Have you been caught trying to prepare or deliver a short elevator speech, that lets others know what is the problem with the current ideological focus in many of our social institutions?  If this describes your experience some days, you likely will really appreciate and learn from  Susan Neiman’s new book – Woke is Not Left

The book is described on Amazon as;

“If you’re woke, you’re left. If you’re left, you’re woke. We blur the terms, assuming that if you’re one you must be the other. That, Susan Neiman argues, is a dangerous mistake.

The confusion arises because woke is fuelled by traditionally leftwing emotions: the wish to stand with the oppressed and marginalized, to address historic crimes. But those emotions are undermined by widespread philosophical assumptions with reactionary sources. As a result, wokeism conflicts with ideas that have guided the left for more than 200 years: a commitment to universalism, a firm distinction between justice and power, and a belief in the possibility of progress. Without these ideas, the woke will continue to undermine their own goals and drift, inexorably and unintentionally, towards the right.”  

If your reading list is too long and if you don’t get enough exercise, I suggest you download this CBC Ideas podcast that features Neiman and listen to Susan as you go for a walk!