‘Painful Woke Psychodrama’ is Destroying the ‘Decadent’ West, Warns Tory Party Chairman

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 31: People hold placards as they join a spontaneous Black Lives Matt
Hollie Adams/Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

The “painful woke psychodrama” that seeks “decadent” aims such as “decolonising math” is serving to undermine the West in its struggle against authoritarian countries such as Communist China and Russia, the UK Conservative Party chairman has claimed.

In a speech delivered to the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank on Monday, Oliver Dowden MP, who now chairs the Tory Party after serving as the government’s culture secretary, warned that woke ideology is threatening the foundations of Western civilisation at a time of international strife.

Warning that wokism has spread “everywhere”, Dowden said per The Guadian: “It goes by many names. In Britain, its adherents sometimes describe themselves as ‘social justice warriors’. They claim to be ‘woke’, awakened to the so-called truths of our societies. But wherever they are found, they pursue a common policy inimical to freedom.”

“The US and the UK may certainly be very different societies. But we are joined by the same fundamental values. Neither of us can afford the luxury of indulging in this painful woke psychodrama … Too many people have already fallen for the dismal argument that standing up for freedom is reactionary or that somehow it’s kind or virtuous to submit to these self-righteous dogmas. Well, it plainly is not.”

Amid the increasing influence of social media, the spreading of such ideas has become much easier across the pond. Indeed, just days after the death of George Floyd in America, Black Lives Matter activists took to the streets of Britain, despite the UK having no connection to the killing. The protests saw BLM radicals vandalise and even tear down statues throughout the nation, including statues honouring Sir Winston Churchill, Queen Victoria, Edward Colston, and even Britain’s national war memorial the Cenotaph.

In response to the protests, various charities, museums, and educational institutions in the UK caved under pressure and adopted more leftist rhetoric and agendas.

“It’s in our universities, but also in our schools. In government bodies, but also in corporations. In social science faculties, but also in the hard sciences,” Oliver Dowden said. “But I tell you, it is a dangerous form of decadence. Just when our attention should be focused on external foes, we seem to have entered this period of extreme introspection and self-criticism.”

Despite Britain having been governed by the Conservative Party for over a decade, woke ideology, ranging from leftist ideas on gender and tenants of Critical Race Theory (CRT) have infiltrated large swaths of the British establishment. For example, in November it was reported that bureaucrats in the government’s civil service were being advised to read texts on “white privilege” from far-left American authors such as Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo.

Even elected Members of Parliament have been subjected to so-called “unconscious bias training”. One MP who refused to attend the “indoctrination” lessons, Ben Bradley told Breitbart in 2020: “We all have our own opinions based on our experiences and background and beliefs. We’re individuals and that’s the way it should be.”

However, Bradly noted at the time that wokism has extended throughout the so-called Conservative Party, saying: “I’ve been told off in the [Westminster] tea room for referring to ‘my wife’ because that’s ‘possessive’. By a Conservative MP, actually. But that’s the state of the world.”

The Tory Party chairman warned that while it is in a global struggle against China and Russia, the West is “obsessing” over pronouns or “trying to decolonise” maths.

“Rogue states are seeking to challenge the international order. And at the precise point when our resolve ought to be strongest, a pernicious new ideology is sweeping our societies,” he warned.

Far-left teachers unions have been pushing the way for woke ideology to creep into British schools, with National Education Union (NEU) conducting “activist training” sessions for teachers in order to make “white privilege and colonialism visible” in schools.

The NEU has also called for toddlers to be taught of the supposed evils of “white privilege” in order to develop “anti-racist views” within the minds of children.

More recently, the government has reportedly launched an investigation into the Brighton and Hove council amid revelations that teachers were being schooled on “racial literacy” in which they were told that young children benefit from white privilege. A local councillor even admitted that following a BLM-inspired petition, schools have been teaching CRT for “over a year“.

Oliver Dowden said that the West has become “obsessed by what divides us rather than what unites us”.

“It really does threaten to sap our societies of their own self-confidence. Just when we should be showcasing the vitality of our values, and the strength of democratic societies, we seem to be willing to abandon those values for the sake of appeasing this new groupthink.”

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.