A Reflection on Society’s Moral Decay
The recent graphic evil of the last few days has really gotten to me.
The unprovoked, senseless murder of a young woman, Iryna Zarutska, on public transportation kicked it off. We saw everything. Her sitting quietly, minding her own business, and a crazed black man reaching from behind her and jabbing a pocket knife into her neck. For literally no reason. We saw everyone around her glance up from their phones, then pretend like they didn’t see anything. The Ukrainian bled out and died surrounded by an apathetic America. This scene a microcosm of our rawest self.
The second was the shooting of Charlie Kirk. More blood spirting from the neck, this time from the bullet of a rooftop assassin. Charlie was a man who simply debated – asked you to explain your convictions. He held no political power, commanded no armies, had no fortune. But he could persuade. He could communicate. And he tried at life.
We are badly, badly broken.
Our culture is rotten. Our society is divided. Our government is corrupt. Our individuals are weak.
I worry we are too far gone, beyond the point of being able to help ourselves. The gangrene has spread, and now in order to survive we must amputate. An entire population, an entire ideology needs to be corrected — yet they’ll no longer debate ideas. Only kill you for them.
I’ve never, earnestly, used the word evil to describe things that exist in our tangible reality. Likewise, I’ve never seriously used the word blessed. Each ascribe divinity and forces beyond comprehension. But I truly have no other way of describing Western society since COVID-19. If there is one word that sums it up, that truly touches upon its profound depth, it’s evil.
The Enlightenment Is Dead.
I don’t know how to solve this. Usually I can come up with some sort of path, even if it’s unrealistic. I don’t know how you compromise with someone who won’t speak to you and there’s nothing materially that you can offer them. The ability to persuade through logic, reason, common good, or material comfort are not starting points. All enlightenment values have been rejected.
Instead, the Woke faction demands compliance and adherence to their world-view, which oftentimes is antithetical to civilization or the human experience. It’s not enough to adopt a libertarian political stance — allowing to each be their own — but Woke demands acceptance, celebration, and priority from all. They don’t consider you as an equal, but rather a "privileged" vassal (the worst of derogatory slurs) that owes your support to their system. If you disagree, they call you a racist, a misogynist, a fascist – words aimed to destroy your ability to survive in society — or, if that doesn’t work, eliminate you entirely. Threats, contradictions, and questions of their ideology will not be tolerated.
Conservative Wrath
The problem is that the words I’m using will be the same used to justify an over-correction or the far right’s own evil. If there wasn’t fascism before, there could be now. History is filled with conservative wrath, and I’m concerned it will match the Woke left step-for-step into devolution. That’s how these things work. But what are decent people supposed to do? We can't keep letting extremist kill us. We can't continue to allow activists to dismantle civilization.
The arguments of the Woke left “sound” compassionate. On the surface, what they say appeals to how we hope an idealistic society could be. However, even their best and brightest have never articulated how that could be achieved — even going as far to invent deconstruction and critical theory as to not have to answer the question. Because they can imagine a utopia, they reject reality – along with anything that pulls them from their delusion.
The Reality of the Situation
Rather than accepting reality – the species, race, gender, and sexual orientation you were born into – Woke abandons the precedent of all human existence and claims everything is a construct. All natural born attributes are fluid and fictitious. These objective qualities are just ideas that the evil white man invented to oppress the rest of the world. In turn, being the righteous Woke crusaders that they are, they reject these shackles and condemn all who abide by them. If you don't participate in the new Woke world-view, you are the epitome of bigotry and need to be silenced. If you deviate from Woke ideology, you are the one who is hateful.
This deterioration of reality was spawned by critical theory and adopted by the educational system. It's a rejection of all objectivity. Why? In short, because Woke wants a new societal structure. Their problem is that Western values are so successful that they can't convince a free-thinking population to abandon them. And, if you can't win the argument with ideas, you must change the system supporting the way people think – education.
The more outlandish, the more Woke values stray from reality, the more precious the individual becomes among their peers. It means that they've broken the system. They've destroyed your values and the structure of your institutions — and there's a particular joy when they've convinced you to submit.
No Longer Appeasing Evil
I’ve stayed very quiet. I’ve kept my mouth shut for years. When I write, I tried to do it in a way that could appeal to everyone. No matter what your background, or ideology, you could gain something. I could bring you to a common perspective and away from your own.
With that said, Woke is bad for society and I’m no longer going to appease the evil within it — writing for a faction that wants the principles of humanity and pillars of civilization destroyed. I’m not going to elevate these personalities or provide them with a “safe space”. In fact, I hope they feel incredibly uncomfortable. I hope they feel judged. I hope they feel shame. Ultimately, I hope they still feel some sort of pull from within their humanity that compels them to self reflect – and that reflection shapes them into a better version of themselves.
The voices of the Woke left no longer influence how I interpret or regulate myself in the world. I’m no longer using their “morality” to judge or censor myself. Woke is not the yardstick or benchmark upon which members of our society will be remembered.
In fact, the more I reflect upon it… if Woke extremists did resonate with what I had to say, I’d really feel the need to re-evaluate the purpose of my work.
