• The End of Woke? Book Launch with Sylvie Perez
  • Wednesday, 10th January 2024, 6:00pm - 7:30pm 
  • Press Club, Rue Froissart 95, 1040 Brussels 

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Woke is everywhere - from education to transport policy. Its influence seems at a high. But this new book from Sylvie Perez challenges the consensus. Woke is weak. It relies on censorship, emotional blackmail and elite institutions – and above all its advocates fear debate.

In Putting an end to woke (‘En finir avec le wokisme’, 2023), Perez tracks the development of a new ideological takeover across the anglosphere. Beginning in academia, ‘woke’ ideas were transported across society, from the public service to police, and even to big business. But the one-sided attack on the values of ordinary people could not last indefinitely. Much more than simply a critique, this book examines how woke has come under attack – and what we in Europe can learn from the fightback.

But to defeat wokeism, we have to understand what it is. A key element is the burgeoning category of ‘the oppressed’. The woke claim to fight on their behalf. But as we see from their championing either a new racial segregation (“minority only spaces”) or backward and cartoonish ideas about masculinity and femininity (as seen in the fetishization of the drag-queen version of womanhood) – they are no friends of minorities.

Key to woke strategies are attacks on language. Critics are tarred as racists or fascists. But people will not stand for such smears for long. Perez presents an optimistic view of people organising against these new forces. But are those currently willing to push back a minority? Do the silent majority lack moral courage, or simply the time to engage with what some view as just the latest version of ‘divide and rule’? 

Above all, join us as we ask: How can we champion a fightback against Woke’s censorious and thin-skinned advocates? 

Please bring your copy of the book to get it signed by the author. 

Book available: https://www.filigranes.be/en-finir-avec-le-wokisme 

Speakers

  • Sylvie Perez journalist, writer, author of ‘En finir avec le wokisme’
  • Bill Durodié visiting Professor MCC Brussels

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