Opinion – Helio Beltrão: ‘Wokeism’ is the exaggeration of the awakened

In ancient Greece, even before Plato and Aristotle, the concept of “isonomy” was enshrined as the most perfect political ideal. Isonomy was the antidote that Greek democracy found against tyranny and aristocratic government, a regime of privileged people who have more rights than others. Demosthenes, a great orator, extolled the isonomy, applicable to all, which “invalidates any law that does not affect citizens equally”.

At that time, however, women and slaves remained as “sub-citizens”, without the right to vote. But the political ideal of the Greeks endured and spread slowly, under the nickname of “equality before the law”. Humanity took 2,400 years for isonomy to take effect in the free world. Now, after a little over a hundred years, we are misrepresenting the concept and crossing the line with “wokeism”.

The word “woke” (or “awakened”) means “alert and aware against prejudice and discrimination in society”. It is healthy and essential that we all empathize with marginalized, wronged, humiliated individuals. It is meritorious, therefore, to be “woke”. However, it is a problem to systematically apply the doctrine of “wokeism,” which sanctifies victimhood and assigns automatic blame based on skin tone, gender, sexual orientation, or social status.

Its premise can be translated as follows: whenever there is a proportion of leadership positions different from the population, or differences in income, it is necessarily due to discrimination.

“Wokeism” is a descendant of Marxism and its philosophy of resentment against wealthy “oppressors”. But it is even worse, as it proposes a radical egalitarianism, which overflows from resentment to hatred. It is not based on respect, cordiality, fair treatment, kindness, impartiality. It is an attitude of fury against a certain “perceived social power”, which descends into witch hunts, censorship, cancellations and public humiliation, a topic discussed here in the previous two columns.

When looking at people as Lego pieces that make up a cluster of an identity class — not as an individual responsible for their actions — there is a dehumanization, which suppresses empathy and releases uncontrolled verve. And the problem of the marginalized is not addressed, as a mere tweet does not promote concrete change. Hatred of the rich is greater than empathy for the marginalized.

The ideal of egalitarianism is, by definition, incompatible with isonomy. Their quest is an abominable dystopia, as the American writer Kurt Vonnegut illustrated at the beginning of the short story “Harrison Bergeron”: “The year was 2081 and everyone was finally equal, not just before God and the law. They were equal in everything. smarter, handsomer, stronger or faster than the others. It was an achievement of amendments 211, 212, and 213 of the Constitution…”.

It’s easy to see that, the day after a dystopian forced material egalitarianism, everyone would be different again. Free individuals will never be the same; and equal individuals will never be free. The adherents of “wokeism” do not realize the disastrous consequences of egalitarianism. Human nature, so despised by wokeism, shows that individuals have different dispositions to work, profession preferences, talents, aspirations…

The “woke” sees itself as a defender of “social justice”, but, as Hayek said, whenever “social” is added to another word, the new term comes to mean the opposite. In fact, a revanchist justice is proposed in favor of a select group.

There is actually a class with distinct rights, generating inequities and legitimized by law. It is the State, which can suppress individual liberties, steal property and print money for itself. But curiously this class is not the focus of the awakened.