What does it mean to be 'Woke' in the Social Imagination?

 

It ain't what it looks like... 

There is an old anecdote (among anthropologists and sociologists) about how language came to be. Or, let's say when it was first used and what for? So,... the story goes like this. 

Long ago, man in his 'evolving' state, was nearing transition (from ape to man). Back then, the transitory being lived in groups with an Alpha male dominating. He of course kept a harem of females. The young males would hang round waiting for an opportunity to steal one away for themselves in order to make off with her and start a new group. 

Now, one young male spied his chance. However, lustful unity prior to departure caused them to be found out by the Alpha male who quickly charged in their direction pounding his chest and snorting. 

The younger male was terrified of such an eminent confrontation not being of very big stature. Making calculations in his yet developing mind as to the best strategy of defense, he suddenly blurted out, "It ain't what it looks likes"!

Given all the uproar, the charging Alpha male, the screaming young female and the quickly gathering of other males and females around the two lovers... the Alpha male stopped dead in his tracks. He never heard anything like that before, And, without hesitation (to his utter amazement), he apologized, "Sorry dude. Guess I saw (past tense) it differently." 

Hence, not only was language born but the first Mandela Effect (misremembering/mishearing/mis-seeing). So, what does it mean to be 'Woke' in the social imagination (agreement and disagreement in the information reality) where Mandela Effects run rampant based on all kinds of top down, sideways and grass roots circulating and re-circulating of information, misinterpretation, shared news feeds that are misread, misunderstood, misremembered and not to mention misconstrued as situations? 

Well, given that, can anyone be 'really' woke? In the case of the birth of language, we might say yes. It appeared that both the younger and Alpha 'older' male woke up. But, what did they wake up to? That is the question. There is always somebody who doesn't see it that way or someone who tells it in another way... "It ain't what it looks like". The younger male woke up to pending death scenario and the older male was led to believe a lie.

The term woke was first used in the 1940s. It has resurfaced in recent years as a concept that symbolizes awareness of social issues and movement against injustice, inequality, and prejudice. But, you see, how can anyone be truly woke if we understand 'woke' as awareness or a consciousness on a higher level if no one actually knows the truth because no one can really know the truth in context of the group; but what is one man's truth against another anyway, right?

A group can only be aware of itself when it is unified as a group through agreement... what it is and is not. In order for that to happen, we see that it requires a kind of discrimination... who/what I am/we are and who/what I am/we are/are not. 

Everyone wants to be liked and no one wants to be dissed... but, we have to realize that if someone wants to be liked, they have an idea of why they want to be liked and how they want to be liked... that's already discrimination... self-discrimination. This applies to a group as well. This is who I am/we are and who I am not/we are not. 

That is the truth of being woke... knowing this truth which is the truth of agreement reality. Is it wrong? No, its just how we as human beings exist in an information reality that requires discernment (what is and what is not) and agreement (what is through agreeing in a place).

Sure, we can agree that social issues that address injustice, inequality (younger vs. older, gender, race and many other examples) and prejudice are important and most people do agree on those topics. But, its why they agree and what they see as agreeable solutions that differ. 

Some may not even see a problem because they are living as who they are and are not. This maybe a problem for others of course. But, they also live/exist in the same truths and they agree in the same way. They have their reasons to agree/disagree and they have their solutions which differ. And, in fact, they may cause problems for others that they are not aware of because they live as who they are and are not. 

Does everyone have the right to say... "It ain't what it looks like"? Probably. Why? Because, they are not actually woke (as we virtual signal) but awake to the truth of their being in a place over time and what that means to them and their group in that place and time. They justify their position just as the young male did but the Alpha male was also justified so who was in the wrong? 

Do we create language and thus false agreement and kick that farther through social media perhaps causing a Mandela effects that is used as an advantage? Do all things happen by the strangeness of differing perspectives? Are we caught in a strange loop of information that just seems to make sense and seems to be our 'truth' as that information was acquired in a place over time by like minded people? 

What's true for everyone everywhere is that we live in an information reality that takes place in the social imagination which has a real location, an address that is geographical and cultural. Its all been agreed on over time as 'that's how it is for us' in the place where we are. Our truth thus is a process of framing of who we are and are not in a place over time. We don't go about our lives thinking/contemplating that what we do is inherently wrong or bad or purposely organized to hurt anyone... 

We all just want to live and to live as happily and as freely as we can. I suppose that's what the young male thought and why he created his defense in such an articulated fashion. It caught his aggressor off guard and that changed things up for both. Were they 'woke' to that as we might want to think? Somebody was and somebody wasn't. Its what it looks to one and not another. But, that's the nature of the beast... the information reality.

 

*Jesus Christ... He is the way and the truth!