The Cautionary Tale of Petrol-less Britain

Turns out that Britain is in a bit of a pickle. For months we’ve heard of a fuel shortage that makes the petrol stations of Britain look like something out of snapshots of the economic crisis in Lebanon. With people queueing for hours just to get a spot of gas in their tanks.

But a fuel crisis is far from the only issue that is plaguing post-Brexit Britain. Empty shelves in the supermarkets, elder care work force shortages, and the meat industry are all staggering from the effects of PM Boris Johnson’s bull-rush toward the EU exit.

Sure, the plague didn’t help matters none. It never does. Unless you take carbon footprint into account, because it briefly helped with that.

So what? Everyone with half a brain between their ears knew that Brexit would be an act of self-mutilation by the proud once-empire. And as it goes, it wasn’t just predictable that the Cobbled Kingdoms would suffer, but it also could serve us as a valuable example.

An example of what? An example of how very fragile this world economy that our lords and evangelistic capitalists are so proud of. And also an example of exactly why our current globalist post-colonial economic system will never serve humanity honestly or, more specifically, evenly.

Allow me to elucidate…

Post-Brexit Britain shows us just how critical a low-paid, foreign work force is to a modern western society. Whatever rise out of poverty that Britain could boast about across the past few hundred years was because it had begun a process of outsourcing its poverty. Whether we’re talking about plantations in the Caribbean or imported labour from lower-income countries. And now that Britain has effectively cut its own legs off in a populist mad dash to score cheap points and unsustainable power for a gaggle of greedy twats, we can see just how absolutely essential that process of “poverty export” is to a western nation.

Britain isn’t alone. Not by a long shot. This self-inflicted curse of exported misery is endemic to western civilization. Or, perhaps, more succinctly, endemic to the free market system that has been projected onto the world as an unassailable status quo.

We can see as much by the example that post-Brexit Britain sets for us. Namely that a “developed nation” cannot exist without subclass humans to perform the dirty maintenance of or resource gathering for that nation. The living standards of any such nation is held up upon the backs of lower bracket nations, who in turn rest their weight on even lower bracket nations. So on and so further all the way to the bottom. The sweat-shops. The slave mines. The child labour yards and the concentration re-education camps.

Our “civilized” way of life in our precious western world requires poverty to deliver unto us our privileges. That’s the bottom line. And the lesson that post-Brexit Britain should make painfully obvious to us. Without people less fortunate, we cannot prosper under the current paradigm.

Much ado has been presented to “fight poverty”. But despite optimistic count-downs to end world poverty, even the World Bank isn’t as optimistic. And it turns out that a frequent tool to project progress in the “war on poverty” is to simply not update or adjust the definitions in accordance to inflation or the rise of the cost of living, et. al.. The same methods, basically, by which the US has been able to motivate not raising the minimum wage, while the costs of living have sky rocketed, relying instead on rocketing personal debt to close the gap.

So, what’s the point? Why am I harping about income disparity like it’s some holy grail rather than a failure of the system. Because income disparity is not a failure of the system,. That’s why. It is a product of the system working as intended. And post-Brexit Britain affords us a snapshot look at that as simple fact. Because it makes it painfully obvious that the standard living conditions that we have come to expect cannot exist without a legion of poorer people to hold out privileges up on stilts.

This isn’t news. It is known. But people seem content to enjoy taking their privileges for granted for as long as they possibly can rather than internalize a grim reality. The reality that it is not in the best interest of our current global economic paradigm to fight poverty, because it is dependant on it. It is not in your best interest to fight poverty, because you and your privileges of petrol stations, elder care, super markets, and cheap chicken are all dependant on it.

And if we’re not willing to fundamentally change our lives and discard our privileges, we should be honest with ourselves about that.

/Sebastian Lindberg 19/10-2021

A Scattered Europe, With a Risk of Rain

It came. It went. And it splintered. Just like democracy is want to do. The European Parliament election results are coming in like a sobering hailstorm across Europe. And it is a mixed wind that carries the storm of media coverage.

It is easy to feel discomforted by the results. Italy’s neo-fascist Lega basically won their elections by a land-slide. Marine Le Pen and her own nationalist party in France also made head-way, beating the beleaguered Macron in the polls. And in the UK, the Brexiteers and the political hobgoblin Nigel Farage won, despite that the nation stands on the brink of being punted out of the Union all together.

Seems frustrating, no? I bet the Orange Hydra and his implanted anti-EU lobbyist Bannon must be wringing their hands in glee. So would Putin and Jinping, no doubt. And for us others, eager to see a strong Europe so that we shan’t be divided and torn asunder between the three hungry super-powers, eager to see a strong voice on the global stage that at least tries to make headway toward sustainability, we’re still shitting bricks.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Sure, the big populist, nationalist names have moved ahead. Salvini, Le Pen and Farage have secured dangerous representation. It’s not great. But if you tally the European Parliament, and the sub-groups within, there are plenty of silver linings. Liberals and Greens were actually the big winners in the election, gaining some sixty seats between them in a house of 751 chairs to be filled. That’s not nothing.

And even though UK’s Brexiteers won big, so did the Liberal Democrats, who are staunchly Stayers. In right-wing Hungary, the dictator-wannabe Orban, sadly did well in his country’s election. But so did new voices. Like those of relatively liberal Momentum, who brand themselves as a newer, younger voice for Hungarian politics.

Look, we all know that things are shit. And getting shittier. The planet’s broiling. We’re gorging ourselves on what precious few resources we have. Hate and fear rules the minds of the populace. Populist pricks exploit it to gain temporary benefits. But there’s a flip side. There always is. Just as there’s a flip side to openness and cooperation in protectionism and nationalism, there’s a flip side to the face of Europe that we’re seeing today. And that flip side are new voices. New ideas. New approaches to politics and rhetoric. In the US, we see it in the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In Europe, we see it in the young women and men that push back against Hungary’s autocratic tendencies. We see it in the gains of seats for environmental and liberal voices.

Will it be enough though? Will more Green voices in the European Parliament make it so that political environmentalists will start focusing on redirecting our society toward not only sustainability but also allowing a healthy and abundant biosphere, instead of wanting to pave the entire continent in solar cells? With more Liberals, will they not only strive toward civil liberties and freedoms, but also start to question the frenzied market structure that mindlessly focuses on exponential growth, much like a devouring locust swarm?

To tell you the truth, I don’t know. I really don’t. If we could have done something more for ourselves and our biosphere, we would have by now. But you know what? Even though I would love for humanity to get its shit together and stave off the sixth mass-extinction that’s largely occurring due to our behaviour, I’m not optimistic. But what I am certain about is that I’d much rather die in a world with misguided optimism about the sustainable impact of electric bicycles and the power of the free market than I would in a dystopian hellscape riddled with remnant nation states warring for whatever scant resources are left. Because wouldn’t that be nice?

/Sebastian Lindberg 28/5-2019

Separation Madness

Theresa May, the Wicked Queen of the not so very United Kingdom, is whining that the European Union is trying to shaft her and the UK in their divorce case. She’s claiming that the EU is trying to undermine Brexit by prioritizing a split that “works for them”.

What do you expect? Of course the EU will try to make the best of this shit situation. This shit situation that the UK put everyone in! The EU didn’t ask you to move out! The EU didn’t suggest it! This is your ill-conceived choice. Don’t hold the EU responsible for bailing you out of the garbage fire of your own making.

Allow me some poetic license to illustrate the situation with an allegory.

Imagine being at the pub with your partner. Your partner is drunk, as usual, and gets very cross because (s)he feels that they didn’t get an equal number of chicken wings as you did. Before you can offer to buy a new batch, your partner flies into a rage. Your partner stands up, throws their arms around and starts shouting at your despicable behaviour and that you don’t respect them as a person. Suddenly, over a couple of undivided chicken wings, your partner is treating you in a manner appropriate only if you had admitted to having given them five counts of previously unknowable shoggoth-grade STDs.

In a spontaneous bid to cull favour with the local denizens, your partner elects to declare an ultimatum. Your partner says that if there’s a majority vote among the drunkards and assholes in the pub, (s)he will walk out on you. Then and there. Without a second thought.

You figure that this seems implausible. Inconceivable. That this outburst will only be worth it’s weight as a fun anecdote to tell your partner in the morning when they’ve sobered up a bit. Or, at least tell to your buddies. Certainly, a bar full of strangers won’t indulge in this stage drama. Surely.

Surely they do. Not all of them. Some ignore the malarkey like the sub-par circus act that it is. But enough of the patrons get engaged. A few think that your partner is stupid. But more decide that this is either a good idea, or that they just want to see if your partner will go through with it. For a giggle, like. So, the gin well in question votes that your partner should leave you. You can only sit and stare in awe at the democratic parody of what you just witnessed. In a flurry of genitalia-related insults, your partner throws your promise-ring in your face, and storms off.

The next week, right as you’ve recovered a semblance of balance in your life after the night in the pub, your ex-partner re-emerges from whatever swamp they have lurked in since. (S)he comes bearing demands. That they be given equal split of the apartment furniture, gets visitation rights with the family gold fish and that you should pay alimony for the divorce. It’s naught but right, right?

See this, Britain? This, this hypothetical “partner”? That’s you right now. You fucked up, and there’s not a feasible reason on this earth as to why the EU should go easy on you. They could, out of the kindness of their heart, but there’re bigger things at stake than your petty exit strategy. Oh, the big bad EU isn’t being fair to you during the divorce procedures? You. Left. You did. It wasn’t an accident. We weren’t cheating. It wasn’t some cosmic force majeure that premeditated the split. The heaven’s didn’t open up and command you to fuck up this problematic relationship we had. It was all you.

Suck it!

/Sebastian Lindberg 2/5-2017