We have ascended far above the artisanal screen-shotting of invoices and stand in the presence of a genuine master of ideological niche marketing ... In Mounk’s own philosophy of 'universalism,' a warmed-over version of the consensus politics of the 1950s and 1960s, even more insipid than the original, which helped make the hyper-polarized, illiberal, violent, ideology-poisoned country we inhabit today.
The most comprehensive and reasonable story of this shift that has yet been attempted. Erudite and up to date, Mounk integrates ideas from philosophy, political theory, political science and psychology, along with the views of a range of commentators ... Mounk eschews pithy phrases and definitions for a fuller examination of an evolving phenomenon ... Mounk has told the story of the Great Awokening better than any other writer who has attempted to make sense of it.
Mounk is better at explaining how we came to be in the mess we’re in. A liberal constitutionalist, he’s a man of the 'universalist left,' which is the way that the left in the West used to be until the fall of the Berlin Wall ... There is, alas, a milquetoast quality to Mr. Mounk’s worries about the woke takeover of America’s academe ... Mr. Mounk never says so outright, but you can’t help concluding that he would have been happy if wokeism had been less unkempt, less absolutist and Manichaean, more gentle and more sweetly reasonable.
It’s a straightforward story. But it only hangs together if you don’t press too hard ... Not incorrect so much as incomplete ... The larger problem for Mounk’s narrative is that many of the ideas that swept onto the scene in 2020 have ebbed just as quickly in the months and years since ... It is my opinion that he is, ultimately, arguing against a straw man ... If we are worried about free speech, equal opportunity, and human dignity, we should be far more concerned about Republicans who have spent the last years banning books, restricting health care, and censoring education.
Mounk’s intellectual methodology: accusation slides effortlessly into fact; events are yoked together on the atmospherics, described in shorthand, as if the phrases 'safe space' and 'white privilege' are all you need to know to understand what went on ... Like going round the Hermitage. If you stopped for one minute in front of every contestable statement, you’d be there for 11 years. But I think it would feel like longer.
Hardcore proponents and detractors alike may not be won over, but there is a vast middle that can be reached through open debate and plain common sense. This book is a solid launching point for further constructive debate. A thoughtful deconstruction of identity politics well worth discussing.
