
What is wokeness? A close shave with a 4×4 got me thinking | Zoe Williams | The Guardian
When I’m cycling with my 15-year-old, I like him to go in front so I can see him, and he likes me to go in front, so he doesn’t have to make a judgment call about whether to overtake buses. We both like to spend the first five minutes of any journey arguing this point, to the extent that we lose any time advantage conferred by the bikes in the first place. On shorter journeys, it would definitely be quicker to walk. It’s not a bad parable for the maternal experience: you worry about them and think of it as altruism, but to them, it looks like you are ferociously prioritising yourself, fuming, “You go in front, you nitwit”, before eventually surrendering. This is why people can’t stand their mothers, then feel bad about it. This is what keeps psychoanalysts in business, and also Moonpig.