Origins and History of Woke | HISPBC Ch.1 (Hanson)

Senior Hoover Fellow, Victor Davis Hanson, traces the origins of wokeness from its roots in the 19th century Great Awakening to its current state, highlighting its evolution from a religious concept to an ideology which views the world through racial lenses. By prioritizing racial identity over individualism, the world is reduced to good vs. bad, and categorizes people as oppressors or oppressed. With such reductivism, woke ideology has the potential to undermine the foundations of American society and meritocracy.

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, a classicist, and military historian. He is the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, and newspaper editorials on Greek, agrarian, and military history and essays on contemporary culture.

Check out more from Victor Davis Hanson:

The opinions expressed in this video are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University. © 2024 by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University.

[laynecori]

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON & THOMAS SOWELL ! TWO HERO'S !

[norichesney]

I really pray that the people fortunate enough to hear VDH speak will "hear" and understand what he is saying. This man is a giant intellect, a humble hero, and a gift to our times. Thank you, Hoover Institute.

[ronlipsius]

Brilliant - nobody does it like the Victor.

[Gibbons-tg]

I'm 41 years old and I have no doubt that Victor Davis Hanson is the wisest man I will see in my lifetime. Truly enlightening every time I am blessed with the opportunity to hear him speak.

[robertwilkinson]

Listening to VDH is a Moment to reset and I never pass up a chance to listen to what he has to say.

Always Time well spent!

[mego]

Every time I think I'm so brilliant or Americans are dumb, I listen to a guy like Victor and tip my hat to a greater scholar and wiser man. Cut from the same cloth as Scott Nearing and James Durant. Bravo.

[bettyreynolds]

I've always loved Victor Davis Hanson since I first heard his messages about our country.
It's rare to find someone with an honest narrative.
It makes me thankful for Victor and YouTube.
Thank you so much.
❤❤❤

[RN-loxc]

Bill is fantastic in setting up questions and keeping the audience up to speed. Victor with original ideas and historical analysis on current issues as always. Well done.

[EverettBaland]

I've been hearing the woke term and had no idea what it was. This helped. And I wish the people following the pied pipers of the woke clan would awaken to see a clearer picture. The elites that desire a two-class system always use their followers to help them get there. The followers don't realize they will have no status once the elites are in control. Of course, the elites never learn from history that their empire will be a limited period of time, once the followers decide its time. This Hanson fan agrees with this, "it never ends".

[Viewer]

VDH was at the top of his game in this video. Then again, he very rarely gets it wrong. Kudos Professore.

[galaxy-star-me]

Woke is totally BS. As an Asian American, I had nothing when I came to America but I am considered as oppressor as I study hard and work hard.

[janetleeadams]

We all are victims of one thing or another. I come from very poor roots--my grandparents, aunts and uncles--were from eastern Oklahoma and picked cotton. My dad's generation worked in a zinc smelter. And now I am a well past-retirement aged, grey-haired, wrinkle-faced woman. There is no level of woke that sees me as a viable citizen, a well educated and highly skilled teacher. They see grey and wrinkles. I don't care woke or sleeping. It means nothing when the average human can not simply see the average human in front of them. In my younger days when I taught overseas, I observed discrimination unknown in the modern United States. Not against ME; no against people from the southern part of the countries, people with darker skin tones, people who were not educated, who spoke with an accent, people from the wrong tribe, people who were not like 'us, ' whoever us is. I am tired of people who prefer believing lies over demonstrable truth.

[norcalviking]

I always walk away after listening to a VDH talk, much more educated than I was before I listened.

[ajaj]

I doubt that anyone who is woke can even comprehend the wisdom of his talk all the possible results of not comprehending his talk

[helenaleahy]

Love Victor for his knowledge and honesty ❤

[davidpeterjameson]

I'm not certain that I agree with this video's definition, not that VDH is wrong, but he might be over-complicating it. I think that defining 'woke' is quite easy - it is the opposite of the 'American Dream'. Thus, one can be woke by simply refusing to participate in, or criticizing, or defying things traditionally associated with the American Dream. So, heterosexual marriage, having two-plus kids, home ownership, going to a Christian church, rugged individualism, patriotism, capitalism... all of these things are part of the American Dream and therefore anathema to being 'woke'. So, to be woke is to reject all of these in favor of their opposites: homosexuality, abortion, non-ownership, non-Christian or atheistic, collectivism, open borders, and communism. The fact that the opposites do not necessarily blend well together is irrelevant. The objective is to reject the American Dream, criticize it, demonize it, destroy it, and replace it with anything else.

[johng.]

Where it came from is not important, how soon it can be forgotten and the world get back to sanity is what matters.

[poetmaggie]

When we look at the Ten Commandments and then look at the Society of the world we can see that the problem is spiritual, all the "Shall Not"s are being promoted and all the "Thou Shall"s are being stomped on.

[eddiemunster]

Kind of arrogant for these people to assume that we were asleep, we've always been awake but somehow these people seem to have had some Epiphany and now they know more than we do

[joesmallwood]

Thomas Sowell says the same things only happened earlier a great speaker national treasures both