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

The Myth of the Wasted Vote

Parliamentary elections are coming to the European Union. Oh, goodie…

It’s had a rocky past few years. With diminishing the freedom of the internet, at the hands of greedy publishing houses and fascist anti-unionists, to the whole Brexit debacle. But none the less, it seems to me the only way that the splintered and fractured cradle of western civilization can stand up to the three rotten titans of Russia, China, and the US. Better a European Union than a neo cold war pitting our old nations against one another for the benefit of reckless chess players.

Which leads us to the voting.

Now, it should come as no surprise that I’m tired and disheartened by our elected officials. Time and time again they prove to us that they are woefully unsuited to their task, caring more about their own wealth and their popularity rather than performing any kind of job at administrating our needs. And worse yet, they know this. The established political parties, in I would assume any democratic country, know that they’re rotten to the core. And they know that it shows.

So, instead they try to obfuscate the issue. Make the elective democratic process into a win-all-loose-all prospect. Where your voice in the matter of governance is nothing but a chit to be played at a high-stakes poker table that you’re not even allowed to play at. They try to warn you, bully you into giving them your vote, despite the fact that they’ve proven themselves incapable of administrating it to your satisfaction.

Because if you dare to voice your concerns with your vote, and grant it to an outsider party, someone not part of the political establishment, they warn you that your vote is wasted. Lost. That you might as well not vote at all. They argue that if you vote for a party that isn’t statistically guaranteed a seat at the big poker table, your vote won’t influence the game. And thus, that it is wasted.

It is a sad thing, to hear a professional politician caution the electorate like this. Because it shows in stark contrast that they themselves no longer understand the point of the representative democracy which they are supposed to be a part of. Because voting was never about winning. It was never supposed to be a poker game for the rich and wealthy, for the popular and the heartless. It was supposed to be a way for you, the citizen, to pick your representation. Not for you to win. Not for “your team” to victor over alleged opponents.

Because you do not owe the political establishment anything. If you elect to vote for someone else, someone new, then you’re not throwing your vote away. It is they, the political elite, that has squandered it. Treated it so carelessly and with so little regard that they have proven to you that they don’t value it anyway.

It is a shame that the prospect of giving your vote to an outsider political party has been hijacked by fascists and racists Europe over. There are plenty other groups vying to have a say in matters. Political parties that believe that the Internet have the power to set humanity free from bigotry and idiocracy. There are political movements that want to see science and knowledge rule the day instead of popularity and populism. But one thing is true for all the little parties that haven’t yet measured up enough to join the national and international parliaments in Europe; unlike the ruling elite, they aren’t complicit in fucking things up. They represent new solutions. Not the old paradigms that got us into this mess we’re in.

I’m not going to tell you how to vote though. Even though the established political elite has long since thrown away any confidence I ever had in them, that does not mean that the same holds true for you. But remember one thing, when they try to invalidate your notion to give someone new a chance:

No vote cast is ever wasted. And anyone that tries to tell you differently is doing so out of selfish, power-hungry concerns. And when they do try to bully you into simply going along with the program, they’re only proving one thing. And that’s that they have lost sight of what a representative democracy should be. Not a poker game for the high and mighty where you chip in for someone else’s power plays, but a chance for each and every citizen to chose their voice.

And the only thing you have to do is to chose yours carefully.

/Sebastian Lindberg 21/5-2019