Book review Understanding the woke revolution, by Pierre Valentin
Pierre Valentin set himself the goal of understanding wokeism before denouncing it, and this is a commendable attitude. He was among the first to situate the phenomenon, to describe it in its various manifestations, to alert public opinion to the fact that it was not a crisis of youthful originality but a kind of groundswell that endangered the basic principles of thought and analysis.
Pierre Valentin's book provides an original perspective on this new representation of the world, and this perspective is seductive. First of all, facts in the introduction, to alert the reader to the deleterious atmosphere that reigns in the academic world in the United States... and this is not recent! Then an excellent definition, which covers all the options of the "woke revolution". A valuable point of semantics too: who invented the term? The etymological fabrications of Policar or Dupuis-Déri are clearly undermined...
From the first chapter, an original analysis is worthy of attention: “ woke ideology is pure denial ", the author tells us (p. 29). And he demonstrates it in a meticulous and convincing way. The way in which all reflection is eliminated by wokeism, to the point of excluding debate, the way in which this "revolution" is experienced which only brings us back to the starting point, are remarkably described. The comparison of the outrageous words of the wokes with those of the pig ofAnimal Farms (Gorge Orwell), who wants to eliminate man in order to end up taking his place, is enlightening (pp. 53 sq.). The reversal of values is precisely part of this "revolution", a term taken in its primary sense. Contradictions ", I had titled an Editorial1 : but this reversal is much stronger…
Going ever further, destroying ever more, the woke revolution eats its children, like all revolutions: from neo-feminism, women are eliminated in favor of trans "women" (that is to say men), gay pride homosexuals are eliminated in favor of trans "men" (the trans friendly replaced the gay friendly, in short), of anti-racism Jews and Asians are eliminated in favor of only blacks, and so on. The avant-gardes have become retrograde… Quoting Kathleen Stock, whose book, Material Girls, will soon be published in French, Pierre Valentin reminds us that chemical castration is now offered to young homosexuals who declare themselves trans, (p. 61) while gays had succeeded, in a just fight, in having conversion therapies banned by law. And it is those who try to protect fragile adolescents who are hated for daring to advocate, precisely, what the wokes call, in a counter-intuitive way, conversion therapies.
Pierre Valentin observes and takes notes, and his analyses not only ring true, but also appear obvious once you have integrated them; the woke revolution has nothing to offer: its only objective is to destroy. The destruction of the norm is more important than the defense of the exception " he tells us on p. 52. But then, how can we live in society? It is that " We are dealing with a movement, not a community. » (p. 92)… Pierre Valentin asks other (good) questions: how is it that this strange ideology strikes and manages to convince minds that are a priori normally constituted? But it is very simple: these pleasant followers are simply afraid of losing the label of “progressive” in favor of that of “conservative”, and they push masochism to the point of castigating themselves for belonging to the white supremacist majority, necessarily supremacist, and to proclaim in chorus that, whatever they do, they will always be racist 2. He cites on p. 105 the case of a young girl who became homosexual and then transgender. in response to a feeling of shame about being white »: how can we be sure we are on the right side, that of the oppressed?
Another aspect of woke ideology is very well presented, p. 111 sqq.: that of the extreme victimization of young people (and the less young) adhering to this movement: anything attacks them, anything traumatizes them, they need safe spaces in universities where they will only find their own kind: no contradiction (since there is no debate), and ultimately no person of a different color than theirs, or of a different sex than theirs, or of a different socioeconomic status than theirs. Well locked in their cocoon, how will these young people evolve? What will they do in professional life (in case they become adults one day) if they have to work in a and cleaner open space ? The world has never been safer, and they are trembling at the thought of having to step outside and meet someone who is not like them… The era of hippies who traveled the world with a flower in their hat and an open mind to all adventures is over! Farewell, the peace and love of these odious boomers ! Everything is now subject to whining.
The consequence of this culture of victimization is the institutionalization of denunciation : "Mom, boo-boo!" I would say. Mom, in these universities, it's the Administration and all the overprotective teams that it puts in place, often within the framework of the DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion), and which controls the teaching whose content, to satisfy the narcissism of the students, must look like them… The latter demand that white poets no longer be taught, not to study more diverse ones (they deserve it), but only “so as not to make students suffer” (p. 113). The common enemy is the White man! There is no shortage of hilarious moments in Pierre Valentin’s book: how can one not laugh at the evocation of this unforgettable sequence (p. 133), which we all know, where a bearded bald man declares that he is not a man… Poor Schneidermann has lost his presence of mind3 ! How can one remain "progressive" in such a context?, he must have asked himself. As for Pierre Valentin, he asks himself on p. 140: "What is stopping Schneidermann from bursting out laughing?"
The historical evolution of this so-called "progressivism" is revealing: in 2013, the author reminds us, "blind" auditions were needed to promote "parity" (this word still existed ten years ago!); in 2020, on the contrary, they must be banned in order to diversify orchestras. Where is the quality? Where is the competence? Where is the merit? All the "left-wing" thinkers who published in Le Monde are found today in Le Figaro, and if in the United States the Republicans manage to elect their protégé at the end of the year, it will be because of the submersion of the Democratic Party by wokeness… despite Obama's warnings as early as 2019! Among the points that particularly interested me in Pierre Valentin's book – and which are not shared by all those who write about the phenomenon – is the idea that what Americans call the French Theory does not alone carry the premises of wokeism; I am convinced of the accuracy of this statement and I have always been surprised to see Foucault systematically accused... "The Foucauldians [have] gone mad", says Pierre Valentin, and I can only support this formulation - specifying that Foucault was not.
Another point to emphasize, but here I am personally not convinced, is Valentin's pessimism, which he manifests from the introduction (p. 13) by noting that " “Reassuring” virologists in the face of this epidemic of moral panic have always been wrong" and emphasizing that the phenomenon has only spread geographically and in terms of violence. I believe for my part that the world has absorbed many other fads and has recovered from them - we are not from the same generation. I think that the young activists who are fussing around in their bobocal under the complacent gaze of nostalgic adults, like the old Stalinists who were ecstatic over the spotty Mao-spontex in June 68 because they believed the "big night" had finally arrived, will disappear without leaving any more traces than the Mao-spontex... Sylvie Perez detailed in her book4 the positive signs that allow us to keep confidence, common sense being, ultimately, the most widely shared thing in the world... And these signs are increasingly found. American universities are returning one by one to abandoning the mantra diversity, equity, inclusion, to the great displeasure of the right-thinking. Because woke ideology, Valentin reminds us, is good thinking, by definition.
The book is full of accurate notations and pleasant formulations that I will let you discover. Come on, a small criticism of the author, all the same: from page 11, and several times after that, we find the expression "their skin color". I fear that this "block" skin-color, which is now found everywhere, is not essentializing: it encloses a category of people in a sort of univocal heading; I prefer "the color of their skin" which evokes a contingent character that is quite minor in terms of genomics and recent in terms of evolution, and whose only reference point is external visibility.
Pierre Valentin delivers, as he carries out his analyses, a sober but decisive bibliography: these are the books of Lasch, Murray, Manning & Campbell, Haidt & Lukianoff, and especially that of Pluckrose & Lindsay.5, a work “which brings together6, he tells us, the psychological analyses of Haidt & Lukianoff on one side, and the sociological analyses of Manning & Campbell on the other." A must-read, before or after Pierre Valentin's!
