Citizens of the contemporary Unites States are faced with the cognitive dissonance of a society which claims to reject the racist, sexist, homophobic and ableist ways of our ancestors, while daily experience betrays the inaccuracy of that world view. When confronted , those in privileged positions have learned to lean on social scripts in which we compare our behaviour to some of the worst examples we can conjure up, and in so doing we position ourselves as moral compared to that person. Chronic wokeness is a symptom of the incurable human condition of wanting to be a good person. Our cultural willingness to ignore obvious evidence in favour of a story that makes us feel better about ourselves has become our legacy. We are a country floating on the intoxicating cloud of permanent denial, thriving on narratives that present us as thoughtful, self-reflexive, and progressive -- in a word, woke.