While I hesitate to disagree or even question the esteemed Mog, I’m a little hesitant before I would totally agree with Mr Schapps.
If we're really honest the word ‘woke’ has been appropriated a wide spectrum of people on both sides, to mean very different things and achieve a very diverse set of agendas. I think it’s fair to say that the party that Mr Schapps represents has in fact used the word ‘woke’ on a number of occasions to do precisely what he’s claiming to want to prevent, namely that of pitting individuals against each other.
If the word woke is used to mean bring people together, creating a fair and equitable society to create a stronger team with values worth fighting for, then I’m all for woke. If it’s used to describe a set of activities that entirely focus on a political agenda and ignore the core mission and goal of the organisation, then I’m against it.
Rather than get into what would frankly be a rather tedious argument about the meaning of the word woke, can we instead focus on specific examples and argue the merit of each those. What are the individual examples of ‘woke’ behaviour and let’s discuss and take each of them on their merit? My assumption is that as in other areas of life, we’d find some things we’d all agree we should stop, but then others that perhaps aren’t as clear cut as we might imagine or are even quite positive.
Sadly my military days are long behind me. However, in my work today in the civilian world I am responsible for building teams that are expected to successfully operate at the highest level and under high pressure every day. I have found that diversity and inclusion along with an equitable, empathetic and fair approach to my team has created a stronger, more successful team that is designed to beat anyone we meet. Please do not make the mistake of immediately assuming that woke means weak. In my experience it can actually means stronger, more resilient and better able to deal with shocks. I suspect I would be accused of being woke by many for having these views. Frankly though I don’t care because if being woke gives me that competitive edge, I'm the one who will have the last laugh as my team beats everyone else on the 'field of battle'.