Quite often I discuss with clients or groups the importance of knowing differentiation between feelings and thoughts. It is biological, physiological and neurological truth, that a human will feel before they are able to think. In short, sensory stimulus provokes motor stimulus and feeling is sensory while thinking (cognitive functionality) is a motor process. Today we know these domains to be the affective domain (feelings, emotions, empathic response) and the cognitive domain (thoughts, memory, analytical response).
Much has been highlighted in the generation of today and integrated generations of prior decades that describes a state of enlightened thought and emotional attunement referred to as being “woke”. Millennial’s cling to the moniker as a badge of honor, or superiority without reconciliation, or recognition of the historical roots and the cyclical, iterative, multi-directional and multi-planar continuum of human preference to thoughts, emotions, individual responsibility, or group/tribe mentality. Not to be a negative to the beauty of discovery so often neglected past the surface for the decades of younger generations throughout history that felt similar to being the only group in the know and the center of the functional universe. There is a beauty in watching people believe they know more than they actually do. The confidence is a powerful reinforcer, and the willingness of the intelligent to seek further and that epiphany moment one realizes when they have so much more discovery to encounter is exhilarating for a good coach, mentor, or advisor to witness.
Enlightenment and Romanticism are paramount to the historical identification of the “woke” mentality of today’s nomenclature. These terms have been a bit skewed over the generational furtherance of the era of bygone significance. The terms were actually periods of historical philosophy and generational behaviorism influence. Enlightenment took place in the 1600’s – 1700’s, the elements of traditional enlightenment from this era (one can certainly postulate that Asia had differences in meanings of enlightenment than Europe) the highlights being that individual responsibility, reasoned thought, intellect, and skepticism were the foundations of the enlightenment period. The rebels of the day, the non-conformist, the social justice warriors, and the agents of change were seeking to argue that the restrictions and Dogma of the organized religions was more controlling than empowering, and that had to change. The people were enlightened to their own participatory requirement for creating the life and the humanity that they desired.
Romanticism was from the period of the 1700’s through the early 1800’s and forwarded an emotional influence on philosophy and interactions between humans. A disposition of emotional connection, appreciation for nature as a relative Gestalt component of humanity, a view of holism, of mystical influences such as magic, or energy forces at work, a shift towards personal feelings rather than unified thoughts or reasoned positions. If it felt good, do it was the mentality. The idea of the modern “woke” generation seems to combine the constructs of these two historical eras of time. The recognized importance of individual thought, the connectivity of emotional purpose and empathy, the idea that energy, nature, and Deity preference are post-positivist mandates of existence. The belief that knowledge is power but without emotion knowledge is powerless to connect individuals and therefore emotion and thought must be present to be fully “woke”. The idea of being “woke” seems to be a bit subjective to me, as do the historical roots of these classical eras of philosophy and humanism. However, one thing is for sure – if we feel and think then we function and if we add individual responsibility to the soup then our functionality becomes awakened. Is that what being “woke” means to you? That is how I adjudicate if a person is truly woke or pretending to be.
MadzookJoe