The Third Awokening: A 12-Point Plan for Rolling Back Progressive Extremism

by Eric Kaufmann

Woke is not a fad but a cultural revolution—a movement that can only be stopped by a drastic intervention in our institutions and culture.

We in the West are in the third wave of cultural-left ideological enthusiasm. Each “Awokening” has crested, fallen a little, consolidated, then surged again to reach a higher level. The cumulative result is an elite creed which has produced a crime wave, a worsening education system, chaos at the border, and social division. Fired by a cultural socialism that puts equal results and emotional protection for minorities at the center of their moral universe, today’s young people are twice as intolerant of conservative speech as older generations. These young people will be the median voters and employees of tomorrow, leading and controlling the country. Woke cultural socialism is not the classical liberalism of the American Constitution, but a modern “majorities bad, minorities good” Left-liberalism. It is powered by a set of ‘liberal’ emotional attachments rather than liberal principles. These underpin a moral panic about whites and males combined with a starry-eyed patronizing approach to minorities.

Today’s woke extremism is not a repudiation of liberalism, but a perverse extension of it. Our only way out is to use elected, constitutional, government power to break the grip of wokeness in our institutions and schools, steering them toward neutrality and classical liberalism. To do so, the conservative and moderate majority must place culture front and center and spare no effort to win the battle of ideas. Nothing less than the future of our civilization depends on it.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Political Science, Cultural, Philosophy, Sociology, History

418 pages, Paperback

Published May 13, 2024

About the author

Eric Peter Kaufmann is a Canadian professor of politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is a specialist on Orangeism in Northern Ireland, nationalism, political demography and demography of the religious/irreligious.

Reviews

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The wilde Amazone

The most significant thesis in the book is the notion that elected legislatures are the world’s best defense against the wokeism that prevail in the institutions now controlled by the Woke elite, ie, educational system, professional associations. Quote in the introduction “government is accountable and transparent in a way that institutions are not.” Of course that means voters must stop voting for the politicians who have fallen for Woke nostrums...

John Goode

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A deep dive into the sociology of wokeness

Amazing. As per this book, most people misunderstand wokeness as a political philosophy based on a certain logic, when actually it is more like a religion based on emotion. This is why ardent woke believers are absolutists, meaning their view, which they believe is the only moral view, must prevail, and if you want to be seen as among the virtuous you need to fall into line.

Kaufmann explains this with brilliant insight, and very articulately. He has codified a new perspective on wokeness, with a new language to describe the development and sociology of wokeness. Whereas most commentaries on wokeness focus on what are woke policies, Kaufmann focuses on why are those woke views adopted by so many people.

Wokeness is the probably the most important cultural phenomenon/revolution in the West since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, so we need to understand it better in terms of why has it been so incredibly successful and what have been the consequences.

Karen Alpert, Australia

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Eric Kaufmann is one of the few fearless academics left in the Western World. This book helps outline how we got here, and how we can take the institutions back. Packed with empirical information, but also contains advice about what we can do to resist the secular religion, wokeism, from parasitizing the minds of the next generation.

Anonymous


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[Michael Milburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A more sophisticated book than suggested by the title (which wasn’t chosen by the author). Marxism merely offers the supply for which liberalism presents the demand. I was less interested in the proposed solutions.

[Jo Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve only read selected extracts as the whole book has not been issued yet but I loved what I read. So clear, succinct and eloquently written.

[Rodrigo Jungmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Talvez o melhor sobre o tema seja este aqui.

[Damion Reinhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent diagnosis; treatment regime (final two chapters) remains questionable and untested.

[Joshua Friesen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Common sense ain't common.