"Always drink upstream from the herd."

—Will Rogers

Seems like good advice with a little humor. 

We are all members of a herd of one category or another.  A football team could be a herd, a marching band, a church, the armed forces, a riot or activist march, or a political party.  Herds that represent a cause can be liberal or conservative, radical or passive, loud or quiet, hidden or out in the open.  Ants run in herds, cattle, birds, fish, and people.

Would you call "woke" a herd mentality?  I would.  It is hard to identify every woke action or statement as part of the herd.  Some woke demands are small; some are large.  Woke hits in every corner.  Without question, woke has followers in mass numbers.  I wonder if everyone who practices woke knows what he is representing.

The woke world is a classic mountain of sophomoric thought and high school mentality, but it must be taken seriously.   Find something to complain about, and the herd rushes in.  Remove a statue, rename a place, call people racist, use pronouns, forget history — or even worse, try to replace history with some made-for-today new history. 

Never have so few tried to control so many.  The danger in woke is the herd.  Are we built to just follow like a flock of birds?  Are we back to finding out how many people can stuff themselves into a phone booth, or how the nitpicking of words into new meaning?

Woke is the new hippie.  The hippie wants people to listen to his crazy ideas, wants to change the world, has a new and different campaign every week.  Woke is not leadership; it's the opposite.  Woke is a bunch of wimps screaming at the top of their lungs for "justice."  Woke will not be a career, woke will not feed your family, woke will not fix anything — woke is just a passing fancy with little long-term value.  Just like all the great fads of the past, woke will be a memory.   Why in the world does anyone take woke seriously?  But people do!

Woke is not L or C.  Woke is not R or D.  Woke is not socialism trying to get a foothold on young people's thought.  Woke is just a fad.  How do I know that woke is just a fad?  Easy.  First, never underestimate good old competition.  Second, woke has gone too far with stupid ideas and has been caught in the lie.  It will die a fad's death.

Today in America, more than 60 million people will go to work to support themselves and their families.  Woke lives on the fringe, running around promising that its ideas have meaning or will improve societal issues.  Woke does not improve anything, it's just a bunch of noise.

Life is a competition.  Do you think a political campaign isn't competition?  Do you think people don't like sports?  Do you think some kids want to excel while others are on a different track?  Woke allows the "others" to seem like winners, but in reality, they are just childish players.  Why not eliminate the Olympics?  Doesn't everyone deserve a medal?  Would you eliminate ranks in the military?  Would you stop playing horseshoes?  People are naturally competitive!

Woke has found its way into our everyday lives.  What do you think when a person says men can have babies?  What do you think when Title IX become a sham for men to compete as women?  What do you think when pronouns become so important that anyone who disagrees is an outcast?  What do you think when the herd rushes to the next topic, like racism?  What should we think when the academic world buys in to woke?  Have well educated Ph.D.s become infected?  Are we training our young to think differently about careers, work, family, and new definitions of "rights"?  Name something where woke has improved life!

It's time to grow up.  We don't live in a perfect world — never have, never will.  It's time to become a responsible individual, an adult.  Sorry, but you must work to support yourself and your family.  Sorry, but you must live in an imperfect world.  Sorry, but everyone is not going to be treated equally.  Sorry, but slavery still exists — yes, it does.  Sorry, but someone who works hard will get the promotion.  Sorry, but someone who works for a full career will retire with dignity.  Sorry, but "s--- happens."  

It's funny that over the course of history, some people think they can change "life."  And in some cases, they have met with success.  Communal living has been tried, mostly without success.  Eliminating the legal system has been tried without success.  In the evolution of different countries from rulers to semi-socialism forms of government has been tried mostly without success.  Centralized government control over everything has been tried without success.  This awful world is not awful.

Philosophers come and go.  Throughout history, some great philosophers have argued for a variety of societal changes.  It is safe to say that the one constant is change.  We do want people to be well taken care of.  We do want to live well.  We do want food, shelter, medical, and clothing.  We do want to live without oppression.  Success in equal treatment comes with steady progress.  We are not going to change to some utopian life in one giant leap.  To claim that we have not made progress on societal issues is to ignore reality.  To say that we don't have a way to go is also to ignore reality. 

A very simple solution.  Promise everyone a decent education based on individual accomplishment.  Promise everyone a job and let the best workers get promotions and better pay.  Promise action against unethical or unlawful behavior — sorry, but the "End Does Not Justify the Means."  Freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior apply to life as well as education.  Generally, a freshman is just a beginner and needs to learn how to get promoted to sophomore, and we need to get back to that mentality.  Skip grades in knowledge and experience, and you will regret the outcome. 

Let's break away from the woke herd.  We will continue to evolve more by going back to the same formula that made us great...school, work, honesty, and individualism.  Tell the wokes that we are not buying their stupid ideas.

Image: Hans via Pixabay, Pixabay License.