5 Mar 2025

Petty revenge, activism or plain old frugality? Your vote counts!

So… democracy and global politics have not been looking to good recently has it? A decade of far right populist parties gaining serious traction in various European countries. Colonial Emerald Boy and wrinkly old Mr Artificial Ikterus turning the largest western democracy into a non constitutional playhouse for 19 year old self proclaimed “Big Balls” incels. A bald bookstore magnate and an allegedly non-reptilian social media emperor are trading blows to see who can hoard the most wealth, while trying their bests to maintain their FWB-relationships with aforementioned Mr Apartheid and the second coming of the Annoying Orange.

A video recently popped up in my Youtube-feed, mentioning how a person has to choose whether the universe should be considered good or bad, and how choosing to see the universe as a good is essential to good mental health and a positive outlook on life. Of course I wish that my own outlook on life and the world around us was on the positive side of the spectrum, however, the previous paragraph suggests the opposite.

What I suggest you do, no matter your outlook on life:

Having established, with my pessimistic (and hopefully somewhat entertaining) name-calling, that our global economy and political scene is not doing very good at the time, I would like to discuss what can be done about it.

When it comes to the political side, I suggest we do our best to keep our minds cool. We live in a time with unmatched access to information. But with our limited time, this is also a time when the battle for our attention has reached never before seen levels. Terrifying flashes, algorithm-curated feeds and sexualized advertisements all do their best to gain a foothold in our minds.

Of course, I do not suggest that we isolate our selves from the internet and media, or impose censorship on the internet or media. The vast amount of knowledge, community and diversity that is readily available through the internet is something I believe should be treasured and seen as one of the great accomplishments of our time. This enormous free flow of information is however not a Katana. As many things, it is instead a double edged sword. Free information flow is not an automatic, self regulating system, where the good and correct views come out on top.

In his recent book Nexus, Youval Noah Harrari challenges the view that more open communcation automatically leads to truth and reason. This view is shared by many today, including a ceratin gemstone funded tech charlatan, who believes that with free access to information and using his Truth AI, he can reach the ultimate truths of our universe. Harrari presents the example of the printing press, an invention often described as being the main component leading to scientific enlightenment and the ending of the so called dark ages brought upon Europe by the catholic church. He counters this slightly naive view by describing the consequences of one of the first best selling printed works, which is not De revolutionibus orbium coelestium by Copernicus, which could barely sell the 400 copies of its first edition. One of history´s first best sellers was instead Malleus Maleficarum (eng. The Hammer of Witches) by Heinrich Kramer.

So, the story of Heinrich Kramer goes like this: In a time where there is no real homogenous view of witches in Europe, with some cultures believing in withes being good or even male, Kramer develops a weird obsession with these mythical beings, conducting a series of investigations and subsequent trials. His methods, often cruel with very sexually explicit details being mentioned in his accusations, gets the attention of Bishop Georg Golser, who eventually bans him from pursuing witches in Insbruck, and forcing him to return to Cologne. Out of pure spite, and to share his view on witches, he proceeds to publish the The Hammer of a Witch, which becomes an instant success, being printed in millions of copies over dozens of editions all over Europe. It puts an end to the Christian community´s ambiguous and passive view on witches, cementing witches as evil women of Satan that need to be executed, leading to a 300-year-long witch hunt all over Europe. So why did Kramer´s vengeful delirium detailing the nature of witches do so well, when Copernicus work did so poorly.

Well, of course there is room for speculation here, but where Copernicus work did its best in describing the trajectories of celestial bodies, the themes of Malleus Maleficarum hit a lot closer to our evolutionary weak spots. Kramer´s detailed description of Satanic orgies, combined with scenes of witches feasting on infants, caters to parts of our nature that served us well throughout the more primitive part of our history. These are among other sexual obsession, xenophobia, disgust and terror. This might have served the hunter-gatherer well, ensuring we make sure to reproduce even in times of misery, bash members of enemy tribes in the head, and remain cautious of danger and unfamiliar behaviours. In a more civilized society, many of these instincts are made redundant by diplomacy, support networks etc, even if they still seem to reside in our subconscious.

Should blame be put on the 15th century people falling for this kind of “cheap trick”-media? Maybe. But over 5 centuries later, we should absolutely not be falling for that nonsense anymore. I call it cheap trick because I genuinely believe that someone using fear, xenophobia or sex to sell or push an agenda has nothing of real value to add. So they have to resort to exploiting our evolutionary Achilles heels.

This is likely the reason why populism and rampant consumption is so prominent. Not because there are suddenly are more essential products to buy or political ideas to support, but because we are at the mercy of politicians and advertisers using our instincts against us, leaving little room for reason. We can however do better. With a conscious knowledge of the tricks used against us, we should be able to discern between cheap shots at our nature and real policies driving us forwards. As beings that are more than our head-bashing Neanderthal ancestors, we can vote in a way that says: “I see you, I see what you are trying to do, and I will not fall for it!” when politicians try to scare us to gain power. Does not matter if you see the universe as evil or if you think good things will come to you, we can strive towards being more resilient than 15th century Europe.

Stick it to the man, keep your money!

Seeing through the smoke and mirrors, conjured up by the likes of Vladislav Surkov, and voting in a way that protects your rights and interests is a good first step. It is a way to be better than witch-burning peasants of yesteryear. A way to resist predatory anti-democratic wanna-be dictators.

There is however more that can be done. Voting is only performed every couple of years, and affects populists more than their oligarch friends. Transactions on the other hand, are performed multiple times a day by most people. Every transaction is an opportunity to support companies that are not part of massive conglomerates, and encourage the business practices you want to see. Or, for the ones feeling the need to get revenge on the large conglomerates of late stage capitalism(me), just do the exact opposite of what you are told: Don´t consume, especially not from the most predatory corporations.

It does not have to be more complicated than that. Of course, some consumption will have to take place, we all need food, clothes etc. But we have to remember that corporations, and nowadays, the oligarchs running them, do not care about what you think of them. They don´t care about what is said about them in newspapers and social media, as long as they are allowed to keep operating and people keep consuming their products. So of course, posting in social media about your distaste for a certain company might help spread awareness and shift public perception of said company, but as long as you keep giving this company your money, nothing is achieved.

A clear example is app based food delivery services. In my city, people regularly complain about the dystopian scene of restaurants flooding with poorly paid, uninsured immigrants workers trying to collect deliveries. But as long as people keep using these services, there is no reason for anything to change. Oligarchs and corporations only have one nerve ending, and it´s placed in their wallets…

… Make that nerve ending burn!