Woke is a perversion

This should be a fun one. I’m taking a class with RJ Spina and have the pleasure of working with 40+ other people similar to me in terms of our interest in self-mastery and the pursuit of spiritual growth. What makes this class so interesting to me is noticing the comments of those in the chat. It makes me realize just how different my mindset is. For example, today we had a brief aside about good and bad. RJ was talking about “good” and “bad” as being meaningless words, particularly when you are looking from the higher perspective. Absolutely true. This went on for a while and I finally posted that I tended to see things as either expansive (promoting evolution) or contractive (inhibiting evolution) while noting that both are necessary and have their place. He said this was a great answer. *blush* But to me, this type of thinking is now native. Judgements like good/bad are snapshots of a moment in time from a single perspective. Change the perspective and/or move the timeline, and the judgement is moot. Caroline Myss was the first to state this to me – judgement freezes something into position. The more I’ve sat with this, the more I agree – it’s removing it from the growth process and making it a static thing. It has Been Judged.

It was this discussion that had a thought pop into my head: Woke is a perversion. Now most folks will hear a judgement in that, but it’s not. It’s a description. The moment that description came into my head, the entire thing unraveled and I knew I had to write it down.

Ready for this?

Woke is a perversion. It’s so appealing and pulls people in because it’s wearing the robes of ‘enlightened’ or ‘awake’ thought, but it’s failing utterly to walk the talk. The very name, woke, is itself a perversion of Awakened.

This is the exact phrase that popped into my head. Let’s go through some elements and compare/contrast. Notice, this is not about bad/good – it’s about be aware, and make a conscious choice. After all, the brighter the light the deeper the shadow and without the contrast in this realm the ability to see the difference does not exist. The Woke movement is doing a fantastic job of being the darkness to call attention to light because it’s using the language of awareness. Considering that most people I am aware of who consider themselves Woke are inspired by a genuine desire to serve the highest potential of humanity, this is important. Letting people see the false to embrace the true for themselves is what I’m attempting putting my energy toward.

First up, let’s talk Diversity. DEI is the mantra, after all. For those who are paying attention to not only what is being learned about ecological health but also our own physical health, this state of health literally depends on many working together. IE, diversity. Listen to any permaculture lecture, and biodiversity is a foundational aspect. Listen to any modern farmer who is using genuine organic methods to grow food and it’s all about diversity – not only of plant and insect life but also of animal life. The single greatest contributor to restoring a depleted pasture is the COW – and it’s being horribly maligned with calls to exterminate them … for the good of the planet. *brain explodes* I’ll tell you what makes the cow ‘bad for the planet’ is modern chemical farming: We feed them corn to fatten them up, which they were not meant to digest, so their pissed off digestive system farts excessively. We cram them together in a tiny space so they are standing in mountains of excrement and require antibiotics to keep from getting sick in the short time they are in this hellscape. The resulting manure is so contaminated that it’s just more poison to be disposed of. There is nothing healthy, wholesome, or beneficial in this practice – it certainly isn’t honoring the spirit of one of our longest animal allies!! But in a holistic organic farming practice, where cows are rotation grazed on pastures – not only is their digestive system happy and so doesn’t fart any where NEAR as much methane, but their moving through the fields builds soil health in every metric used. Herds of millions of buffalo built a topsoil richness up to to 6ft deep in the midwest! (Most topsoil was measured in inches, not feet – for reference.) And don’t get me started on the BS of lab grown meat – grown from cancer cells, no less. What an insult to the natural world, to the planet! Diversity is about bringing in as much uniqueness as possible so allow for a whole and healthy system – this includes both predator and prey, expansive and contractive elements. Humanity is learning that the absence of specific gut microbes means that type of cancer, or that disease, etc. Like the world we live in, our bodies themselves require a diversity of microbes. We are even learning that some things we call ‘parasites’ are not – they only become parasites when the system is off balance. So I see Woke spouting off about Diversity, while demanding we kill all the cows and eat lab grown meat – spouting off about Diversity while telling anyone who doesn’t 100% agree with them to shut up – spouting off about Diversity while erecting rigid barriers and demanding that either these barriers be adhered to or you need to psychically torture yourself to adhere to the side they think you should be on – spouting off about Diversity while maligning and erasing anyone they don’t want to look at. And heaven forfend if anyone within the boundaries starts to disagree – immediate expulsion from the ranks. What about any of this is genuinely diverse? It’s a lie. A pretty buzzword with no follow through. When someone is genuinely Awake, at the very least, there is an understanding that different (diverse) modes of thinking are valuable. The genuinely Awake aren’t likely to consider themselves one side or the other, but recognize all sides have value and they themselves are willing to at least listen without denigrating or maligning others.

I’ve already talked about the E – Equity – and why that’s a lie as espoused in it’s current form. The genuinely Awake will recognize that it’s not our material stuff which gives us value, but rather what we do with what we have. Do you share? Do you help others attain what they need to thrive? What is the definition of ‘thrive’?

Let’s take a look at Inclusion. This is an interesting one, because – like Equity – it’s built on an old idea – Exclusion. In the case of Woke, Exclusion is the order of the day. The very focus on “the community” (take your pick as to which one that refers to) is in itself an exclusionary statement. It’s an us/them paradigm. The Awakened recognize there is only Us, that the divisions which seem apparent are actually illusions. Nationality, race, religion, sex, etc are all useful tools, and each afford unique perspectives and experiences…. heeeey, almost like genuine diversity is built right into Humanity itself. Fancy that. As above, so below. lol. And, as mentioned above in the Diversity section, there is a very strong need for the Woke to ensure that only those who are part of the cult are recognized – inherently excluding all others. How many people report that the moment they raise a critical thought, the backlash is immediate? Only the approved ideas are allowed to be included. That’s not genuine Inclusion, just as it wasn’t genuine Diversity.

Alright. So I covered those 3 tenets and why I think the Woke manifestation is a perversion of each. The biggest element of Woke is this desire to make humanity better, which I can totally be onboard with the desire to help humanity rise to their potential. But as has been stated by much better Thinkers than I, positive change is never created through negative means. In other words, you don’t get peace by hating war. I see the Woke movement hating everything, LOOKING for injustice and finding it everywhere. That seems to me to be the wrong approach from the foundation.

Judgement is the single biggest word I can think of to describe the Woke mentality in general. Intolerant is a part of that judgement approach, as is the smug self-righteousness that knows it has all the answers and doesn’t need to listen to anything else but itself. There is nothing Awakened in this. Indeed, it’s a complete perversion of what it means to be Awakened. Fortunately, Awakening can hit anyone – even the Woke. It’s not about being “wrong” – because I like the spirit that has so many thinking Woke is great (the desire to help). But Woke isn’t about helping, not really. It’s about control, and judgement is a key part of that.

My stepdaughter was considering what major she wanted to take in college. She said she was considering Social Justice, and we were like “what’s that?” This was like 2011 or so. She explained it and my jaw dropped. Nothing about what she described felt ‘good’ – felt expansive to the human condition. It felt contractive, dark, and hateful. She went on to say she received her first assignment, and said “the only thing I can find to protest…” We refused to pay for that degree. Her statement of “the only thing I CAN FIND to protest” told me that everything my emotional/energetic body was conveying to me was accurate. When there is genuine injustice, it jumps up and hits you in the face. You don’t have the go FIND it – although I 100% concede that sometimes injustice is to embedded that one must be willing to see it – usually by being willing to listen to others or by paying attention to how our energy responds to a situation (expands? contracts?). That perspective/knowledge has absolute value. But looking for it everywhere? In everything? All the time? Ofttimes, we see what we want to see – see what we expect to see. I always marveled at police, because they dealt with the worst element of humanity on a daily basis – they often get jaded and depressed, thinking all of humanity is like that. The same thing in my step-daughter’s case – here she was volunteering to train herself to look for and exaggerate the worst stuff she could find, and live there. Every day, all day. That’s not helping humanity. That’s lowering the vibration to live in separation, outrage, and anger. That shit will kill you. Being Poly Anna is likewise not helpful. The truly Awake can take in both the Dark and the Light, and this is important. They bring Light into the Darkness – how? By loving the Dark. Not reveling in the Dark, not excusing the Dark, not being permissive with the Dark. By recognizing “Darkness, you have served our journey by calling attention to this thing. It is no longer needed, and I will work to release you.” As I talked about in a recent post where I mentioned the child trafficking stuff. I will not end anything by hating it – I will love the other end of the spectrum.

Where your energy goes, that thing grows.

Hate (insert item of choice)? When you see it EVERYWHERE, and only ever see it, guess what’s getting your attention? Guess what’s growing? Where will that perspective go, where will it take me? If all I ever look at is the thing I hate, there is no positive vision for the future. There’s nothing better that I’m looking at – all I see is hate. It will consume me and as such I will not add positive energy to the trajectory of humanity. I hear some people in their righteousness and all I can think is “aren’t you tired??”

I will instead lend my energy to the positive vision for the end result – a world in which individual character matters more than our surface appearance, our contribution to the well-being and growth of those around us matters more than collecting stuff, where children can grow to adulthood in safety so they connect with who they were meant to be, and a world where humanity recognizes how we fit in with the natural world in which we live so we can compliment it best. A world in which humanity becomes the best steward possible – for itself, the planet, and all things we touch.