BURUMA, Ian

Doing the Work - The Protestant ethic and the spirit of wokeness – Harpers Magazine – July 2023

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Understanding wokeness as an essentially Protestant phenomenon helps us to recognize the logic behind some of the rituals that have become customary in recent years: specifically, the public apology. One element that distinguishes the Protestant tradition from the other Abrahamic religions is its emphasis on public avowal. Catholics confess to priests in private and are absolved of their sins, until it is time to confess once more. Many Protestants are encouraged to affirm their virtue by making public confessions of faith.

It has become an all too familiar story: a man, or sometimes a woman, expresses an opinion or uses a word that is considered tone-deaf or offensive; he or she apologizes in public, and offers to do some kind of penance, which may or may not be accepted as sufficient. Apologies of this kind have become so common that people are often inclined to doubt their sincerity. Hence the demand for still more heartfelt acts of contrition, and on and on.

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Consider those unsmiling dignitaries in seventeenth-century Dutch paintings, solemnly grouped around oak tables, dressed in sober black clothes and white ruffs, administering charity to the deserving poor. Some of them might have become wealthy from trading with slave plantations in Brazil and other Dutch colonies, or indeed from the slave trade itself. But as staunch Calvinists, they would have seen themselves as the chosen ones not because of family lineage or land ownership, but because of their moral righteousness. The same was true of Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads, drawn from Puritans and Presbyterians, who rebelled against the autocratic King Charles I and his popish ways.

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Unlike during the first Great Awakening, the current wave of puritanism is not the preserve of gullible rural folks gathered in makeshift prayer tents, but of highly educated urban sophisticates. Today the Elect tend to operate almost exclusively in elite institutions: from banks and global corporations to prestigious cultural foundations, museums, and medical organizations, to quality newspapers and literary magazines. But being better off than most people is no barrier to feeling virtuous, so long as the Elect publicly avow their commitment to the quest for social justice.
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The Elect are fighting the wrong class war. Progressives should be on the side of all people who are vulnerable and in need of protection against powerful interests. The quasi-Protestant obsession with the morality of public figures won’t result in necessary reforms. Statements that affirm inclusivity, diversity, and racial justice sound radical, but often distract from the much harder challenges of improving public education and health care, or introducing tax reforms that create greater equality. This work will do far more for the welfare of poor and marginalized people than demonstrations of virtue.

The Democrats’ relative success in the last midterm elections showed a growing awareness of this among progressive politicians. Concentrating on local economic problems helped many Democrats to win seats. There is a chance that Western democracies will overcome the current waves of right-wing populism and left-wing moralism, but the prospects will be much better if the Elect can learn to temper their puritanical zeal. They can begin by paying a little more attention to Marx and spending a little less time dwelling in the long shadows of Luther and Calvin.

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