Ruminant Pink Friday: Ruminations on the Mathematics of Wokeness and Being the Best You Can Be

Aweh fellow Ruminants and groupies in day 388 of Re-Modified Lock Down Currently Level 1.

Period as a semi-retired pensioner: 16 days

This week my inspiration for Ruminant Pink Friday™ came from an artwork by the infamous artist Brett Murray who is responsible for the spear of the nation painting which generated a storm in a teacup in 2012.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spear_(painting)#:~:text=The%20Spear%20is%20a%20painting,Lenin%2C%20with%20his%20genitals%20exposed. His latest artwork deals with wokeness and is depicted below.

Brett Murray has introduced the useful concept of degrees of wokeness. For those of you might have been in hibernation for the past decade the definition of woke means a state of being aware of social problems such as racism and inequality and taking extra care not to cause offence to anyone. To be woke is to be virtuous and to be woker is even more virtuous and to be wokerer is to be extremely virtuous. A novel and developing field is thus the mathematics of wokeness which is particularly challenging for those people schooled in logic and conventional mathematics.

As with all languages the English language literally has thousands of derogatory terms. I don’t know what it is about humans and their need to be derogatory. Derogatory terms are however not equal, and some terms are mildly derogatory others more so and at the extreme there are some words  that are so derogatory that one may never say them ever. This then brings us to the mathematically curious issue of how one can deal with these words if they can’t be said, written or even thought about. To illustrate this, I will start with an example using a derogatory term I believe we are still allowed to use:

Trump is a moron = Trump is a m***** = Trump is a M word.

Mathematically one may then infer:

Moron = m***** = M word

In April 2021, I believe one may still say moron, but these things shift with time. As moron starts becoming more unacceptable there will come a time when you are not allowed to say it anymore, but you will be allowed to say “m*****” or “M word” provided you whisper it and feel suitably guilty and dirty. The ultimate objective will be to expunge all versions of the word moron from the English language and in this way, you will eliminate all morons from humanity. A worthy objective. As moron starts becoming more unacceptable people will say to you , “Don’t say moron its unacceptable and offensive”. You will then need to apologise profusely and promise to never say it again. Things then progress from there and there will come a time when merely mentioning the word moron is an offense and you may not even say, “don’t say moron”. This is very well explained in the excellent article by the philosopher David Benetar. https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/the-new-blasphemy. The topic was also dealt with by Monty Python in the life of Brian. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnn2aGVcCEc

The mathematics of this does get complicated. I may for example say, “I am an Mlungu”. This is a South African term describing a white person. Some people see this term as offensive so there may come a time when it needs to be replaced with m***** or M Word and you will never be allowed to say mlungu again. You might then think this would create some confusion regarding what M word means but here is where mathematics comes to the rescue. I have a proof which I have scribbled in the margin which ultimately proves:

Mlungu = Moron

There is thus no need for confusion and the meaning of M word is perfectly clear. Mathematically one can now actually prove what is going to ultimately happen to all derogatory terms. They are all going to be expunged and only nice words will be retained and allowed. Bright and beautiful will be allowed but dull and ugly will disappear. Dull and ugly things will also disappear from the real world and we will enter a glorious new age of wonder. The rate at which this is going to happen depends on your degree of wokeness.

It is not sufficient to be woke be wokerer

Thank you very much for the many helpful suggestions and input which I’m researching and please keep the submission ideas flowing.

Regards

Bruce