Sir, – Suggesting that “middle-aged male insecurity” is driving that demographic to wage a war on wokeness, Jennifer O’Connell seems to be remarkably unaware that any such conflict is long over (“War on woke is really about middle-aged male insecurity”, Opinion & Analysis, December 24th). The concept of being woke has evolved to mean a willingness to see prejudicial or unacceptable attitudes even where they clearly don’t exist. It is, surely, by now used almost entirely ironically. Thus, for a public figure to be opposed to wokeness is now unlikely to cost them much in terms of public support.
Among the examples she cites is Ron DeSantis who recently won election in Florida. Having declared a war on woke as a campaign phrase, he won clear majorities among older and among female voters, as indeed he did among middle-aged males. Similarly, albeit ultimately less successfully, when campaigning for election Liz Truss described civil servant culture as being “woke”, knowing that it was seen as a negative quality, and so vowing to change it. I’d suggest that by now criticism of wokeness is rather like being opposed to government red tape, wastefulness or incompetence. Few people will come forward to defend it. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.