewriting of history. The term “woke” means “awake”, “awakened” in African-American urban jargon and was taken up by the Black Lives Matter movement. But it also refers to the notion of “awakening”, so important in the religious history of the United States, marked by a whole series of Protestant “religious awakenings”. The term “woke” was invented by black American activists and has been used in university campus culture since 2010, first in connection with critical race theory, and in a broader sense, to refer to all militant academic currents, from gender to intersectionality. The purpose of my article is to show how the woke ideology aims to change the entire society. The article highlights that the woke doctrine comes with two great promises: that of gender and the definitive liberation of the body, and that of intersectionality and the aggregation of all identities of those who consider themselves victims. Its strength lies in the fact that it starts from legitimate demands: the fight against gender discrimination and racism, as well as the reevaluation of European colonization. Gender theory breaks with reality and steps into an imaginary world, in which gender replaces sex and bodies no longer matter. By denying reality and the body, the woke religion joins transhumanist utopias. The main methods used in the study are observation and case study. The article is important and valuable for researchers, teachers, students and the entire civil society, but also for future generations, because it provides a clear picture of the changes that are taking place globally and a possible perspective on the future.