CATEGORY: CULTURE (4 MIN)

Go woke or go broke

What does it mean to become “woke”? Today, conservatives use the term to refer to the extreme progressive movement that has taken hold of many of our cultural institutions. Still, if you asked the average person on the street to define what the word “woke” means, they’d probably have a tough time answering. 

Ross Douthat tries to tackle this definitional problem in The New York Times. Douthat places himself into the mind of a “woke” thinker to try and determine its meaning from the inside out. 

He starts in a good place: a “woke” believer understands equality and liberty to be core American values. Douthat then extends that line of thinking, pointing out that there are inequalities and wealth imbalances that would make a “woke” person start to doubt these values’ true existence. 

And that’s where it all goes downhill. Douthat’s “woke” persona begins to believe that injustice is needed to correct injustice, and that all other Americans must be forced to see the country in the same way. The method for this madness? Control the culture. 

Read Douthat’s full thought experiment here. 

CATEGORY: HEALTH (26 MIN)

Less anger, more joy

The Declaration of Independence recognized the “pursuit of happiness” as one of the self-evident unalienable rights of mankind. We are supposed to pursue that which brings us the most joy. It’s interesting, then, that in today’s America, half the country seems to be missing out. 

For American Affairs, Musa al-Gharbi highlights the startling difference in happiness between conservatives and liberals. al-Gharbi cites study after study using metric after metric, each one demonstrating this remarkable phenomenon. 

On the happier side, al-Gharbi points to statistics indicating conservatives as being more likely to stay married, regularly attend religious services, and remain patriotic. These numbers apply across all socioeconomic groups to those who identify as conservative. And they correlate with a substantially increased incidence of happiness. 

In contrast, liberal Americans tended to suffer more from depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders. al-Gharbi suggests this may be a result of heightened sensitivities to perceived suffering and potentially to self-condemnation. 

Discover al-Gharbi’s thorough research right here. 

Gender: Who Decides?
A Debate on Transgenderism & Womanhood

What does it mean to be a man or a woman? Can you be born a man and actually become a woman? Is identity tangibly attached to something inherent in us, or is it intangible and subjective? Is it merely some social construct or is it embedded in our genes, in our biological identity itself? ​​​​Can we actually conquer our human nature and identity in the same way we seemed to have conquered the other realms of nature? If we try, what are the consequences? 

Join the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in Pittsburgh, PA, on April 18th at 7 PM as Michael Knowles and Deirdre McCloskey debate womanhood and transgenderism. Register here to attend in-person or online.

Join us in Pittsburgh >>>

Because our student editors and writers are bravely bringing conservative ideas to their campuses, we’re highlighting their efforts here.

CATEGORY: PHILOSOPHY (7 MIN)

Our latest opiate

The “woke” mindset is more than just a movement or a trend in America. It’s a religion, and its devotees are trying to spread their beliefs to the country. But why has this new worldview become so attractive to millions of people in a nation with a tradition so opposed to it? 

In this week’s Intercollegiate Review archive, Alexander Riley reviews Joshua Mitchell’s 2020 book American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time. In doing so, he delves into the “woke” dogma and uncovers it for what it really is. 

Riley agrees with Mitchell in his characterization of identity politics as an attempt to become Christian without any of the forgiveness of Christ. “Woke” Americans constantly find people and institutions to sacrifice on the altar of perceived past sins. But instead of ending with the once-for-all Lamb of God, this crusade has no end.  

Riley also commends Mitchell’s point that the “woke” mentality is associated with the social ills of bipolarity and addiction—and a society that cannot deal with adulthood. 

However, Riley does not believe that Mitchell’s proposed solution is necessarily the right choice. Read his critique and Mitchell’s argument right here. 

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