To the phrase “with age comes wisdom,” Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde is credited with adding the caveat, “but sometimes age comes alone." The implication is clear -- i.e. growing old does not always guarantee wisdom. 

Hollywood actress Jane Fonda, 87, recently bore this out using her receipt of a Life Achievement Award from the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards as a political platform. Never able to embrace conservatism, she defended “wokeism” by attempting to redefine it.

Fonda became infamous in 1972 during the Vietnam war after being photographed sitting atop an anti-aircraft gun, earning the title “Hanoi Jane.” Upon returning to the U.S., she falsely claimed our POWs were being treated well, calling them “liars and hypocrites” when they came home to report otherwise. 

Over half a century later, Fonda proves herself to be no wiser. Recognizing that the term “woke” is divisive today, she is trying to redefine it to mean “empathy” explaining:

“What we, actors, create is empathy. Our job is to understand another human being so profoundly that we can touch their souls.

“And make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke. By the way, woke just means you give a damn about other people.”

Fonda then went on to lambast President Donald Trump and his character before adding:

“Back to empathy. A whole lot of people are going to be really hurt by what is happening, what is coming our way. Even if they’re of a different political persuasion, we need to call upon our empathy and not judge, but listen from our hearts and welcome them into our tent, because we are going to need a big tent to resist successfully what’s coming at us.”

What a naive Fonda fails to grasp is that, while empathy is an important human characteristic, it cannot be considered within a vacuum. Weighing heavily on social behavior as well are common sense and what is in the best interests of our nation’s greater good. 

For example, these two characteristics are totally ignored within the gender context. It defies the law of common sense, as well as science, to suggest there are genders beyond those of a biological male and female -- to the point that even a Supreme Court justice nominee was unable to define what a “woman” is.

And in analyzing the Gaza war, while empathy for the suffering of the Palestinian people is a factor, it is ridiculous to allow it to override the reality that those people are led by Hamas terrorists who have made it clear that peace with Israel is no option for them. Common sense should be the driver, recognizing that peace only comes with the annihilation of Hamas. It also should be driven by the interests of the greater good and, since the success of Islamic extremism in the Middle East means its spread elsewhere, such greater good lies in the total destruction of Hamas.

In today’s world, anyone trying to make “wokeism” more palatable by simply calling it “empathy” gives rise to idealism gone mad. 

In a 2005 memoir, Fonda apologized for her anti-American propaganda photograph in Vietnam, explaining she did not realize she was sitting atop an enemy anti-aircraft gun. So what does common sense tell us about heeding her suggestion that “empathy” should be society’s driving force when she lacked sufficient intelligence to even know what she was sitting upon?

Image: Verhoeff, Bert/Anefo