Is Wokeness a new Christianity? Many observers have already noted the parallels between Wokery and The Faith. Wokeness has its early martyrs (eg George Floyd, now honoured with statues across America). It has foundational texts – eg, White Fragility by Robin di Angelo. It has Original Sins, eg whiteness (of course). It has miracles, conversions, saints, sinners, an overt preference for emotion and unreason over materialism and rationality, and it also has its very own, obscure language: ‘cis’, ‘genderqueer’, ‘intersectionalism’, policed by a new breed of clerics, who patrol the cathedrals of academe and social media, swishing their ecclesiastical silks of self righteousness. They hand out their edicts, so that blasphemers may get cancelled.

If I am right in my pessimism, that Wokeness is possibly the birth-pangs of a new religion, not a passing socio-political fashion, then we should brace ourselves. The Roman Empire was entirely possessed by Christianity towards the end of the 5th century, it would take another 1000 years for the world to rediscover classical learning in the Renaissance, and another 1200 years before the Enlightenment rolled back the darkness of compulsory faith, and people were free to think as they wished. In other words, this could be really, really bad.