Trust and a functioning country: An election story.

If the world ever needed evidence that our society is better protected when we try to keep minorities, immigrants, and the weakest members as close as possible in the inner circle of our society, then the Covid crisis has provided that proof by the bucket load.

From relative safety here in Finland, we can see countries that have moved off to the right or become brainlessly populist and we see how they have suffered greatly during this pandemic. Britain, USA, Brazil, India and similar countries left themselves open to the horrors of pandemic because they discarded the one thing that leaders needed : people’s ability to trust in the system. 

This kind of distrust is an inevitable result when people allow far right politics to gain a foothold.

Finland and its people understand that their system is founded in fairness, common sense and people. So when a worldwide panic begins and our elected leaders say that immediate and drastic changes in the way we live our lives is needed in order to survive, we trust that they know what they are talking about and more importantly we trust that we won’t be screwed over by them.

“If one part of the engine is broken, the whole car stops working.

This kind of trust does not develop over the course of single election cycles. It takes decades of sensible people understanding that the country is like a car. If one part of the engine is broken, the whole car stops working. 

So, that’s that. We are fine here in Finland, right? Well, no. 

Here, polls in the upcoming council elections are slowly edging towards that same far right direction that resulted in failing states and broken societies like Britain and the US. This needs to be resisted. After the last few years of world wide chaos, the people of Finland should clearly see that what we have is worth keeping and better still, develop further. And we look to other countries and see what happens when we succumb to right wing ideologies. 

With so much decision power resides in City Halls around Finland, this coming council election is a good time and place to acknowledge what we have, and a voting for a party like Vasemmisto will make a statement that we as a nation want to improve what we have. Not stagnate and certainly not reverse into resentful right wing chaos.

Personally, I watch these failing countries digging mass graves or worse burning thousands of people, and I despair at the thought that people in Finland would be ok to have a society that would allow that to happen.