Neither our hopes nor outrage will find a solution at the ballot box under first past the post, representative democracy.

Beta copies of the Green & Pleasant Land will be available in 2-3 weeks. If you want one, direct message me, and I will make sure you get it.

It's coming to the end of a short month and I will be short on my rent. So, if you are able please tip or become a paid subscriber.

Yesterday, during my two-hour walk under clear skies, the sun was warm. I haven’t felt the warmth of sunlight on my face since last October. Today, the rain is cold and will soon turn to ice. Tomorrow, there is talk of a heavy snowfall. February always ends with the death throes of one season and the birth of the next.

Generally, I don’t feel over-energetic at this time of year. But lately, I’ve felt more out of sorts than normal. It’s a sleepless malaise that ran away with itself and became an ambulatory depression. Everything is done with less enthusiasm and virtually no enjoyment.

Five years ago, I was like this emotionally and physically before my cancer diagnosis. Then internal bleeding was the culprit. Now it’s hard to say. I honestly don’t believe the cancer’s come back. My last CT scan showed a growth in the liver. However, it was deemed too small to categorize. It was marked down for further investigation on a follow-up scan due in April. Jokingly I said the lesion was from a gin and tonic that decided to tag my liver like a graffiti artist.

I feel deflated and debilitated because prolonged exposure to neoliberalism like radiation ruins your health and shortens life expectancy if you are an ordinary citizen living in a G7 country. Yet, we are the lucky ones because everywhere else thanks to the USA and its vassal states, existence for the ordinary is far worse. It’s short and brutish and not going to improve.

The West is rearming at a pace not seen since the years before the First World War. The entitled want to make a hefty profit before they annihilate humanity by initiating a World War which will include nuclear missiles.

Photo by National Library of Scotland on Unsplash

Keir Starmer this week gutted Britain’s foreign aid budget to build weapons of mass destruction to curry favour with Trump. Germany will follow suit once its new Chancellor is installed. Canada with the determination of a four-year-old calling out wait for me to older siblings has promised Trump that its nation will remilitarise for the benefit of shareholders in the 1% class. It can only do so by ending foreign aid programs and social services, like public healthcare for citizens.

We all see it happening. But that doesn't stop Western leaders from gaslighting us and convincing too many that they are on the side of righteousness. Their brazen invidious bullshit grates against democracy as if it was advanced osteoarthritis grinding against knee and hip joints.

Neither our hopes nor outrage will find a solution at the ballot box under first past the post, representative democracy.

There is nothing representative about democracy in neoliberal States, especially ones that follow a first-past-the-post system for electing politicians to legislatures. It is a performative exercise like a twice-yearly attendance at church on Christmas and Easter for social acceptance rather than to show reverence for a deity occupying the heavens above the earth. It reminds me of the 1970s when the West crowed triumphantly and said mockingly during times when the Soviet Union had elections.

"Look, so many candidates, but all from the same party answering to the same boss."

Today, in Ontario, where I live, there is a provincial election called by the incumbent premier, Doug Ford. He reeks of corruption, cronyism and contempt for the struggles of the millions in this province who aren’t wealthy. Despite, it being afternoon and 5 hours left until the polls close, I am contemplating not voting, which I have never done before.

But there is absolutely no chance Ford will lose this election. The riding I live in is not a marginal constituency, and a Tory is guaranteed to be re-elected to this seat. Casting a ballot in an election where a corrupt political party is guaranteed to win because the corporate news media enables it to happen isn’t democracy. Casting a ballot when the opposition's economic and social platforms are about as reformist as ordering scrambled eggs for breakfast rather than fried ones isn’t exercising your democratic franchise. Nor by voting in these sham elections are your affirming the responsibility you owe to all those who came before you who fought for their right to vote. It’s surrender to an impotent incrementalism that only serves the status quo. Build new political parties and tear down all the old centre-left parties because they have become the enemies of promise just as much as the fascists.

It’s a bit of an SOS with 36 hours left in a short month before rent day. About $186 Cad outstanding.

Your support keeps me housed and also allows me to preserve the legacy of Harry Leslie Smith. Your subscriptions are so important to my personal survival because like so many others who struggle to keep afloat, my survival is a precarious daily undertaking. The fight to keep going was made worse- thanks to getting cancer along with lung disease and other co- morbidities which makes life more difficult to combat in these cost of living crisis times. So if you can join with a paid subscription which is just 3.50 a month or a yearly subscription or a gift subscription. I promise the content is good, relevant and thoughtful. But if you can’t it all good too because I appreciate we are in the same boat. Take Care, John