I find this article somewhat meandering. It identifies that sheep exist and that they are drawn to the beaten path of what has already been done before. Then it tries to brand activism/wokeness as what sheep do in the footsteps of previous protests. It concludes that these sheep have to grow up from children into adults. Respecting 60's era authority seems to have been made analogous to adulthood. A question I have is what is this adult independence that the author wants? Is it to respect authority and institutions? Wouldn't that ironically be sheeplike too?

I think that this article is unable to sympathize with why youth are "sheeplike" in the first place. Within the context of stagnant wages for average Americans, it makes sense why sheep would be drawn to the same professions and schools as a "safe" ticket to a decent middle class life. Youth questioning whether authority and institutions are in their best interests seems like the reason why the protests existed in the first place. This problem has never been fully resolved, leading to the current woke activism. Wokeness can certainly be criticized but I think this is a weak angle to do so. It seems like to me that the worsening conditions for young people are directly leading to the more radical woke interpretations. (The article does tap into that the wokeness may not be in their best interests but I don't think a renewed respect for authority and institutions is what will be in their best interests either if they are already being failed by them.)