A Rude Awokening!?

       OK, it would be easy to claim that all of my 70 years wandering around the planet were spent being faultlessly woke, but I did need to sleep!!  As a teacher, if I learned nothing else at College, it was that on no account was I to indoctrinate the children. I could teach a balanced religious knowledge curriculum, for instance, but I could not share with the children my own belief system. Around about election time, I could invite political candidates into my classroom to speak but if I did so then I had to have all of them in. There were so many political parties standing for office in the UK that I was never going to have any. Besides, having a representative of The Monster Raving Loony Party’ spouting his nonsense was far too much impartiality. I believe their political leader was somebody called Screaming Lord Sutch! Any rate I like to think that I was always balanced and fair but, of course, I wasn’t.

If one bars one’s beliefs at the front door, they have a habit of creeping in at the back, do they not?!

 For example, Friends, teaching Geology was a minefield. One would think that it is an innocent enough subject as I have yet to meet the person who has offended a rock. Igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks do hold an affectionate place in my memory. Created by fire, a flamboyant entry into the world and then a fertile stillness as the lava cools and new growth starts to appear, igneous rocks are my favourite. Metamorphic rocks? Always changing, can’t trust them. Sedimentary? Lazy. Just lie around estuaries waiting for molluscs to die and then do nothing to tidy up, just leave them there for an archaeology student with a trowel millions of years later. So these views might come across in my teaching. Bias and prejudice alive and well in the Davidson classroom! OK, Dear Friends, I am being flippant about a serious matter but the analogy isn’t totally bad, is it!?

Of course that’s the origin of the term, we woke up and ‘woke’. So, as I read it, the word is designed to help us to treat people with equal fairness and respect no matter their gender, race or sexual orientation. Which reasonable person can be against that? It is also designed to make us more aware of the wrongs done in history. This last point has been a very important eye opener and, to me, this is where the movement towards wokeism is essential and necessary. I am therefore grateful that this has brought about a greater awareness of injustices wrought in the past.

But, back to people in the present, I really don’t like having certain aspects of  character being pointed out to me, such things matter not one jot besides they are often bleeding obvious; regarding skin colour and race (I can tell!); regarding sexual preferences (None of my business); regarding religion (Exclusively their own, unless they proselytize); (“You know, Peter, if you believe you’ll never have an ingrowing toenail again,” doesn’t work for me.); regarding politics (Happy to discuss and debate); regarding culture (endlessly fascinating, vive les differences!); regarding books (How much time have you got?) Dear reader, I like or dislike people according to the make up of their character and I suggest you do as well. I have found fair-minded people in the most unlikely settings and really don’t care about their proclivities.

I do admit, however, that I have a prejudice against young property developers in suits. These poor people are about as welcome on life’s stage as a fart in an elevator. They have to convince me that they know something about the community upon whom they are about to foist their suspect ideas. Having lived here for over 30 years, Irene and I are a hard sell. I also do not like PHD students who are teachers and assume that, despite 43 years in the profession, I know nothing. Inevitably people like that are also masters of patronisation, mistresses of condescension, they proceed with a sermon, digress to a diatribe and season both with a sprinkling of ageism. I do not like sound-byte people who have not read, listened or discussed something enough but nevertheless assume righteous indignation and forthright opinions, based on an emotive quotation taken out of context.  They have a tendency to be gung-holier-than-thou and suddenly overcome with a need to signal their virtue, their unctuous message is, sadly, vomit seeping through a sock when it should be the cherry on top of an ice cream sundae. But, Friends, my courage is as rare as rocking horse shit, so that when confronted I squawk like the chicken I am and flutter away. It’s not worth it. I admit my guilt, “Peccavi, peccavi, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa,” I spout while spluttering something about life being too short. I am not proud of this behaviour.

I love people with a sense of humour who are tickled by farcical situations. I love enthusiastic, energetic people who are open hearted and friendly (who doesn’t?). I like people who own up to their mistakes and are humble. Most of all, I admire people who have suffered horrendously and come through it as victims and risen to become victors. (Ahh, Dear Reader, I know a few of those) Basically I like humans who are human. I like next door neighbours who pun; dog walkers who pass the time of the day. I like the slow, considerate cyclists who ring their bells before passing me on the Spirit Trail. (I can be woke about spokes!) After all one has to be tolerant does one not, particularly as I am one who lives in a glass house and has been known to throw stones. I agree with the quotation below and wish I knew from whence it came;

“Acquittal was appropriately outlawed in the land of just desserts.”

It’s a quotation which is relevant to us all, is it not? We are all guilty at some time in our lives. Basically, like many of my ilk, I like the world according to Pete but when Pete steps aside and falls on the wrong side of the behavioural fence, he would like to think that he can reach for a piece of humble pie. Then he can take a bite and fall upon the mercy of the court of public opinion. The anonymous person who made the following statement was wise, albeit a mite cynical;

“And God promised that good people were to be found in all the corners of the Earth. She then made the Earth round.”

I like also the following quote from Montaigne and hopefully it can bring this scribble of mine down a notch from the self-righteous indignation which I note has crept into it!

“There is no use our mounting on stilts, for on stilts we still walk on our own legs. And on the loftiest throne in the World we are still sitting on our own rump.” Montaigne

I shall continue to read history that is new to me; history that speaks more about the victims than the victors; history that puts a different point of view; history that challenges me to think rather than simply accept. But, Dear Reader, everyday interactions between friends, strangers and acquaintances are different.  I do not believe that I have ever been unkind to somebody on the basis of their race, religion, culture, mental illness or sexual orientation. I am no saint and I can be rude and unaccepting but my criterion for non-acceptance is based on very different foundations than that.

 “We are all patchwork” as Montaigne said.

I guess that what I am saying here is that “woke” is not new as far as treating people as we should is concerned. Good people always treat other people, no matter who they are, with respect. What is new is learning that that statue is one of a slave trader, that that Jesuit College bought and sold slaves, that that ‘hero’ was responsible for the deaths of many innocent people. So I guess I am saying as far as dealing with people is concerned, what was acceptable in the past, within the circles in which I moved, is the same today.  But, I know Dear Reader, that there are people in the world who need a hard kick in their prejudices so that they howl and hide in a cave only appearing again when they have assumed ‘acceptance’ as part of their bailiwick. Wokeness is simply common sense and good manners. Or am I being too simplistic and naïve, Dear Friends? Or, and this is very possible, have I mixed up woke with political correctness? Here is Montaigne again,

“Human Beings are diverse and undulating.”

I think, Friends, that as long as we accept that this is true of our own characters then we should find no problem in recognising it as such in others. We should, at least, give people the benefit of the doubt, don’t you think?

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Am heading off to the UK for a few weeks to visit an ancient mother, explode upon the peaceful equanimity of  family members and bore old friends with older stories. You’ll be relieved to know that I may not manage to blog during this time.