The cultural phenomenon conveniently referred to as ‘wokism’ in the United States, replaces a fight for systemic, structural change with a focus on changing the viewpoints of individuals. Rather than challenging the power of Wall Street, the City of London, or the lying intelligence agencies, or working to implement a new paradigm of economics capable of delivering an infrastructure and economic renaissance, the demands of the ‘woke’ movement are much smaller.
This means of social control, in terms of shaping what people focus on, follows decades of changes in pop psychology that have increasingly focused on individual “nudges” or small changes in behavior to gain an “edge” in life. Small successes, like that of the UK’s “Nudge” getting people to pay overdue taxes, were used to oversell a type of economic intervention that was inherently limited. You can’t “nudge” your way to a high-speed rail network, or “microfinance” a robust public health system.
