In English: To Do: Think

Writing this column was hard because I hate many columnists. I hate the way they whine, talk about feelings or personal enlightenments or home décor, spell the whole thing out and tell you what you should think and how. Good columnists don’t kiss and tell; they state the facts and let the reader decide whether they want to be right or wrong.

Writing this column was hard because right now, there’s nothing left in me but exasperated boredom. People seem to have lost all sense: occupying Porthania? Fun, admirable even; I completely support your goals. Your methods, however? At the general assembly it was decided that direct democracy is to be demanded all throughout the educational system. When someone asked what was meant by direct democracy, one of the facilitators replied: “Um, well, I think it’s pretty clear. Something alike to what we’re doing now.”

What? That’s the emptiest definition of direct democracy ever. Ever.

 

People seem to have lost all sense: normal people, the people at your job, at your school, in the government, are turning into mindless migrant-opposing sociopaths. Instead of 5,49 million people inside the Finnish borders, we now have 5,50 million people, some of whom have differently colored skin than the “us” others are desperately trying to construct. Did you see the picture of the “human wall” in Tornio? Small wonder some of the immigrants hate the city. I hate it too.

People seem to have lost all sense: yes, the budget cuts are so stupid that one can’t help but marvel. However, isn’t it better to cut from people who have jobs and a steady income than from people who don’t have a job or live on government benefits already? Of course the budget cuts increase gender inequality. So does the whole current government programme, where only equality between “men” and “women” are mentioned. There were 30 000 people protesting against their Sunday wage being lowered from 200% to 175% but only 15 000 people protesting against racism and inequality. Talk about picking your battles.

 

People seem to have lost all sense: we no longer even try to live according to what we know. Facts and knowledge are useless in argumentation mostly based on who dislikes what the most. Misinformation and biased personal experiences weigh more than any truth.

People seem to have lost all sense and it makes me angry and cynical. This is not a column telling you how to think about things. This is a column telling you to think.

Text: Sofia Blanco Sequeiros