Colin Sheridan: Woke? Try seeing the world from a child’s view
Gaza An Fired Tank Rajab, Tank Of At Was Killing That Hind Girl Of And Directly The Child To Dispatched A Hit Help Late Ambulance From Close And Condemnation A Six The Prompted Palestinian Car January The Old Israeli Family Her Family City International The Shell In In Distance Year
What does it mean to be “woke?” Are you woke? Am I woke? Can the sleeping be woke? The dead? Is it a pejorative term, or something to boast about and be proud of? Is being woke contagious? Is it a flagrant abandonment of old school values, as some would have you believe? A safe place for virtue-signalers to hang out, massaging each other's egos and clipping each other's toenails while aggressively chasing likes and follows on social media? Or, is it something that should be put on the school curriculum so that our kids grow up with a clearer definition of right and wrong, good and evil?
The origins of the term would certainly have you believe being woke is an admirable, progressive, disposition to adopt or be naturally blessed with. The phrase first appeared in the US in the 1940s, derived from the word “awake” and was used to describe somebody who was well-informed on issues of social injustice — particularly racism. In its infancy, it meant being alert to the specific discrimination and systemic harm suffered by African Americans. Thus, being “woke” used to imply one has awoken from an ignorant slumber. More recently, it has been adopted as a ubiquitous label for a wide variety of social movements, including Black Lives Matter, feminism, immigration, climate change, and marginalised communities.
More than it just being a gradual slide of the nation's youth toward enlightenment of global issues of grave significance, there’s an argument that official Ireland — our governments and legislature — has decided we will be the First Woke Nation, a little like adopting the smoking ban or pursuing carbon neutrality. Doing this without a referendum has irked those who believe wokeness to be a byproduct of a society gone soft.
Its critics — woke's critics I mean — will tell you (if they acknowledge these societal ills in the first instance) that what we are witnessing now is a gross over-correction of a problem that never really existed. Ireland, suddenly free from an oppression either real or imagined, has gorged itself on performative outrage over a carefully curated list of societal cancers in order to prove to itself — and, more importantly, others — that we are a mature, progressive democracy. A little self-esteem boost for a country low on confidence. To them, the list of imagined societal ills contains spurious issues such as how we should treat immigrants who arrive in this country with little or nothing (send them back), education around sexual health (down with that sort of thing), inclusivity (how can we care for others if we can’t care for ourselves?), LGBTQI (gay, body-dysmorphic hippies) , and — the recent pebble in the shoe of those anti-wokers — being mean to Israel (a peace-loving, perpetually victimised country that is surrounded by brown, Islamic barbarians intent on its destruction).
Children are a great azimuth check for morals. They don’t tend to own property or advance careers or have agendas beyond where is the next chicken nugget coming from, and, funnily enough if you take the time to explain to them that even that chicken nugget is morally compromised, they tend to listen and understand far quicker than most educated adults (fourteen months and counting).
They might also appreciate some useful information on the biology of their bodies and the intricacies of sexuality, especially as it pertains to consent. Being a diverse bunch, inclusivity almost seems too obvious a concept to label and explain to a child of modern Ireland.
As for Israel, the state currently perpetuating one of the greatest collective crimes against humanity, on this I fear the anti-wokers are probably right. We could be — by their telling — raising a nation of little antisemites. Because if you took the time to show Irish school children images coming out of Gaza on the daily of their fellow children being blown to smithereens, to explain to them the history, to tell them about Hind Rajab, and the 355 rounds of ammo that were fired at her six-year-old body, they might just express an opinion that many would deem to be woke.
And nobody wants that, do they?