Mysteries of the Woke Mind

I took my first university courses in the ‘70s. There were ashtrays on the desks in case you felt like having a smoke during class. Political correctness had yet to be invented, and its toxic spawn, the woke warrior, could not have been imagined. PoMo literary theory, at least in the non-elite schools that admitted the likes of me, was an entertaining novelty, enthusiastically debated over pitchers of beer in the campus pub. It was heady stuff! Once you realize that absence can be framed as the highest form of presence, you’re looking at a big new world of possibilities! In hindsight, it’s not hard to find the through-line to Woke-world and the Woke Mind. Consider a couple of scenarios, purely hypothetical of course. Scenario I: A young girl, let’s call her Muffy, is born into an Italian family, but grows up to believe she is actually an American Indian. A gifted singer and songwriter, she achieves great success and champions Indigenous human rights causes, to the extent that she finds herself on the FBI’s list of radicals and her career suffers twenty years in the wilderness. She perseveres, stays true to her adopted identity, eventually becoming, in regular minds, an iconic voice for Indigenous Rights. In the Woke Mind, she is a fraud, and must be exposed, humiliated, and stripped of decades worth of honours. Scenario II: A young boy, let’s call him Billy, grows up to believe he is actually a girl, in spite of the obvious evidence in his pants that this is not the case. In high school, with the encouragement and support of a caring community, he comes out, and switches from the boy’s swim team to the girl’s. Regular minds immediately claim he is a fraud, and demand Billy keep his willy out of the girl’s change room. In the Woke Mind, Billy is a hero, who should be celebrated for finding the courage to live his authentic life! Maybe fraud is the highest form of authenticity… or is authenticity the highest form of fraud? Either way, you can blame post-modern literary theory.