Battling Wokeness: Are Most People Cowards?
MATTHEW Goodwin has a new book out, Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics, in which he describes the growing divide between the ruling elite and everyone else.
Goodwin explained in the Sun, ‘Whereas that old elite had been defined by its extreme wealth, its inherited titles and its country estates, the members of Britain’s new ruling class are defined by very different things. They are often defined by their elite education at the most prestigious Oxbridge or Russell Group universities. They are defined by their postcodes in one of the big cities or university towns, where they not only hoover up the economic gains of globalisation but tend to marry and hang out with other members of the elite graduate class who share the same backgrounds.’ Critically, in my view, he states: ‘And, most of all, they are defined by their very liberal if not radical “woke” values which they are now imposing on the rest of the country through their tight control over the institutions.’
This is why institutions from Oxfam to the Girl Guides and the Brownies and even schools are imposing gender theory on their employees and innocent children. This is why ‘schools are routinely allowing children to switch gender and not telling their parents in a mass breach of safeguarding’, according to research reported by the Times.
I agree with Goodwin’s thesis. There has always been an elite, but usually that elite has more power and wealth than others and their customs may differ a little, but it was rare that their value system differed so drastically compared with those they boss about. Goodwin also believes that ‘unless we can close this growing divide between the people who rule over us and the people who have to live with the consequences of their decisions then I for one am expecting many more revolts in the years and decades ahead’.
The question I always ask myself when I hear the latest story of ‘world gone mad’ such as how elite private schools, once seen as bastions of small ‘c’ conservatism fall over themselves to go woke, such as St Paul’s Girls’ School renaming the role of head girl as it is seen as ‘too binary’, is who makes the final decision? Which adult made this change and why?
‘The head girl of St Paul’s Girls’ School, one of the country’s leading private schools, will be known as “head of school” after calls from pupils to make the role more inclusive.’ It seems completely lost on these girls that they attend one of the least inclusive schools in the entire country. You have to find £26,000 after tax even to consider sending your little woke darling to St Paul’s so that her noggin can be filled with even more woke nonsense. There are lots of other examples of the all-consuming woke madness engulfing most cultural institutions, every HR department and every school up and down the land. The question is, why is this happening? Ultimately there is an adult in charge of these institutions who must make the decision to Go Woke.
I offer the following explanations. First, the speed of these changes certainly could not happen without the internet. Only the existence of the internet can explain how gender ideology, which until recently was confined to some God-awful Wimmin’s or Gender department in some God-awful university in the United States has managed to cross the Atlantic and filter all the way down to Oxfam, the Girl Guides and St Paul’s Girls’ school.
But in terms of why do grown adults go along with this stuff, I suspect that many who should know better, who should be guardians of the cultural heritage and tradition, want to be part of the elite and believe to enter the elite and stay there, you must go woke. Further, if you want an easy life, it seems easier now just to go woke. Most people just want a quiet life so they go along with stating their pronouns. What’s to lose other than your dignity?
The third issue is how the media, totally corrupt and in some cases borderline Satanic, have campaigned hard to push cultural conservatism to the sidelines, by either mocking it as feeble on one hand or downright dangerous on the other. That’s why Kate Forbes, Christian of the SNP, was painted as a ‘dangerous extremist’ for having what once were majority views on sexual ethics. This destruction of cultural Christianity has created a vacuum which has been filled by the woke nonsense.
Another problem is that Goodwin is right in that the New Woke Elite totally dominate the culture. Those who would be naturally conservative unfortunately also like to make a lot of money, so they are in the City and banking, sometimes found wearing their rainbow lanyards, because you know it’s just easier to go with the flow and have a quiet life and I have a meeting at the club later on so please don’t bother me with all this culture war stuff.
These conservatives were always more ‘economically conservative/social liberal’ types anyway and can’t be bothered to get into any positions of power where they could stop the oncoming woke juggernaut. That kind of thing – participating in your local school or community – takes time and is often unpaid and interferes with skiing trips. This means those who do want to impose their woke world view on the rest of us assume positions of power and use their power to bring about changes they want to see.
Finally, very similar to the quiet life argument is cowardice. A lot of people are cowards. Even if they are part of ‘the silent majority’ they do not want to have any pushback or hassle from the noisy, bossy minority. And remember, it is only ever the activist minority who get things done. I don’t see any ‘revolt’ that Matthew Goodwin thinks is coming on the horizon. Someone might call you a nasty name on Twitter, so best to watch something on Netflix instead.
Unless people are willing to offer a counter value system to the woke culture (it used to be Christianity and still could be) and are willing to gain positions of power either locally or nationally (I think the local is far more important) the minority woke views will continue to be imposed from the top down. Without vocal pushback the future will be very bleak indeed. Source: TCW – Defending Freedom…
Editor writes…
The author of the above article claims that “a lot of people are cowards” when it comes to battling wokeness. I say most people, the majority are cowards, including so-called people of faith, including so-called Catholics. Your thoughts…
Comments (15)
Of course he is correct. We are cowards. We might be up for actual martyrdom as in being dragged through the streets in chains before being hung in the town square. We were prepared for that by Confirmation. That kind of martyrdom is a bit on the glorious side. It requires traditional bravery to stand in a court and speak up for the Faith, knowing that it will end in blood, pain and death.
We were not prepared to be arrested for standing outside an abortion clinic holding a placard, getting wet in the rain, while the placard lettering dissolves in blurred ink. Our thoughts all the time on whether we will be fined or jailed. If our employer finds out, and they will, could we be sure that we will not be fired?
We were not prepared to be abandoned by our priests and bishops.
It’s a funny kind of martyrdom.. Lose your job, lose your house, lose friends (if someone with your views has any), go hungry, sleep in the streets… Our picture won’t be on any Mass cards.
Antoine,
Until you’ve been in the position of wondering how to pay for the roof over your family’s head because you refused to deny the Faith in some or other aspect and so lost your job, I wouldn’t discount that type of martyrdom.
Antoine Bisset,
We were not prepared to be abandoned by our priests and bishops.
I think if we’d all paid more attention to the Fatima prophecies, we would have been prepared to be abandoned by our priests and bishops. Reading stuff by, e.g. Christopher Ferrara about the Vatican withholding of the third part of the message, the Third Secret, would have helped us to realise what was going on and what is still going on.
I do agree with you that we are not likely to face martyrdom of blood, too willingly. We are a “wet” generation, IMHO.
Josephine,
I think you are meaning Ferrara’s book The Secret Still Hidden, which you can read online by pdf at the Fatima Center website.
https://fatima.org/books/the-secret-still-hidden/
If we had paid better attention to what was going on there, as you say, we’d have read the signs of the times in what the clergy were doing and not doing.
I haven’t read his book, but Mr. Goodwin apparently leaves out the spiritual cause of this race to the bottom: the Catholic Church, under the occupation of its enemies, has abandoned its post as the foundation, anchor and guide of society, and in fact willfully joined in with the degradation and dissipation of the civilization it founded.
So without said foundation and guide – one might even now say, without a soul – the destruction can do nothing but pick up speed towards its inevitable conclusion: anarcho-tyranny. Hell on earth.
Referring back to the previous thread, Donald Trump and his followers – who actually constitute a clear majority among American voters – did push back against this depravity during his presidency, and this is a primary clue that explains his endless persecution by the wicked forces of the left.
The reviewer refers to the use of pronouns by the woke. I’ve lately noticed a rapid increase in this practice in email signatures from government bureaucrats, their affiliated nonprofits (so-called NGOs), and the “arts” community. Their signatures usually look something like this:
Name
Title
(she/her) or (he/him/his)
I’ve been sorely tempted to add a signature of my own when I reply to these sad sacks. At first I considered “(He created them male and female)” but I decided that was too obvious. I think I’m going to try “(fee-fi-fo-fum)” just to mock them. And maybe mocking this insanity is a good way to start resisting it. The devil hates to be mocked.
RCA Victor,
During the Covid restrictions, I wrote to my MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament) a few times about the various issues, and I took to adding the following to my signature…
I’m not vaccinated. I am trans-vax. I identify as a vaccinated person. Please respect my choice. Thank you.
No response to that, but I will admit, he always replied to my
moansemails 😀On topic: I agree with your insightful comment about the spiritual roots of this woke nonsense. Absolutely.
My God you are lucky ED if you got through to an MSP .
I think I said before that I tried to contact mine but was given an answer back by Her assistants assistant. Saying that said MSP was extremely busy ( although She still WORKED from Home ) I sent an Email back saying that She was a remarkable Woman who could get through so much work and yet was able to take 20Weeks Holidays a Year. Of course I never got an answer. Next time I send an Email al say that I am a Woke IT Male. Maybe then Al get an answer.
Not only are most people cowards, IMHO, but most people are keen to be seen to be on the same side as the woke or whatever the latest fashionable label is.
For me, the biggest nonsense in that report was the decision to change Head Girl to Head of School – and since this is an all girls’ school, the nonsense should be self-evident. How stupid can they be to sit round a table to discuss such a ridiculous idea that somehow, in an all female building, in all girls’ school, it is wrong to appoint someone as head girl? To call them stupid is too charitable!
The Woke garbage in the U.K. has certainly not reached my Village ( at least not yet ) am I a coward. Personally I haven’t stood outside an Abortion Center. But I certainly make sure as far as I can that the Transgender Brigade Especially will not Tamper with my Grandchildren. Av said it before. If any of them come near my Granddaughters then they get their Operations Free.
Would I be willing to go to Prison to uphold and defend them .Yes I hope I would. As for the next Pride Gathering and March ,why don’t we organize an Anti Pride March and maybe call it a Humble Parade. Surely their is nothing Anti Woke about that.
Also it’s no wonder that President Putin wants nothing to do with the West. It’s also imperative that we don’t go with this Woke Language. We know how easy the Alphabet Mob changed overnight from Homosexuals to LGBTQ2WXYZ.
I am certainly not going to call a Man a Woman nor use their Garbage Pronouns.
FOOF,
A few short years ago, a group of us stood outside the City Chambers, opposite George Square, and began praying the fifteen decades of the Rosary, at the same time that the “Pride” parade was starting off from the west end of the city (I think – a good distance, anyway). We had also distributed copies of the full St Michael’s prayer (not just the short version which the priest prays at the end of the TLM) and sprinkled holy water everywhere. Throughout, there were two policeman close by chatting to each other. A number of passers-by joined us. As the parade came closer, there was a tangible aura of evil around, and everyone present spoke about it afterward. Utter evil. We finished with the St Michael’s prayer and as we did so, the parade passed really close to us, their floats containing immodestly (to put it mildly) dressed people, one them dressed up as Cardinal O’Brien (keen to have a photo taken with us – refused).
As we finished praying, one of the two policemen who had been chatting to each other throughout, turned, looked us straight in the eye and… smiled. A lovely wide smile.
So, thank you for your suggestion but, as you can now see, there really is nothing new under the sun – at least not the sun over George Square 😀
Editor,
I remember that event so well. It was incredible. The feeling of evil was almost overwhelming but our Rosary beads were like crutches, keeping us stable.
What was incredible was that we didn’t receive any abuse. Our Lady was clearly looking out for us. I wonder what would happen these days if we did something like that again because things have become manifestly worse since then.
Petrus,
I’m pleased that you remember the event and yes, I hadn’t actually noticed that we didn’t receive any abuse. Amazing when you think about it – not only no abuse, but people joining us and policemen smiling at us. Deo gratias!
N O T I C E . . .
Apologies, I should have reminded everyone that we always close the blog for the duration of Holy Week.
As from tomorrow, then, the blog will be closed to comments, and will re-open on Easter Sunday.
I think it’s important that we connect the woke insanity to what Mao Zedong did in China after he took over: a “cultural revolution,” in which much of the past was erased and replaced with narratives, mottos and images of “the People’s Party.”
What is happening in the West is the same cultural revolution, with different accidentals, but it digs much deeper, into our very biological identity. Tearing down statues of historical heroes, changing the names of sports teams, cities, streets and buildings – all under the guise of not “offending” anyone – is all part of the same strategy and agenda as redefining gender.
The idea is to leave modern man rootless and adrift in confusion, with no past, and a future dictated by the Satanists who have the nerve to call themselves “elites.”
The Church has been subjected to this same cultural revolution – now, with Francis, no longer with subtlety but in full, open view. These attacks against Tradition, starting with Traditiones Custodes, (actually, starting with the Mass of Paul VI) are the same process as pulling down statues, etc. Tradition proves that the Vatican II revolution is a fraud and a subversion, therefore Tradition must be silenced and exterminated.
The Church rests on the twin pillars of Tradition and Scripture. If Tradition is exterminated, what does that leave us with? Protestantism.
In any case, I wish all our bloggers a blessed Holy Week.
RCA Victor,
All well said and plenty of food for thought, as we head into Holy Week.
It’s almost 11pm over here in the UK, so I’ll wish everyone a very peaceful Lent and close the blog to comments. I will, as usual, post a reflection thread, but for now, until Easter Sunday, goodnight and God bless.
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