A spectre is haunting America – the spectre of “wokeism.” Seemingly out of nowhere, a mass “woke” hysteria of racial and gender grievance has come not only to dominate, but to define every single major institution in the country. Wokeness is so deeply ingrained in our body politic that even its detractors can easily underestimate the extent and nature of its influence.
In a popular discussion between Glenn Greenwald and Revolver’s Darren Beattie, Beattie suggests that there is an important relationship between wokeness and how the United States projects power internationally. According to this view, wokeness is not merely some extraneous ideological nuisance sitting on top of an otherwise non-woke military and national security apparatus. On the contrary, wokeness is more essentially connected to the specific manner in which the United States exercises its power and influence domestically and overseas…
As it so happens, an interesting example of precisely this formula appears in a recently published document discussing the capabilities and practices of Army special operations and psychological warfare units. The document in question is an unclassified white paper for 1st Special Forces Airborne Command (SFAC) titled “A Vision for 2021 and Beyond.” The SFAC motto “First to Observe, First to Influence, First to Compete,” sums up its primary purpose: influencing target populations through psychological operations and infiltrating local populations. Read more…