Mathematics and wokeness don't mix

 kw: book reviews, nonfiction, mathematics, education, polemics

When education becomes indoctrination, genuine learning vanishes. I had high hopes for this book when I saw it: Is Math Real? How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics' Deepest Truths by Eugenia Cheng. As I read, I soon found my thinking sidetracked by hints of lunacy. Then on page 33 the text swerved into a sudden diatribe against white supremacy. Barely a dozen pages later the author, writing of logical reasoning and logical arguments, takes on the "straw man fallacy" (which she retitles the "straw person fallacy") by decrying sundry arguments against the notion of "white privilege". Hmm.

I looked at the profile photo and thought a while. Dr. Cheng is a British-born Chinese, rather young-looking (she's not yet 50, so a generation younger than I am). I lived Jim Crow before she was born; I know genuine white supremacy and white privilege. They hardly exist any more. The constant barrage of accusations regarding these things began during the Obama Presidential campaign in 2007, and continues to this day (it continues despite the fact that this Black activist was elected twice to the Presidency…or maybe because it's him behind the scenes egging it on). Then, along with many other false allegations, they were braided together into "wokeness", which is a slew of anti-white, anti-tradition, anti-family, anti-liberty trends that culminated in "cancel culture."

Muffling my discomfort, I continued reading. In the next chapter a similar tirade erupted, and I had had enough, not even a quarter of the way though the book. Either this math wizard is utterly suborned by leftism, or she's afraid if she doesn't kowtow to woke dictates she'll also get canceled. Either way, she fits the prompt that generated this image: "Defeated female wizard"

Here is my definition of WOKE: Wicked, Obfuscating, Kleptocratic Extortioners. And while we are at it, two of the left's favorite acronyms also belong on the chopping block: DEI = Devilish, Elitist Inversion of truth; and ESG is a total inversion, Environmental mismanagement + Social repression + utter misGovernance.

To be quite clear: Every element of wokeness is evil. The recent election is in part a mandate by a clear majority of the electorate to de-wokify America. Let's laugh the Leftocrats off the stage!!

When I decide not to finish reading a book it is my usual practice to not mention it; just to set it aside and read the next book and review it here. This time I have to pan it. The writing is mediocre but tolerable, the puppyish enthusiasm for topics hardly anyone has heard of is cute but distracting, and while the author's wish to calm the fears of mathophobes is laudable, her methods are off-putting. Far too many times, on rather simple subjects, she urges us to "think really hard about" something or other. Talks about tone deaf! There are many better books about math for those who fear math. This book is most likely to turn math-fearing folks into math-haters.