Have We Reached "Peak Woke"?
Where it's been, where it's going.
Wokism is a religious phenomenon of egalitarianism, androgyny, populism, democracy, and victimology. Victimology appears early in human cultures in the rituals of scapegoating and sacrifice, especially in human sacrifice. The Indo-European crusade against human sacrifice is mythologized in the struggle against the Minotaur, Python, Typhon, the Titans, Medusa. One of the most obvious examples is the slaying of the sea monster Cetus by Perseus to save the princess Andromeda. In each case, the “monster” represents the Woke spirit of the serpent or dragon1 which scapegoats the beautiful, the young, and the well-turned-out.
Wokism also includes drug use, including alcohol and psychedelics. These are used to blur social boundaries, including those around class and sexuality. Androgyny specifically is associated with population density and the "longhouse" phenomenon of settled agriculture, as shown in the Calhoun rodent experiments.2
Wokism far precedes any identifiable religious doctrine, including Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Egyptian or Vedic religion. Wokism may have existed since the dawn of Homo Sapiens, but at the very least was present during Jean Gebser's stage of "Magical Consciousness." Wokeness may either be a product of agriculture, or could possibly precede it, as hunter gatherer tribes have been recorded with all the requisite elements.
Those four traditions — Zoroastrianism, Judaism, the Coptic and Vedic — all have elements of drug use (soma, ritual use of wine), androgyny or bisexuality (sometimes expressed as celibacy), frenzy or hysteria (the Holy Spirit, the tearing of clothes), and scapegoating (sacrifice). However, a tension exists within each of these traditions between Wokism and the Apollonian element, which expresses the opposite tendency: strict hierarchy based on competence, monarchy, strict sexual dimorphism or monogamy, and hero-worship.
Christianity began as a Woke religion, with eunuchry, "spiritual circumcision," asphyxiation through extended baptism to achieve hallucinations, the destruction of social classes, and its central worship focusing on Christ as the ultimate victim. Christianity's unique success among the Romans was precipitated by a social crisis of nihilism, consubstantial with the crisis of authority in the late Republic and early Empire. Rome's ethnic identity was under siege, with Caesar flooding the nobility of the senate with his Gallic allies. Rome, which was based on gens, or tribe, was dissolved in ethnic confusion and lost its identity. This gave rise to spiritual nihilism and chaos, which occurred simultaneously with the nihilism of early Christians, who were Hellenized Jews who fit neither in Greek nor Jewish society. Christianity was uniquely successful because it provided a fanatical faith-based foundation of identity for both Hellenized Jews as well as inter-mixed Romans.
By the time of the 4th century, Germanic tribes began to assimilate more and more into Roman culture, and were also threatened increasingly by Slavic, Iranian, and Hunnic invasions from the east. These pressures produced similar degeneration among the Germanic elite. In Rome and Judea, it was the ethnically mixed, slaves, and soldiers who had the greatest identity crisis. By contrast, in Germany, it was the elite who were in the greatest crisis, and who were the first to convert. The introduction of Roman law and the Latin script posed a huge threat to the traditional German identity, but this threat was not felt among the common people. The conversion of the Germans came from the top down, from the elites down to the masses.
Christianization was ultimately successful and provided the basis for a new pan-European identity. For centuries, the Bishopric of Rome was infiltrated and intertwined with old Roman aristocratic families. These families were the ethnic core of the Roman Empire and sought to reestablish the Roman Empire by covert means. This was not the first time. Emperors such as Vespasian and Constantine both used Christianity, knowingly or cynically, as a tool of population control. After the fall of the Roman armies and legal system, the Roman aristocracy sought to reestablish themselves through the Bishop of Rome. Toward this end, the papacy sent out legates, evangelists, and missionaries to far flung territories, such as the English Mission in 497. These attempts successfully reestablished Roman influence and control over the former empire through the more subtle influence of canon law and religious administration. Such an empire was not ruled by military force as Rome was, and was directed by a bureaucracy of priestly administration rather than Caesars. However, it remained ethnically and historically continuous. The 5th century, in this view, can be seen as Rome's transition from explicit military rule over Europe to implicit priestly authority.
In Byzantium, Rome became Hellenized, and this Hellenic Empire continued to have an independent military class for a thousand years. Under such circumstances, the Emperor and Church maintained a more balanced, integrated, and harmonious relationship, as reflected in the stability of the Imperial-Church throughout the Orthodox world, especially in Russia. In this sense, Byzantine or Orthodox Christianity was more stable, and less "woke" than in the west.
As the papacy sought to increase its influence over Europe, it found itself in repeated conflicts with the Germanic aristocracy. The most dramatic peak of this conflict prior to Protestantism was during the Investiture Contest. The conflict between papacy and emperor mostly centered on moral issues, such as the spiritual hierarchy of the aristocracy, corruption (simony), and clerical marriage. The Pope declared that the emperor was lower in the spiritual hierarchy than a common priest (on the same level as an "exorcist") and therefore could not appoint bishops. The attacks on simony and clerical marriage were attempts by the Pope to prevent church positions, especially the position of Bishop, from falling outside the purview of Rome. If the position of Bishop could be bought or sold, then Rome had no control. If priests had children who could inherit church property, then this property would fall outside the hands of Rome. As Rome tightened its hold over church property, it gained control of over 10% of Europe's most economically productive real estate. The papacy had a monopoly on education through the cathedral school, a monopoly on media and book production, a monopoly on art through the commission of icons and church architecture, controlled much of the wine trade through extensive vineyards, owned significant numbers of sheep and the production of vellum, and many other crucial industries.
The stranglehold and insatiable lust for power of the papacy was extremely concerning to the Emperors and Kings, especially of Germany, who appointed anti-Popes to counter the influence of Rome. Eventually, however, these anti-Popes were put aside in favor of Rome. The tenacity of centuries destroyed national resistance and centralized power in Rome. When early proto-protestants began to complain about church corruption and abuses (John Wycliffe and John Ball in 1381), local aristocrats essentially ignored them and crushed them. However, as time went on, aristocrats began to resent the overreach of Rome, and became increasingly sympathetic to anti-Roman attitudes, even if these attitudes were also anti-aristocratic or "Woke." Martin Luther's success was not due to the fact that he opposed Rome. Luther’s anti-Romanism was no innovation, since there were many Humanists who complained about corruption and dogmatism. Luther's innovation was not ideological or theological, but rather his ability to make common cause with the nobility and aristocracy. During the German Peasants Revolt, Luther, unlike his fellow anti-Roman reformers, did not side with the peasantry, but rather with the German aristocracy. Therefore, the aristocracy viewed him as a great ally against Rome, who would loyally defend their interests, but also mobilize the masses of the peasantry in their favor.
Thus, Protestantism was a "taming of the woke," which began earnestly by 1380, but was systematically suppressed by the nobility until the 16th century, when Luther began his grant syncretism of Germanic aristocracy and anti-Catholicism. Just as cynically, Henry VIII, who had previously been a defender of Catholic conservatism, found the church to have overstepped and to have conspired against him. He found many Bishops like Luther, who were willing to support the nobility while at the same time mobilizing fanatics and ideologues in his service. As in Germany, English Protestantism began as a nationalist, populist, but also as moralistic and woke. It is accurate to say that the Puritans and Levellers, who were unleashed on England by Henry VIII, represent the Woke left of that time.
The Foundations of Freemasonry
In summary, Wokism is a primordial religious phenomenon which precedes any particular religious tradition. However, within the Christian tradition, Wokism first arose as a tool of the Papacy to wrest authority from the Germanic princes. Later, these very same princes used Wokism cynically to wrest control back from Rome. Already in 1380, Wokism was already ripe, with crazed Bolshevik preachers demanding the genocide of the nobility and prophesying the establishment of a Kingdom of Heaven. Without the support of the warrior class, however, these Wokists were massacred. With the support of the English and German nobility, the genocidal tendencies of Wokism gained a military force with which to execute regicide. The result was a disaster for both sides, including the 30 Years War and the massacre of the Huguenots.
During this period, European monarchs such as Rudolf II became increasingly skeptical of both Roman Catholicism as well as Woke Protestantism. Rudolf saw both of them as politically unsavory and wished to construct a new universal European religion which would be freed of petty partisanship and also the evils of excessive moralism and fanaticism. While there is no direct line linking Rudolf with the establishment of Freemasonry, Rudolf's interest in Jewish Kabbalah, Platonism, alchemy, astrology, and magic, as well as his Enlightened and tolerant views on religion, were all the ingredients which would later coalesce into Freemasonry.
Freemasonry became the dominant political force in France and Britain by the 18th century, and precipitated both the American Revolution and the French Revolution. By the 19th century, Freemasons in Italy and Germany fought for nationalist revolutions, which were simultaneously opposed to the decrepit aristocracy, as well as the sclerotic church. Freemasons such as Giuseppe Mazzini and Bruno Bauer fought ideological conflicts to destroy the power of the monarchy and the church, to establish new Enlightened nations based on the ideals of Republicanism. These were the currents out of which Marxism and Anarchism emerged during the 1848 Revolutions.
While Freemasonry originally began as a Protestant-aligned movement against Catholicism, it was eventually so successful that it began to turn inward, against Protestantism itself. Whereas Catholicism was the dominant religious power in Europe in 1600 (with only England and Germany standing in opposition), the success of Republicanism and secularism resulted in the toppling of most Catholic monarchies by 1931. France, Spain, Italy all lost their Catholic leadership, being replaced by leftists or fascists. Austria-Hungary was divided into a number of petty rump states. Political Catholicism was fought in Germany by both the Marxists and National Socialists, the latter of which were a splinter-group of Freemasons who had fallen out of "communion" with other Freemasonry rites due to their antisemitism.
In this political environment, the crusade against Catholicism and monarchy which had animated the Freemasonry of the 19th century was replaced by a crusade against fascism and national socialism. In this sense, Freemasonry became so dominant that it began to turn in on itself, or speciate into competing factions: the Anglo-American faction, lead by FDR (initiated as a Freemason in 1911) and Churchill (initiated in 1901), and the German faction of the Thulegeschaft. Despite their extremely violent conflict over the role of Jewish power in the Freemasonic hierarchy, both factions were essentially anti-Catholic and had liberal and tolerant views on religious pluralism, evolution, and science.
After 1945, Freemasonry declined and became a fraternity of the elderly. It lost its revolutionary zeal, and victory in war became the defeat of its spirit. Instead, the Cold War became the dominant global conflict between two groups: the Marxists, represented by Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Gorbachev; and the liberals, represented by Eisenhower, JFK, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan. Both of these groups were dedicated to religious freedom, political secularism, economic utilitarianism, racial equality, and ideological anti-colonialism. Both sides of the Korean War and Vietnam War saw themselves as fighting colonialism; either capitalist colonialism or Marxist imperialism.
The Death of Communism
The death of communism in the 1980s was precipitated by two causes. Firstly, the communist leadership was remarkably old and ossified, incapable of evolutionary dynamism. Secondly, the west successfully infiltrated the Soviet government, using agents like Yeltsin, but also a concentrated Jewish or ethnically mixed force. Many of these Jewish oligarchs were involved in the killing of hundreds of people during the Aluminum Wars, where murders were used to extort control of Soviet assets into private hands:
In the words of Roman Abramovich, who testified recently in his suit over events of that period, “Every three days, someone was being murdered.”
Anatoly Chubais, the ideological architect of free market Russian liberalism, was Jewish, and fled the country after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Leonid Mikhelson, an Israeli dual citizen, Was the General Director of Kuibishevtruboprovodstroy, one of the first Soviet companies to undergo privatization. In 2014, he was the 4th richest man in Russia.
Mikhail Fridman: In 1988, he co-founded the Alfa Group, and in 1991, he co-founded the post-Soviet banking system under the Alfa-Bank. In 2013, he was the 2nd richest man in Russia.
Mikhail Prokhorov: In 1992, Prokhorov ran Interros, a holding company used to transfer the assets of the Soviet nickel mining industry into private hands. He is an Israeli dual citizen, and in 2009, he was reportedly the richest man in Russia, which declined significantly after he began to oppose Putin in 2011.
German Khan: A dual Israeli citizen, he helped Mikhail Fridman run the Alfa Group. He is now the 12th richest man in Russia.
Roman Abramovich, another privatizer, was the 13th richest Russian in 2024, and the second richest Israeli citizen in 2021.
In 1995, Boris Berezovsky, the son of two Jewish parents, worked with Roman Abramovich to take control of Sibneft, now incorporated into Gazprom, which was the 6th biggest oil company in Russia at the time. Berezovsky died under mysterious circumstances in 2013 after opposing Putin.
Alexander Abramov, co-owner of the Ezrav mining and metals company, was part of the second wave of privatization after the 1998 financial crisis. He is now the 17th richest man in Russia.
Viktor Vekselberg was the richest man in Russia in 2012. He founded the Renova Group in 1990 with Len Blavatnik. They then founded the SUAL aluminium mining company in 1996. He is the cousin to Andrew Intrater, who served on the board of the investment company Columbus Nova with Israeli Prime minister Ehud Barak, and the executive committee of Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation. Intrater's firm, Columbus Nova, paid Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's lawyer, a million dollars, and donated to the campaign of Madison Cawthorn. Intrater also controlled internet domain names associated with White Nationalism and antisemitism. It is unknown to what degree Vekselberg influences, organizes, or controls the activities of his American cousin.
Len Blavatnik, who together with Vekselberg led the privatization scheme to destroy communism, is one of the biggest Jewish donors to the American Republican Party.
Michael Cherney, his brother Lev Cherney, as well as brothers David Reuben and Simon Reuben together founded the Trans-World Group, the first private company in Russia in 1992.
Viatcheslav Kantor the 23rd richest Russian in 2024. He was also President of the European Jewish Congress, President of the World Holocaust Forum Foundation, Chairman of the European Jewish Fund, and Chairman of the World Jewish Congress Policy Council.
Petr Aven, a member of the Alfa Group, is half Jewish, and the 25th richest man in Russia.
Besides these Jewish, half Jewish, or quarter Jewish oligarchs, Russia also has its fair share of Muslim oligarchs:
Alisher Usmanov is the 7th richest Russian as of 2024. Despite being a Muslim, he also married Jewish Kabbalist Irna Viner. He claims that he never engaged in the privatization of state property, although this was the period when his wealth accumulated.
Vagit Alekperov, a Muslim Azerbaijani, is the 10th richest man in Russia (2024), and made his money through oil privatization in 1993.
Suleyman Kerimov, ethnically Lez, a sub-group of Dagestani, is the 24th richest man in Russia (2024). He made his wealth in banking, metals, and oil. Kerimov expected the Russian economy to collapse in 2007, and moved his assets to Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse to safeguard his wealth. As western banks were also threatened by the financial crisis, the US Treasury contacted Kerimov directly, requesting him to hold his shares, as selling them could have further destabilized western markets.
Iskander Makhmudov, the 27th richest man in Russia, is an Uzbek Muslim. He worked together with the Cherney brothers and Reuben brothers to manage the Trans-World Group.
The fact that 17 of the richest 27 men in Russia are either Jewish or Muslim indicates that the privatization scheme of the 1990s was extremely similar to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917: it was a coalition of ethnic fringes to conduct a hostile (and violent) takeover of the Russian economy. The result was an unprecedented rise in suicide, drug use, alcoholism, and decline in life expectancy and fertility.
Part of the reason why western intelligence agencies were able to coordinate so closely with Russian Jews during this period was also due to the fact that the Soviet Union, throughout the Cold War, had consistently allied with Israel’s greatest enemies: Egypt, Iraq, and Syria. In response, Israel allied itself with anti-communist states such as apartheid South Africa.
At this point, we can now finally sketch out a broad overview of European (global) conflicts centered around some form of “Wokism”:
The conflict between Rome and “Woke” Christianity (33 to 500);
The conflict between “Woke” Romanism and Germanic kingdoms (1076 until 1386, with the establishment of Heidelberg University);
The conflict between “Woke” Humanism and Catholic conservatism (1380 until 1520);
The conflict between “Woke” Protestantism and Catholicism (1521 until 1648, end of 30 Years War);
The conflict between “Woke” Freemasonry and Monarchism (execution Charles I in 1649 until the American Revolution in 1776);
The conflict between “Woke” Nationalism and Imperial conservatism (1790 until 1847);
The conflict between “Woke” Marxism and conservative nationalism (1848 until 1917);
The conflict between “Woke” Freemasonry and the Thulegesellschaft (1918 until 1945);
The conflict between “Woke” Communism and American Liberalism (1945 until 1988).
Each of these 9 stages represents a different formulation of “Wokeness” as it opposed the establishment conservatism of its time. Since 1988, American unipolarity has accentuated this conflict as an internal conflict rather than an external conflict. The internality of the tension between Wokeness and conservatism has also been exacerbated by the public decline of the Christian religion.
Other internal tensions of Wokism can be described from a particularly Anglo-American perspective, such as the crusade against slavery, culminating in the American Civil War, or the Prohibition Movement, or the Feminist Movement. As things stand today, the latest crusade of Wokism has been the Black Lives Matter movement and the Transgender movement.
Both of these movements began around 2012, and rose to a fever pitch around the 2020 election cycle. Since 2020, it is possible to perceive small permutations in the frequency or intensity of Woke fervor as it pertains to race or sexuality. However, in view of the broader 2,000 years of history just outlined, it is impossible to draw up a conclusive obituary or post-mortem for Wokism. Unlike God, Wokism is not dead. Wokism existed before any religion, and will likely outlast them all. So long as Christianity or Islam exists, Wokism will too.
Whether Wokism will embark on a new crusade in 2025, or whether it will intensify, or whether it will decline for a few short decades is unknown. However, the “end of Wokism” would require the changing of human nature as it has existed for thousands of years. Proponents of genetic engineering, embryo selection, or other biological interventions may believe this to be possible. However, until such technologies are implemented at a mass scale, this remains to be seen.
This, I believe, is the final crusade of Wokism. Will humans be allowed to chart their own genetic destiny? Or will the dogma of equality destroy human freedom? The question is not so simple, as supposed radical right-wing extremists such as neuroscientist Dr. Gariepy have advocated for the banning of genetic engineering, claiming it will destroy humanity. Other elements of the far right, including Nick Fuentes, are Catholic traditionalists who advocate for the banning of abortion and contraception. Therefore, Wokism’s crusade against genetic freedom may find unlikely allies in the far right.
Whatever Wokism’s next target is, it is certainly not on its “last legs.” The war between Wokism and its opponents which began thousands of years ago may rage on for thousands of years more. At the very least, barring the total collapse of every billionaire, every university, and every economy in the next 10 years, we are likely to continue to hear about racism and sexism for decades to come. Old ideas die with the death of those who hold them, and the graduating classes of Harvard are very young indeed. If the current crop of elites feels that their power is truly threatened, they will likely lash out with their dying breath in a violent apocalypse, as Israel seems to be doing today.3 To paraphrase Mark Twain, “The reports of the death of Wokism are greatly exaggerated.”
Pentecostals speak in tongues and handle serpents, and Christ promotes the wisdom of serpents.
John Calhoun, Population Density and Social Pathology, 1962.
What I mean by this must be explored further in a series of articles on Israel.