Ideology 'woke': who do we cancel today?Alejandro Rodríguez de la PeñaThe 'woke' movement degenerates into inquisitorial and denies compassion".A few years ago, the fight against racism in the United States took on a violent and especially mediatic tinge. Through social networks, many activists raised their voices to point to systematic racism in the West as the culprit for the violence suffered by some ethnic communities.
What started as a social struggle ended up occupying an important space in politics, until it degenerated into the movement wokewhich has become a sort of "catch-all" in which various topics are mixed, such as feminism, gender identity, ecology or the "culture of cancellation".
The latter is particularly aggressive, and consists of publicly pointing the finger at people for their past mistakes, whether they have actually committed them or not. Accusations of media personalities are a daily phenomenon that can be observed especially on social networks. However, they are often soon forgotten when a new target appears to be "cancelled".
Ecologism woke
Another big issue that we have "woken up" to thanks to this movement is ecology. The importance of caring for the environment is increasingly present in public debates. However, there are those who have taken this concern for the planet to an unsuspected limit, in which it seems necessary to sacrifice people for the sake of the ice in the Arctic.
While it is true that there is a logical progress in this aspect, such as the due responsibility towards nature insisted upon by Pope Francis (just read his encyclical Laudato si'), it is also true that some people take their love for the planet to an unnecessary extreme. For a couple of years now, it has been common to hear in the news that a group of young people have literally glued themselves to the asphalt of the road in a major city, or that some activists have painting a work of art that it is not to blame for the extinction of the giant yellowtail shark.
Victims of everything, victims of nothing
Victimhood is also a phenomenon of the movement. woke. As the philosopher explains Noelle MeringBeing a victim of something, anything, becomes a part of our identity. Thus, people begin to define themselves exclusively by their wounds, going on to explain every detail and decision in their life as a consequence of those traumas.
Two clear effects of this victimhood are intolerance and political correctness. In relation to the latter, it is increasingly necessary to be careful about what one says or does. Any act is liable to be politically incorrect, causing a victim to take offense. Of course, the careless person who has made such a mistake becomes a target of the "cancellation culture".
The problem is that if we are victims of everything, perhaps what happens is that there are no longer any real victims of anything.
Gender: not determined
Of course, gender ideology is an essential part of ideology woke. The latest twist is the transgender movement.
This aspect, because of its rapid degeneration, is curiously also the one that has caused many to wake up to the woke. For many people who saw this movement as just another ideology, the dictatorship of transgenderism has been the touchstone for putting the brakes on it. The deviation and destruction proposed by gender politics have removed the veil of an ideology that attacks the person itself.
Awakening from sleep woke
There are more and more people who, seeing the paths that ideology is leading us down wokeare rethinking the movement itself. Avoiding the absolute demonization of this system of ideas, there are those who seek to polish it in order to unearth the ideas that are authentic progress and discard those that are contaminated by the desire to destabilize the person.
In social networks, a territory conquered by the movement wokeIn the political arena, more and more voices are gradually being heard denouncing their lies and vices. On the other hand, in politics, parties are beginning to gain strength that renounce what they have been doing. woke. It is a battle that is still open, in which Catholic anthropology and the Christian vision of man can provide answers to the challenges posed.
