Made in America

Isn´t wokeness a very American phenomenon, when you think about it? Quintessentially American, even. 

First, it´s unabashedly individualist. The self-made individual can become whatever he likes. Or she. Or "they". Second, the idea that one should remake oneself is part and parcel of US political and cultural genetics. At least it became part of it at some point. The United States has never (?) been a real nation, but a kind of neologism, constantly changing its spots every 20 years or so. Third, the Messiah complex. Fourth, the purges. The United States has always oscillated between free speech and tar-and-feathers. So that too is very American, indeed. You could of course see it as a kind of pseudo-American mutant, but isn´t the entire history of the US the story of such mutations? 

More disturbingly, perhaps, you could see the woke thing as "mutant modernity". Individualism is a Western thing, "West" as in Western Europe and its derivatives. So is the drive for unlimited expansion. The idea of the lone heroic genius with the mad ideas that turn out to be correct are, I assume, also Western. In a slightly mutant form, perhaps this leads to wokeness and the quest of the lone madman to constantly push the limits of normality. What should be done about it, and how? That is, I suppose, an interesting question. 

I prefer the Social Democratic model myself, but being itself a species of modernity, it might not survive its demise...