William Franke, researcher at Vanderbilt University: "The 'woke' ideology is related to the feeling of guilt, especially among young people".

"The root of Woke ethics, culture and ideology is related to the feeling of guilt, especially among young people, in a world that is so terribly unfair. And we are much more aware of it," explains Professor William Franke, Full Professor of Comparative Literature and programs of study Religious at Vanderbilt University (USA). The researcher visited the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), in the framework of the ICS 24-25challenge "Orientalism and Occidentalism: intersecting views". During his stay, he gave three seminars, one of them graduate 'From Revolution to Religion: The Woke Revolution's Founding of Social and Political Power on a Religion of Victimhood', in which he reflected on the Woke culture.

For the academic, another reason for the expansion of this ideology is to be found in technological development and new communication channels: "Communications have made us much more aware of each other and of social class differences. We no longer live in our own isolated sphere. Inequalities become more evident and communication travels much faster. The woke movement has a lot to do with the acceleration of communication and technology".

However, he stresses that "virtue signaling" is the deeper cause of the flourishing and rise of this culture: "It seeks to demonstrate that one has nothing to do with slavery, imperialism and colonialism. And it denounces all that in order to embrace the ideals of freedom and equality for all. There is a very strong need to identify with virtue, perhaps especially among young people. That's where I think the woke movement gains its momentum." In this regard, he stresses the importance of Christianity, as it "proclaims the equality of all human beings": "We live in a Christian culture. And, of course, this is based on defending the victim, on taking the victim's side. Now, I think most of the woke voices are probably not aware. Christianity belongs to the culture that they are now overthrowing."

University Campus

Franke teaches at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, in the southeastern United States, where the Woke movement has made a special impact. The professor explains that this new wave has opened up new possibilities for discussion in the university context around issues such as race, class and gender, as well as meritocracy. However, it has also provoked, in turn, "political consequences that run counter to freedom and openness". It has become a kind of ideology, what we sometimes call liberal orthodoxy, a religion to which everyone must conform." And he laments other negative results: "The traditional philosophical canon has begun to be viewed with suspicion. In its place, a kind of new canon has been established, or at least a list of recommended and even obligatory readings, and the tradition is discarded: Plato, Aristotle, Kant and Hegel. That is really a pity and constitutes another subject of imbalance".

The arrival of Trump to the White House, in the words of the expert, changes the status that this ideology has been occupying in the United States since the Obama era: "Now Wokism is on the defensive. It no longer occupies the highest position in power". In this sense, he points out that "the real problem here is the disconnect, the inability to dialogue between opposing sides. And that is getting worse, not better. Trump's aggressive style is driving all of his opponents to become even more entrenched." Franke will publish a book this spring on the ethics and politics behind the woke culture.