“The Wokeing Dead.” It’s not simply a play on words. The term actually captures the essence of the woke movement.
Although the woke people consider themselves to be in tune with the latest ideas, the belief systems they embrace are an amalgam of dead ideologies. Having very little sense of history, the woke don’t realize that the ideas they just discovered a few months ago have already been tried and failed. More often than not, they failed in spectacular ways—resulting in destitution, famine, and mass murder before they were finally exterminated.
Well, “finally” might not be the best choice of words. Ideas are hard to kill—even very bad ideas. They may seem dead but, like vampires, they are merely in a comatose state, waiting for some well-meaning soul to come along and revive them.
Communism: Rebirth of a deadly ideology
Take communism. It’s a simplistic idea that treats society as an ant hill, and humans as worker ants. With the possible exception of Islam, it’s the deadliest ideology in history. According to The Black Book of Communism, the number of people killed by communist governments in the 20th century amounts to more than 94 million.
Communism also kills economies. Compare the thriving economies in Western Europe during the Cold War era to the dismal economies in communist-run Eastern Europe. Or look at the nighttime satellite photos of the Korean Peninsula. Democratic South Korea is lit-up like a Christmas tree. By contrast, communist North Korea is almost totally blacked-out with only a few tiny clusters of light.
Communist Cuba? Of those Cubans who can afford a car, the vast majority are still driving last century’s models. Venezuela? As a result of Venezuela’s relatively recent turn to communism, an estimated twenty percent of the population has left the country.
Communism seemed to have been thoroughly discredited with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Yet, thanks mainly to academics, the communist dream of a perfect socialist society was kept alive—long enough to be rediscovered in recent years by the wokeing dead who proceeded to breathe new life into it.
As a result, communism has become respectable in America. It seems to have become the default ideology for many of our educators, legislators, journalists, and even corporate leaders. Most worrisome of all, communist ideology seems to be spreading through the U.S. military. The title of a new book by Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier, says it all: Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmasking of the American Military.
Fighting racism…with racism
Not having much acquaintance with history, the woke think that they are the very first to have discovered the world’s ills–things such as poverty and racism. They seem to believe that no one before them had ever recognized these problems, or tried to come up with a solution. Because of their ignorance of history and their desire to create an instant utopia, they latch on to some of the dumbest ideas from the past. They see communism as the solution to poverty and inequality, and, ironically, they see racism as the answer to racism (perhaps because the woke have little sense of irony).
Those with even a modest knowledge of history could see that racism was dying out in America by the early Sixties. With each passing year it seemed more and more a thing of the past. Of course, like all human evils, racism will never be completely dead; but it was evident to reasonable people that enormous strides had been made in the right direction.
But some preferred to fan the dying embers of racism back to life. Despite the growing number of black mayors, black judges, black police chiefs and black CEOs, America was portrayed—particularly by the media and in the schools—as just as racist as ever. However, it was only in the last few years—after America had twice elected a black man as President—that anti-racism erupted into a full-blown mania.
Once again, it was an old idea that provided the fuel for the fire. Critical race theory, which is now taught in almost every school, university, and government agency, is portrayed as the latest advance in enlightened thinking, yet it is actually a variation on an old idea—namely, racial determinism.
In its previous incarnation, racial determinism meant biological determinism. Some races were thought to be biologically superior to others: by a process of natural selection, they had developed higher intelligence, greater self-restraint, and better judgment, and, hence, were more fit to rule over other races.
Unfortunately, the critical race theorists simply replaced biological determinism with social determinism. According to the theory, it’s not biology, but social structures that determine which races prosper. Whites are born into a social structure that privileges whites and gives them a sense of racial superiority. This bias is internalized by whites to such an extent, according to the theory, that it becomes an “inherent” bias. Like skin color, one is born with it. No matter how enlightened he may be, every white person is a racist at heart.
In both cases—biological determinism and structural determinism—one’s race determines one’s status in life. Ironically, both concepts put race at the center of the picture. Both serve to heighten racial consciousness, and both have the effect of forcing people to dwell on racial divisions. Reading the critical race theorists, one gets the impression that whites and blacks are like warring clans destined to be in perpetual conflict. If this sounds like Marx’s theory of class warfare, it’s no surprise. Remember that the woke people are enamored of communist ideas. The critical race theorists are no exception. They are deeply influenced by critical theory—a Marxist school of thought that was popular with some academics in the forties and fifties.
So, while the rest of the country was hoping to overcome racial divisions, the woke people were trying to fan those divisions into a fire. And that is literally what happened. Inspired by woke ideas about race, Black Lives Matter along with black clad Antifa, set whole blocks on fire in hundreds of cities across America.
Once again, the wokeing dead had managed to revive an old and dying idea—in this case, a brand of racial determinism that substitutes social structure for biology. In consequence, the theory of race that is currently being taught to your children is simply the mirror image of the racial beliefs held by Southern slave owners, the Ku Klux Klan and the Darwinian eugenicists of the early 20th century.
Killing off good ideas
Meanwhile, in the process of giving new life to a number of terrible ideas, the wokeing dead have been trying their best to kill off many good ideas—the kind of ideas upon which healthy families and healthy societies are built. Some woke organizations, such as Black Lives Matter, not only want to abolish the police, they also want to abolish the traditional family and replace it with …what? Well, let’s not get hung up on details. These people are very smart and very woke, and they have the backing of giant corporations. Surely, they’ll come up with some workable alternative to the family.
The other big idea the wokes would like to kill is God. They have been taught that they are the most important persons alive, and it’s difficult for them to conceive of a Being that is more important than themselves. If there was a statue of God in a park, they would try to tear it down. That’s not just conjecture. As far as Christians are concerned, Jesus is God. And many churchyard statues of Jesus have already been torn down or broken.
But in depriving themselves of God or any objective standard of good outside themselves, the woke undermine the foundations of the few worthy ideas they have, such as their opposition to slavery. The 1619 Project, which is sacred scripture to the woke, presents slavery as America’s original sin. Moreover, contrary to the historical evidence, the Project gives the impression that slavery is an invention of white people. But, even if that were true, on what basis do they condemn slavery in the first place? Why is it wrong? They can’t really say. That’s because they have stripped away all the beliefs that help us distinguish good from evil. Why do they think slavery is wrong? Simply because they think so, and because they consider themselves to be the final authority on all moral issues.
Unfortunately, the woke have been taught to believe that their feelings are the ultimate guide to right and wrong. But feelings are subject to change. If some of their leaders began to insist that whites deserve to be slaves, many of the zombified wokes would nod in agreement. Undoubtedly, some of the woke already believe that white slavery would be acceptable (as long as they themselves were exempt).
If this talk of modern slavery sounds paranoid, recall that not long ago there was much talk among liberals about what to do with Trump voters. One Democrat official in California wanted to “de-program” them, while the Principal Counsel for PBS said that the children of Trump supporters should be seized and placed in “re-education camps.” Normally, the liberal-minded wouldn’t do such things, but if they get really angry at you… well, that’s a different story.
Other people in other times could provide more solid reasons for opposing slavery than their own personal likes and dislikes. They could, for example, refer to God’s revelations in Holy Scripture. If, as the Book of Genesis tells us, we are all made in the image and likeness of God, then it follows that we have no business enslaving any of our fellow men. Or consider this passage from St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3: 28).
If you take that to heart—if all are equal in Christ—then you’ll think twice about treating another person as your inferior. If, on the other hand, you are woke—if you have no God but yourself—then there are no limits to what you can do.
In 1620: A Critical Response to the 1619 Project, anthropologist Peter Wood provides a powerful refutation of the 1619 Project. Wood points out that the foundational argument of the 1619 Project is faulty. There is no evidence, he writes, that the Jamestown settlers intended to inaugurate a system of slavery. When, in 1619, a ship with 20-30 African slaves aboard was blown off course to the Virginia shore, the captain of the privateer handed over the slaves in exchange for provisions. But, as Wood points out, the weight of the evidence suggests that the Africans were taken into the Jamestown settlement not as slaves, but as indentured servants—as were many of the white settlers who came to Jamestown, Plymouth, and other parts of the New World. The Jamestown settlers were not saints, but most of them would have been familiar with the Bible and with those verses about the equality of all men under God.
Christianity didn’t prevent the establishment of slavery in the South, but it did provide the basis for the eventual abolition of slavery both in America and across most of the world. But don’t discount the possibility that slavery may return to the West. The Judeo-Christian moral principles that made possible the abolition of slavery are under relentless attack by the woke. Far from being critical thinkers, the woke are zombie-like hunters who instinctively move with the pack. They claim to be anti-racists, yet they reject the notion that “all lives matter.” They say that “black lives matter,” but seem unconcerned when black lives are taken by other blacks. They claim to oppose slavery, but seem to have no problem when woke corporations take advantage of slave labor in China. They claim to be woke, but they are asleep to the fact that the ideas and ideologies they embrace invariably end in death and destruction. In short, it’s high time for the woke to wake up.
(Note: Peter Wood was inaccurately described as “black” in this essay. That error has been corrected.)
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Thank you for the enlightened view of the woke persons invading our great country… Like locust they devour all the touch.
Killing God, as you say William Kilpatrick, underlies their rationale to create a new religion, “They seem to believe that no one before them had ever recognized these problems, or tried to come up with a solution”. Freedom, absolute, defined by imaginatively flamboyant Catholic [catholic of the third kind neither conservative nor liberal rather pleasantly disconnected] Justice Anthony Kennedy in Planned Parenthood E PA v Casey was the impetus to Am culture for judicial sanction of no holds barred liberty, or mayhem. Interesting you speak of zombies and the obsession with zombism. My take has been that this obsession is subconscious awareness of their own spiritual demise, finding entertainment in caricatures of themselves. Once we kill God we kill what engenders life within our ordained [by God] human nature. Death in all its diabolic forms becomes apparent in the Great Cancel Culture. Kill it dead, remake it into Luciferian annihilation of what preserves life, the police, a just judiciary, a Constitutional congress, belief in Christ, belief in heroic models. Any taint requires destruction. If no taint available, invent one. If White you’re by nature racist. Chase Marx the hater of God and Man. If we abandon the very source of life Christ, we chase illusions of justice and freedom all focused on obliteration of the good, all leading to eternal damnation. Sorrow should be our response, perhaps distress for so many otherwise beautiful children of God obsessed with evil, the kind of spiritual rebellion typical of the first Rebel. Whoever wins during this melee, hopefully we can save some through prayer and sacrifice we know in the end Christus Vincit.
WOKE as not only zombies, but as SLAVE ZOMBIES…Here, something about ancient history—-as it now applies to our own society, followed by an insight into modern/woke slavery:
“[in Greece] Late marriages and small families became the rule, and men satisfied their sexual instincts by homosexuality or by relations with slaves and prostitutes. This aversion to marriage and the deliberate restriction of the family by the practice of infanticide and abortion was undoubtedly the main cause of the decline of ancient Greece, as Polybius pointed out in the second century B.C. And the same factors were equally powerful in the society of the [Roman] Empire. . . .” (Christopher Dawson, “The Patriarchal Family in History,” in The Dynamics of World History).
This from G.K. Chesterton: “[T]he Catholic Church is the only thing that frees a man from the degrading slavery [!] of being a child of his age.”
‘ Wants , Owns , Kingdom Everlasting ..’ – to be WOKE , to desire to live in The Kingdom , as in The Two Hearts ..
the contents of the article to help draw attention to the ? labor pains of humanity that senses that something is around the corner …
The Holy Father often enough exhorts us to read The Word ..yet , reading same can be painful to an extent , ? even as a sign of the working of The Spirit , as we come across all sorts of antisocial traits and all in our Family Line in the O.T ., unless brought to the ocean of His Mercy , which The Church does in Wisdom at the Holy Mass sharing of the old with The New .
Readings of O.T. today mentions how Moses was allowed to see the ‘back ‘ of God ..
? Would same have been an occasion of the hint of the scourges that The Lord was to take upon Himself in The Passion , to undo the slaveries of human hearts and generations , for the compassion through same to be given as the remedy for all times and slaveries , as ‘ Oneness in The Wounds ‘ – as in the tender words of the Holy Father .
The revelations in the Divine Will mention how The Lord was redoing all of humanity during His hidden life in Nazareth .. The unrest around us ?from that deep hunger in many , to take in that image in own lives and those around – as lives filled with Light and goodness , beyond skin tones and histories and all , as in Adam before The Fall ..
‘Jesus , I trust in Thee ‘ is the motto of the Divine Mercy devotion – a trust that our Lord expects us to grow into ocean depths , to bring all to Him , to be in His Will , to love with His Love , that can make us more than any false imaginary gods of pagan lies and ideologies , instead for the glorious destiny to desire to bring all in Oneness , to the Father’s House .. in the blessed role to bring The Precious Blood to the Prodigals as well as the enemy afflicted hearts , that they recall the virginal days of the rivers of Love as in the House of Nazareth and thus desire to do own share in same as well ..
https://www.theworkofgod.org/Devotns/Stations/meditations/meditation-passion-Jesus-Christ.asp?key=22
Blessings !
This article is a good example of one parroting the extremist right wing talking points of the moment. The thinking here is not informed by Catholic faith at all but saturated by Republican partisan ideology.
Looks like your comment is parroting “the wokeing dead”. Just study some real testimony, maybe, say:
Internal Workings of the Soviet Union – Revelations from the Russian Archives | Exhibitions – Library of Congress (loc.gov)
Also: Here is just a smidgeon to whet your intellect on another site:
Congressional Record Extensions of Remarks Articles | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
“… reluctance to remember the communist crimes might seem
an understandable human weakness–the sheer scale of communist crimes
is so vast that it beggars our power of comprehension.
Since 1917 communism has claimed at least 100 million lives, in the
Soviet Union, China, Mongolia, Eastern Europe, Indochina, Africa,
Afghanistan and parts of Latin America according to the painstaking
research of demographers.”
Possibly. Or it could just be guilty of exposing people who think like you. My bet is on the latter.
Thank you for your comment. This article is full of sweeping generalizations. Not all non-Republicans are “woke” (stupid term). And I loved the very Christian slam against Islam, really!!!
Hit a nerve, I’d say. Truth can do that.
I strongly disagree, and your lack of specifics to back up your general views is not convincing. Please supply more information that backs up your contra to Fr Morelos.
On November 5, 1936 Cardinal Eugene Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII and the then Vatican secretary of state met with FDR. FDR insisted that fascism was the greatest concern, yet Pacelli was adamant that communism was the greatest danger. Finally in utter disbelief Pacelli said: “Mr. President, you simply do not understand the terrible importance of the communist movement!” The communists knew they had completely “snowed” FDR.
In 1937 the United States was home to about 18,000,000 Catholics. Communists assessed that there were 199 Catholic Parishes in the metropolitan area of NYC with an average of 7,000 member each parish. Each parish enrolled about 500 men in the Holy Name Society and about 700 women in the Sacred Heart Society. The Communist Party stated: “Without going into any details as to how certain contacts were made, developed and finally recruited into the Communist Party, we are able to report, as will be seen later, that we now have a small number of Party members in important and strategic posts within these organizations.” (The Devil and Karl Marx, Kengor, page 189-190.) These CP members became “catholic” members and undertook to get promotions in the two societies where they then had the most influence in positions of power. My point in presenting this limited slice of history is that Communists are still gaining access in the most strategic institutions, such as, education and now most concerning as William Kilpatrick states:
“Most worrisome of all, communist ideology seems to be spreading through the U.S. military. The title of a new book by Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier, says it all: Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmasking of the American Military.” The most strategic and effective area of infiltration by the Communist Party into the institution that is sworn to protect us from enemies foreign and domestic —-gaining ranking positions in our military is truly frightening—-not only in operations on our own soil, but interaction with foreign entities. Thank you, William Kilpatrick for this enlightenment on “The Wokeing Dead.”
Ronald Reagan said: “Communism is neither an economic or a political system—it is a form of insanity.”
More than a century after Our Lady of Fatima gave us the warning, how many Catholics take heed to pray, sacrifice, give alms and repent? That is the question and —the answer.
This is an excellent article, beautifully written. I have investigated some of the writings of author Peter Wood and his attention to historical detail is impressive. Mr. Kilpatrick has impressive cultural chops as well. One detail to double check: I may have the wrong author, but the Peter Wood who wrote A Critical Response to the 1619 Project is not black.
“…(perhaps because the woke have little sense of irony.)”
Indeed.
The woke will beat the heck out of a person until that person renounces violence.
Pray for us Our Lady of Sorrows. Latifundia to the south, imperialism-colonialism to the north, a sea separating us from experiments with fascism, communism and socialism in the west and a sea separating us from traditional despotism in the east. It was a great experiment in meritocracy, individualism, collective identity in an abstract political ideal and inclusive prosperity through adherence to law – but I think it is about to collapse due to its own success. Like all human based institution of the past, sometimes from within and sometimes from without. But the truth of Jesus Christ remains and will remain in whatever form of human political construct the peoples of North America choose. I pray every day to the Holy Spirit that whatever happens to this once great nation that we faithful Catholics will be able to at least continue to live a life faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
We need to revive the wide awake movement that fell into line behind the Lincoln who validated the exceptionalism of 1776. Those wide awakes paraded as paramilitary signaling their readiness to follow their leader into whatever war might be needed to preserve the Union and incidentally oppose the slavery the Confederacy so desperately wanted to protect.
Two other time points are of interest however. 1452 the Medici influenced Nicholas V stated in Dum Diversas that Africans could be put to perpetual servitude. This understanding of Africans as “other” was grievously clinched in 1652 by the Virginia slave code that said any baby born to a slave woman would be a slave. Thus slippery sliding to the slave breeding eugenic State which simply could not let go of its nuggets of black gold, compounding every generation.
So Lincoln abolished slavery but he could not abolish the eugenic mindset that shape shifted and expressed itself so many ways into the 20th and 21st centuries. Abetted by a pope still controlled by mercantilists.
Without resorting to Americanism, we can pride ourselves not just on the “created equal” of 1776, but also on the unanimous scotus decision and the 1920s that declared the child is not the mere creature of the state, the securing the natural family for the future.
Addendum to my previous comment: the war of present must be fought with prayer and fasting.
I am not a big fan of generalities. They are necessary, but especially in this case and in certainly every case there are PEOPLE behind these ideologies. One can discover names, writings, and SUBPOENA them. I don’t believe in fighting an amorphous and undefined “enemy” (e.g. “wokeing dead”). I believe in detailed and thorough investigations in the service of lawsuits or criminal actions.
Such kinds of activities haven’t been seen since the Reece commission of the 1950s. There have been a number of congressional investigations, but that was the latest EFFECTIVE one. The others were aimed at obfuscation and deception.
This article equates and conflates anti-racism theories and movements as incarnations of marxism. This is sad and bad, scare and hate mongering rather than enlightening, analysis and call to action. White Catholics, properly guided by faith in Christ, the message of the gospel, and the social teachings of the Church, should be at the forefront of the fight against racism in the U.S.. Instead, many like this author have thought and acted against this movement against racism manifesting the DNA of far-right white nationalism.
Your perspective is uninformed and your accusations are false. Anyone who is thinking and reading about this issue seriously, understanding the content of the theories as well as the worldviews they represent, understands that antiracism is both racist and neo-marxist. That’s the simple fact. That you would support and defend a racist, neo-marxist perspective is profoundly ignorant and deeply malevolent.