Why Musa Wrote We Have Never Been Woke

Musa explains puzzles that motivated the book and outlines his empirical approach to studying 'wokeness'.

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Episode notes

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In this episode of 1Dime Radio, I am joined by American sociologist Musa Al-Gharbi to discuss his book "We Have Never Been Woke" which is by far the most scholarly work on the topic of “wokeness.” Al‑Gharbi provides a materialist theory of the economics and social dynamics that drive what we call "wokeism" and the great disconnect between what he calls “symbolic capitalists” (the section of the Professional Managerial Class within discourse/symbol generating industries like Media, Academia, Art, and Entertainment) and the rest of society. Al-Gharbi's book provides rigorous empirical research on social attitudes, class structures, and identifies four patterns that he calls "the great awokenings" which are driven by "elite overproduction" and liberals and leftists appear the same to so many people.

In The Backroom (on Patreon), Musa and I continue the conversation by connecting Musa’s materialist socio-economic theory of Wokeness and Symbolic Capitalists to Tony’s Genealogy of Wokeism essay, plus additional examples, arguments, and pushback that we did not have time for on the main episode.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Changing Minds vs Material Conditions (The Backroom Preview)

00:05:34 An Empirical Theory of Wokeism

00:14:41 Who are The “Symbolic Capitalists”?

00:23:55 Top 20% not just the 1%

00:33:45 Elite overproduction and intra-elite competition

00:38:31 The 2010s The Great Awokening

00:53:58 Is “woke” dead? Tech backlash, Trump era shifts

00:59:14 The Four Great Awokenings, mapped

01:00:04 First Awokening (1920s–30s): identity politics before the 60s

01:03:51 Orwell’s warning

01:07:02 Progressive paternalism and Managerial politics