Alex Phillips: We need to talk about being woke

We need to talk about...Being woke.

Like most days in the British media, the papers are littered with stories reflecting the ongoing cultural crisis gripping the West. The curse of being woke.

It sounds rather innocuous, one of those modern terms that older generations struggle to comprehend, a typical intergenerational conundrum reflective of changing times, cultural development and the natural evolution of maxims and morals.

Indeed from one era to the next, societies across the globe have metamorphosed, leaving the out of touch in a state of bewilderment over shifting semantics, beliefs and fashions.

Today is no different. Yet what was once a matter of politesse, the conscious adaptation to a cultural contract in constant flux, today invites much more than mere tutting or the raising of eyebrows. Failure to adhere to today's woke religions can result in real world punishment.

The loss of your job, humiliation, even physical violence. And the rate of change is so dizzyingly rapid few can keep up with stringent yet uncodified customs, or are exempt from accusations of blasphemy, while a sacred few seem to self appoint as judge, jury and executioner with impunity, manipulating language to further alienate and exclude.

Should we be afraid? Very.

The great Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu described the concept of divide and conquer as a devious tactic to turn the enemy in on itself.

The West is now doing this with aplomb, aided by those who wish to do us harm. Rather than focus on external threats, society is increasingly at war with itself, accosted by a myriad perceived cultural battles largely waged online.

Remarkably, even when the threat of hostile nations is signposted, it is internalised into accusations against ourselves. Allegations of Russian electoral interference were seized to attack a democratic decision, rather than externalised against an enemy using the power of the internet to wreak division and sow havoc in society.

The dark web is full of the invading troops of foreign armies in the form of legions of bots amplifying tensions and pitching one side of society against the other.

Yet it is not just malign foreign powers rubbing their hands with glee at so-called activists clawing at the social fabric and cultural glue that binds us together. Big business is at it too. Brands that cynically exploit cancel culture feed a network of neo-ideologies breaking the backbone of Britain, and directly profit from it.

Why pay for advertising when hashtags are free? Creating a social media storm boosts name recognition and can deftly target certain demographics while 'woke washing' corporate malpractice and greed.

Take for instance the trend for plant based diets. How convenient that just as the world is waking up to the dangers of ultra processed food and the devastation of natural habitats through intense farming, along comes a dietary craze that clothes itself in the narratives of environmentalism and wellbeing, conveniently served as a cuisine few can prepare in their own kitchens.

As palm oil plantations grow and ready meals laden with sugars and salts purport to be healthy and sustainable, instead of having to afford meat and dairy, manufacturers can flog nutritionally bankrupt food for even bigger profit margins while feigning social righteousness as the consumer gets fatter and high emitting factories line the pockets of multinationals.

Despite cries of Go Woke, Go Broke from some consumers, big business knows all too well that boycotts and principles are often abandoned at the check-out queues and are well worth the promotional noise that they create.Meanwhile some claim the culture wars themselves are a fabricated distraction by the very people often on the receiving end of their malice.

To borrow a term so prevalent among the Woke Brigade, it is the very definition of gaslighting. But be on the receiving end of a pseudo-moral hate campaign and you could lose your livelihood and even have your life put at risk.

All the while the curse of intersectionality has created a hierarchy of rights oppressing other sections of society. The prioritisation of trans issues is seeing women’s rights under attack. Just as girls are being stabbed with syringes in nightclubs and rape culture is sweeping through schools, there is a clamour for unisex toilets while porn and promiscuity is promoted as some kind of basic freedom.

Just as the pandemic exposed how obesity is costing millions of lives globally, fat shaming has become a new form of abuse. Just as the Taliban take over Afghanistan and Isis sharpen their tools once again, protecting Islam from offense arguably enable extremism to propagate.

Even a cursory audit of wokery points to an invisible blob that wants you to be sexless, genderless, fat, afraid, mentally ill, slavishly compliant, blindly militant, hating your country, obsessed with sex, denied basic freedoms, self-flagellating, censorious, confused and torn from your community through a nihilistic obsession with individuality and identity.

Today, we need to talk about being woke.