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What Woke is and Why it Doesn't Matter
March 20, 2023
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If there’s one thing everyone loves it’s semantics. What easier way to avoid admitting anything than by bickering about what the words mean? “That depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is.” Recently the question has been what is “woke”? In my opinion, “woke” is one of the most inarticulate pieces of slang to ever take root in serious discourse, but maybe that’s just me being a snob.

It’s probably me being a snob.

Michael McGruther says woke is a distraction and a corporate invention. Andrew Klavan says, “Woke is the delusion that you and your cohorts basically, uniquely, discovered the injustices of life and now you’re going to make it all better.” I think the common ground here is that they are both saying that woke is not truth, that woke is an empty vessel. I don’t want to spend too much time contemplating woke, as I would rather my thoughts be filled contemplating things that are lovely and true.

Besides, woke reminds me of something else.

Before the word took on its current connotation woke was the moment of transition between asleep and awake. “I woke up.” We were unconscious, unaware, and then we came to awareness. No one wants to stumble around all the time, not knowing what’s going on like an idiot. We want to be knowledgeable, informed, the smartest person on the room. Our pride demands it. 

See where I’m going here?

“Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4,5). He wasn’t lying. After eating of the fruit they did know good and evil, just like God does. The lure was pride. Adam and Eve wanted to get woke, have their eyes opened, so that they could be like God and know stuff. And then, just like it always does, evil was able to contort things so that now we struggle to see the difference between truth and untruth, right and wrong, correct and incorrect.

Pride literally came before The Fall.

If we agree that woke is a tool of the Enemy, perhaps we should instead consider its counter philosophy. Continuing to use the slang of the day, the opposite of woke is “based.” Not “asleep” or “unaware.” We chose the word “based,” rooted, set in stone. It reminds me of the words of Jesus, “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock” (Matthew 7:24,25).

The wise man’s house is based.

Friday, like many others, I watched the John Wayne/John Ford classic, The Quiet Man. In addition to being a fun love story, it’s also about the destructive power of pride. Watching the movie I found myself relishing in the world filled with tradition and structure, without a hint of anything woke. The little Irish village had rules, and the only thing that muddled what was right and what was wrong was pride. It’s a society “based” on shared values, rooted in truth. I tried to imagine what a woke utopia would look like, and I couldn’t. 

Woke can’t exist without conflict.

I hate conflict. I love truth, and beauty, and the act of creation. Notice that the wise man doesn’t just exist on the rock, or worship the rock, or become one with the rock. He builds on the rock. God is Creator, and we are made in His image, and therefore called to create. What we create, if it is to stand, must be built on the words of Christ if it’s to stand. Simply being woke to the rock won’t do. Woke is a delusion, as insubstantial as sand. All we have to do to outlast the woke ideology is stay based and build.

God will take care of the rest. 

 

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I stopped paying too much attention to the MCU a long time ago, but apparently Riri was introduced in Wakanda Forever, and her fans have been clamoring for a standalone show ever since (/sarcasm). Watching the trailer, I can't help but notice how many times we're told she's smart and capable. Any suggestion that she can't do something is shot down immediately. We're supposed to believe that The System is against is her because she's poor, I guess, and doesn't have Tony Stark's advantages.

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For a fantasy writer, particularly one of faith, they are essential.

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