The New York Times has coined the expression ‘dark Woke’ to describe the current strategy being used by the Democratic party in their mad struggle to counter the dominance of Trump. The Dems are in a bad way, with their current approval rating at 25 per cent – the lowest in their history. Hence throwing the switch to ‘dark Woke’. The NYT says this consists of saying all the same woke things as before, but saying them more aggressively, and in more abusive language. For many Dems this means swearing a lot in public appearances. For others it just means pushing the ‘Nazi’ label on everyone they disagree with. The newspaper says it is puzzled by the Dems’ celebration of rudeness and aggression. Why do Jasmine Crockett, Tim Walz and the rest of that gang think replacing normal political discourse with uncivilised rudeness will win them support? It’s a good question. And, no, ‘dark Woke’ makes no sense to me either.

We are only a quarter of the way through the 21st century, and already someone has decided to give a name, or label, to this whole century – as the Anti-Social Century. The term was coined by Derek Thompson in a cover story for the Atlantic magazine. His conclusion was that: ‘Self-imposed solitude might just be the most important social fact of the 21st century.’ In the article he talks about visiting a formerly buzzing restaurant and finding it almost empty. It was still highly profitable, but customers were now ordering home delivered meals rather than bothering to go out for the night. Of course the Covid period started a lot of this, but Covid has ended while self-chosen social isolation (it seems) has not. And there are other bits of evidence as well. It appears the membership of voluntary organisations is collapsing in most Western countries. People are now much less likely to join Lions or Rotary. It’s part of the reason for the decline in church membership. It’s why membership of the major political parties has collapsed. People will vote for, but not join a party. Part of the reason seems to be the rise of today’s technology. People live their lives glued to their devices – smart phones, tablets, laptops – rather than mixing and talking to real people face to face. According to a recent survey a third of British adults eat alone ‘most or all of the time’. The trend was predicted by sociologist Robert D. Putnam way back in the year 2000 in his book Bowling Alone. And Gen Z might be the loneliest of all. They are complaining about an epidemic of ‘flakiness’ – people cancelling plans because they ‘just don’t feel like it’. This is being done by guests invited to weddings, hen parties and birthday parties. Welcome to the ‘Anti-Social Century’.

The old word ‘flow’ has been given a brand-new meaning. A recent study out of Drexel University’s Creative Research Lab in Philadelphia, led by Dr John Kounios, sought to examine the ‘neural and psychological correlates of flow’ in a sample of jazz guitarists. In other words, while these musicians were playing their brains were wired up to measure which parts of the brain were doing what sorts of things. And, we are told, what was happening in their brains when they were being creative was a mental state now called ‘flow’.

Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi was the psychologist who first identified flow – ‘a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it’. The great jazzman Charlie Parker once said: ‘You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you practise, practise, practise. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.’ So, perhaps that’s what this new meaning of ‘flow’ is – just wail? Which brings us to the question: does this so-called new meaning of ‘flow’ make any sense? No. Outside the world of psycho-babble it means nothing!