Lest We Forget

Remember when Brexit was the shittest thing in the news? They were good days. Amidst a rampaging European second-wave pandemic, a continuing first wave in the US, we have a divisive, all-encompassing US election. The most powerful country in the world has elected a new leader, and the President-elect is a different animal to his predecessor. Contrary to thoughts from both camps, the other team aren’t monsters. Arseholes? Well, sure, but not monsters. To my knowledge, no one has eaten a baby with relish. Maybe with chips or mayo. But divisions in politics go back to your core values, so I thought I’d share mine.

A bit of live for the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne

​I can’t sex it up, but tax is important. It pays for roads, doctors, carers, police, clean streets, museums, libraries, art, pristine parks with fountains, lakes and flowers. Tax supports those out of work or retirees on their pension. Tax pays (not enough) for teachers, the educators of your children - the literal future of the human race. With tax, governments can spend money on all these things. And if they don’t, we can kill them. What’s that? Oh. We can “vote them out of office”. When companies or even Presidents tax-dodge, that impacts everyone. They are robbing you.

​The environment. There are certain scientists I trust - Brian Cox, David Attenborough, Neil deGrass Tyson, The Germans – that believe climate change is real. I’ve seen bleached, dead coral, and plastic in our oceans. Neither is good. Being partial to oxygen, cutting down lots of trees, the perfect machine to produce oxygen, doesn’t sound a good idea. Even fossil-fuel fans admit the black stuff is finite. Embracing green energy will create a lot of jobs; it needs maintenance. We don’t have anything to lose by adopting renewable energy. If, somehow, it’s all a sham, our oil, gas and coal will still be there. It doesn’t disappear if we don’t use it.

​I like the idea of some omnipotent power that looks after us, who wouldn’t? But religion has no place in politics or decision making. If you want to believe in a divine cookie-delivery fairy (now we’re talking!), go right ahead, but religious rights don’t beat human rights. Logic and reason seem to be good cornerstones to found a society on. As do cookies and biscuits, all shapes and sizes. It’s important not to discriminate . . .

. . . equality is important. The gender split worldwide is roughly 50%. This means that women should have an equal share of jobs. Of the 220 countries in the world, there are about 20 female leaders. The same can be said for cultural diversity. If 20% of society – across all age demographics – were avid Rammstein fans, I would expect that if I pulled ten people together, two of them would at least not have to google who the fu** they were. When we say Black Lives Matter, what we’re talking about is equality. In 2018, black Americans represented 33% of the sentenced prison population, that’s nearly triple their 12% share of the U.S. adult population. There is something fundamentally wrong. Being black or ginger or very tall or blue-eyed doesn’t make you more prone to commit crime. More equal societies do better, simple.  
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Your list may be different. Different strokes for different folks, life’s rich tapestry etc I would advise against stuffing your face with as much pangolin and bat soup as you can muster as a value per say, as who knows what would happen. But that’s just me.