First things first; let's get our definitions straight. What is it to be "Woke", and then therefore how does one become "Post-Woke"?
I am defining being Woke as "to expose the horrid injustices that lie at the heart of our banal, screen addicted world." To be Woke is the opposite of being asleep. It is to be aware of injustice and therefore in a state of panic at best, nightmarish hell-scape at worst.
Therefore, Wokeism is not necessarily politically Right or Left in theory, although it is frequently associated with the Left.
On the Left, the term often pairs with Critical Race Theory, Climate Change anxiety, Income Inequality, Capitalism in general, Indigenous Resistance, Decolonization, Gender and Identity Politics, etc.
But on the Right, while people may not use the exact terminology of being "Woke" as it is associated with Liberal and Left leaning circles, it is still present in the way information is presented. For example, the QAnon phenomenon presents the conspiracy theory that a Satanic, Cannibalistic Pedophile Cabal conspired against Donald Trump while he was in office. The way this conspiracy theory is often presented is by someone who is "Woke" to this fact, trying to awaken the American brainwashed public. While one hears a faint echo of reality in this conspiracy theory (Jeffrey Epstein and his many pals), it tells volumes that, like a game of telephone, the conspiracy theory spirals down into deeper depths of depravity each time it is told. It tells even more volumes that Donald Trump himself ran in many circles with Jeffrey Epstein. It is also interesting that the right have an anxiety about a cabal of rich people pulling the strings of our society; a suspicion found on both the Right and the Left and a place where some very significant Vanguardism can be performed. I only stop this common ground when the right presents this anxiety of income inequality through the lens of identity politics. For example, Kanye West complaining about a Jewish Cabal holding him back and bullying him. Is there a Cabal of rich people who have major influence on politics and culture? Yes. Are some of them Jewish? Sure. But that does not mean all Jewish people are exploitative Capitalists who make sure the country only works for them and nobody else. Exploiters come in all shapes, sizes, genders, ethnicities, etc. Synagogues get shot up by idiots who listen to people like Kanye West because they take these stereotypes and apply them to entire communities. There is no point in focusing in on one ethnicity when the issue is an issue of class, not ethnicity. This emphasis on identity is a common characteristic of Fascism; the Right in this country is Fascist and even moderate Republicans are flirting with it, but with education and the presentation of some simple economic frameworks, they are not lost causes. Ironically, the right are the people who complain all the time about being held back by identity politics, when their spokespeople are the ones most obsessed with it.
On this particular issue of identity politics, the Liberal class is also not off the hook. Those historically marginalized should be fighting for a more egalitarian world, not for a reckoning. There are definitely liberal bad actors out there looking for Capitalist power, desiring, for once, to be the slave masters as opposed to a world without any slave masters, a vision which they cynically brush off as idealistic. But I am digressing ...
The term Woke is often used pejoratively now, but I for one think it is noble to attempt to expose injustice. It is noble to be critical of our society. But if society is to get better, we must all be more than just critical; we must be radical, which is to say we must change. It is therefore possible to be Woke but not noble.
An example of someone who is woke but not noble would be what is being termed a "doom scroller"; someone who scrolls through social media looking for examples of how awful the world is. This person is ironically woke; they are woke at the sacrifice of their own time actually living on Earth by experiencing a second hand version of it in the form of a glowing box with an Apple on the back, sending what is only very fancy morse code telegrams describing escalating atrocities occurring across the globe. It is great to be informed, but at a certain point one must take action in response to the information gathered. This can take many forms, but one thing that is not taking action is the usage of the majority of ones time doom-scrolling in the first place.
By this definition, to be Woke is more of a narrative framework and less of a political philosophy like say, Marxist-Leninism. However, as a critique, to be Woke can be the beginnings of a political philosophy, the same way Marx's critique of Capitalism in Das Capital is a critique, while The Communist Manifesto is a response to the critiques presented in Das Capital. In this way, one can be a Marxist without being a Communist; you can agree with Marx's critique of Capitalism while disagreeing that Communism as the correct response to this critique.
To follow this analogy to being Woke, it is only a half of an idea. We on the left must stop trying to one up one another in Wokeism, switching our priorities to brainstorming answers to the problems presented by Wokeism. This is a far harder task, which is why you don't see many answers.
People who do take action get critiqued by doom scrollers, who do nothing but critique. For example, Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Ministry of the Future", a masterpiece of a new genre, "Non-Ficiton Science Fiction", is a book that presents possible solutions to the climate crisis in the form of a novel. It is an incredible book, a revolutionary book that gave me so much hope it helped me come out of a depression. Of course, it was critiqued by the Woke Doom Scrollers, who are hilariously paradoxical nihilists. For example, Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History, panned the book as "ludicrously unrealistic". He may have a good point, he may even be right, but he isn't giving anyone another answer. The review he stated this in is literally called "We're Cooked". He is a woke critic with no answers. Perhaps Robinson is unrealistic, but there is no alternative being presented. To live in a world with no hope for the future is beyond unhealthy. It is the cause of so many problems, both personal and political. Don't ask a drug addict to stop doing drugs if there is no future. Don't ask people to be charitable when there is no future. Don't expect students to study hard in school when there is no future. Don't expect people to work at their soul sucking jobs when there is no future. When there is no future, society falls apart, so even if Robinson's presented solutions are unrealistic, they must be taken as the first step in a praxis of imagination; So, ok Fukuyama, you may have a point, but then what do you do? Just accept hedonism like a coward? This is no way to live.
Another recent example were the two young activists who threw a soup can at a Vincent Van Gogh painting. While I did not like this act because I am an artist myself who is very fond of Van Gogh, I do not denounce these activists because they are trying. Their action should be placed in a discussion of praxis; this soup can stunt is a good first step, but we can learn from the act that it alienates many people and actually turns people away from the cause of climate change. Perhaps a more direct and effective act would be to simply blow up a gas pipeline (please don't blow up a pipeline. You hear that NSA? I'm not advocating for blowing up a pipeline.), or how about throwing Campbell soup at King Salman of Saudi Arabia, who directly profits from fossil fuel production? I understand that these acts are far more difficult to carry out due to massive security issues. Kings and pipelines are heavily protected and not available to the public. But everything that is worth doing is difficult.
The point is that the Campbell Soup Can throwers are heroes because they are doing way more than any Woke Doomscroller who simply sits on their ass posting articles on their Twitter feeds about how messed up the world is. Yes, we all know how messed up the world is. We may disagree as to how exactly it is messed up, but everyone in the world can agree that it is. Right and Left, we are all Woke now. We must become post-woke. The era of critique must come to an end and the era of brainstorming solutions must begin.
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