Infrawoke: Seeing Beyond the Visible Spectrum of Woke and Anti-Woke
Abstract
This article develops the concept of “Infrawoke” as an alternative to both liberal “woke” moralism and conservative anti-woke reaction, which it presents as opposing expressions of a deeper crisis of moral authority in contemporary American society. Drawing upon Marxism, psychoanalysis, Hegelian dialectics, religious imagery, and a historical account of recurring American “Great Awakenings” and “Great Darkenings,” the article argues that both woke and anti-woke politics remain trapped within an antagonistic relationship to material reality. Infrawoke instead proposes a moral orientation grounded in humility, righteousness, good faith, purposeful ferocity, mercy, substantive truth, and opposition to gossip, while rejecting both performative moralism and nihilistic transgression. At the philosophical level, the article defines Infrawoke as a form of consciousness capable of recognizing the limits of conscious mastery and achieving a reconciled relationship with material reality, understood as a condition for revolutionary confidence and political action. The article concludes that such reconciliation provides a positive basis from which to confront existing social contradictions and orient political struggle toward the possibility of communism.
Keywords
Infrawoke, Wokeness, Anti-Wokeness, Moral Authority, Marxism
