In Greek and I'm sure other ancient tragedies, the powerful driver of narrative is revenge. This in turn provides us with Christianity's progressive, and materially necessary to an emerging society, content: forgiveness. Forgiveness brings stability. Away with the antisocial pursuit of the person, and their family, and everyone they knew (to paraphrase Clint in The Unforgiven). So, my question, in abandoning forgiveness and resurrecting revenge, is Wokiness premodern?
I wouldn't say it's pre-modern, if only because it's obviously a product of (post)modernity - see Part 3 - but it does have that aspect of a lust for justice that's not socially mediated. I also wonder if it has something in common with honour culture as opposed to dignity culture, but that might be another essay.
In Greek and I'm sure other ancient tragedies, the powerful driver of narrative is revenge. This in turn provides us with Christianity's progressive, and materially necessary to an emerging society, content: forgiveness. Forgiveness brings stability. Away with the antisocial pursuit of the person, and their family, and everyone they knew (to paraphrase Clint in The Unforgiven). So, my question, in abandoning forgiveness and resurrecting revenge, is Wokiness premodern?
I wouldn't say it's pre-modern, if only because it's obviously a product of (post)modernity - see Part 3 - but it does have that aspect of a lust for justice that's not socially mediated. I also wonder if it has something in common with honour culture as opposed to dignity culture, but that might be another essay.