Wokeism definitely meets the legal definition of religious belief as protected by RFRA and the U.S. Constitution. This implies to me that anywhere Christianity isn't appropriate, such as direct endorsement by a public school teacher, Wokeism is likewise inappropriate. https://radicalamerican.substack.com/p/religious-belief
The parallels between a religious movement and the Great Awokening are indeed clear. I've even gotten progs to admit that directly. Nevertheless there are some important, and revealing, distinctions.
The first, which you draw attention to, is the doctrinal fluidity - new dogma can be invented and disseminated almost overnight. Most other religions are not nearly as adaptable.
The second, and I think the most important, is that wokeism is self-sterilizing and individually maladaptive. The woke don't have kids - that puts a cap on the long-term viability of the project. Further, woke does nothing to encourage virtue in its adherents; to the contrary, it encourages them to adopt self-destructive habits. The resulting individual degeneration is often striking and appalling. Virtually all traditional religions both encourage family formation, and prod believers to try and live up to their best possible selves by aspiring to an ideal represented by the founding figure.
As a kid I always hated the Christian - well, I guess mainly Calvinist Protestant - doctrine of utter depravity. "Lord I am an unworthy sinner... blah blah blah."
But I hate the Woke doctrine of depraved whiteness worse. "Lord I am unworthy white person... save me from my evil whiteness."
nb4. I guess it shouldn't be "Lord" though. How sexist. Lady? Xir? Gaia? I dunno - how does one address the Deity in Wokeness?
Who are the priests of this religion? Religion is the curse of the witch Circe (church) that turns all men into swine. Religion is always a replacement for ethics which are absent or suppressed in the very religious. For example, in Catholicism, you can do straight up evil at the behest of the devil, then go and get absolved by priests with their false forgiveness. I will agree that woke progressivism is a result of priestcraft. I suggest that all religion has a single author and that its goal is to suppress mankind ethically and intellectually.
Wokeism definitely meets the legal definition of religious belief as protected by RFRA and the U.S. Constitution. This implies to me that anywhere Christianity isn't appropriate, such as direct endorsement by a public school teacher, Wokeism is likewise inappropriate. https://radicalamerican.substack.com/p/religious-belief
The parallels between a religious movement and the Great Awokening are indeed clear. I've even gotten progs to admit that directly. Nevertheless there are some important, and revealing, distinctions.
The first, which you draw attention to, is the doctrinal fluidity - new dogma can be invented and disseminated almost overnight. Most other religions are not nearly as adaptable.
The second, and I think the most important, is that wokeism is self-sterilizing and individually maladaptive. The woke don't have kids - that puts a cap on the long-term viability of the project. Further, woke does nothing to encourage virtue in its adherents; to the contrary, it encourages them to adopt self-destructive habits. The resulting individual degeneration is often striking and appalling. Virtually all traditional religions both encourage family formation, and prod believers to try and live up to their best possible selves by aspiring to an ideal represented by the founding figure.
Thank You Theophilus. I appreciate all your work. Another great read.
As a kid I always hated the Christian - well, I guess mainly Calvinist Protestant - doctrine of utter depravity. "Lord I am an unworthy sinner... blah blah blah."
But I hate the Woke doctrine of depraved whiteness worse. "Lord I am unworthy white person... save me from my evil whiteness."
nb4. I guess it shouldn't be "Lord" though. How sexist. Lady? Xir? Gaia? I dunno - how does one address the Deity in Wokeness?
Who are the priests of this religion? Religion is the curse of the witch Circe (church) that turns all men into swine. Religion is always a replacement for ethics which are absent or suppressed in the very religious. For example, in Catholicism, you can do straight up evil at the behest of the devil, then go and get absolved by priests with their false forgiveness. I will agree that woke progressivism is a result of priestcraft. I suggest that all religion has a single author and that its goal is to suppress mankind ethically and intellectually.
Someone - Chesterton, perhaps – once said that for a religion to exist and survive, it does not need a God; but it absolutely must have a devil.
By that definition, woke progressivism fits perfectly. The devil is any white man.