Harold Jantz Memorial Lecture - Left is Not Woke

The Harold Jantz Memorial Lecture welcomes Susan Neiman, Philosopher and Director of the Einstein Forum (Potsdam, Germany).

It began in the United States before moving to countries as dissimilar as Canada, Brazil, Chile and Italy: many people genuinely concerned to right historical wrongs have woven together an ideology often called “the woke left.” I will argue that this ideology is not, in fact, genuinely leftist, as it challenges many of the central ideas that have traditionally been central to all leftwing movements and is based on very reactionary ideas. I will claim that the left needs an understanding of ideas of solidarity, justice and progress which have their roots in the much-maligned Enlightenment, and discuss how those ideas might be applicable today.