Where does Woke Culture come from?

A few days ago I watched a video of Dr David Starkey, the historian talking about modern day woke culture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSLZHnpt-RQ

French Revolution

As he put it into historical context he talked about the French Revolution in the 1790's when Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire etc. tried to start the world all over again.

Did you know that they introduced 10 hours/day, 10 days/week, 10 months/year. They also divided France into 100 regions, all in addition to the much loved metric system we enjoy today.

As they scrapped the monarchy they threw out all influence from the church and it finished with a barely clothed actress performing as the Goddess of Reason on the alter of Notre Dame.

Later Revolutions

Starkey went on to talk about the Industrial Revolution in the 1840's, the Marxist Revolution in the 20th Century and the Liberal Revolution of the 1960's.

The Industrial Revolution changed working living and family arrangements which had been in place for centuries. The church was replaced as centre of life by the factory.

The Marxist Revolution in Eastern Europe put the state at the centre of life. The individual lost dignity in a search for collective solidarity in the struggle of life. Some continue this same struggle today.

The Liberal Revolution in the 1960's was a little different in that it was primarily a search for persona freedom facilitated by easy contraception, available abortion and drugs. Whilst self pleasure was at the root of this liberal movement, there was a willingness to co-exist with those who didn't wish to explore the new found delights enjoyed, initially by the young. The emphasis was on "tolerance" of those with different lives and by this we understood, politeness, and peaceful co-existence.

Today

The most significant point to me was that in his opinion, these revolutions were primarily religious revolutions. God was thrown out and replaced by Reason. And, Reason come with an obsession with Self, personal freedom and then identity. To have freedom now means freedom to decide on an identity, irrespective of any objective truth. And to be woke implies that identity and its fulfillment is one's principal objective in life. After all, is there any such thing as absolute truth in our post-modernist world.

Starkey had an interesting take on today's Woke Culture which he believes is just as daft as previous revolutions, but has the same root. A preoccupation with self, identity and personal freedom is replacing God, church, monarchy and all the other institutions we value and trust. WOW ! ! !

David Starkey is not a Christian believer but a very well respected secular historian. Interesting that he sees today what Pro Christians have been saying over the last few years. As an Amateur Christian I better believe them.

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSLZHnpt-RQ

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