The performance art of petitions
In the circus of public opinion
I did not plan to write this, but two days after I finished my third post on the circus called politics, I got an email from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, urging me to sign a petition to the Federal Government of Canada, asking them to extend the carbon tax exemption for farmers to natural gas as well.
That was a handful, let me explain:
The carbon tax is the newest Canadian tax scheme. A tax on the most important element of life: carbon.
If you want to learn more, you can learn about it from this page of the David Suzuki Foundation. (David Suzuki is the Canadian equivalent of Al Gore)
The concept is stupid beyond belief, but that is NOT the subject of this post.
Politically, it is a genius move: it is a tax on - and therefore control over - life itself.
It is complex, arbitrary and ill defined, but these are not bugs. They are features, giving unprecedented power and flexibility to the government to “generate tax revenue” without further legislation.
The issue of the email and the petition is to:
“Take carbon taxes off all farm fuels.
The carbon tax makes it more expensive for farmers to dry grain and heat their barns.
Bill C-234 would remove the carbon tax from natural gas and propane used on farms.”
What the petition is asking for is a minor tweak, an insignificant detail on a law that shouldn’t exist in the first place; and therein lies my problem, very much in-line with the points I made in my last few posts:
Tinkering with a bad law, petitioning for slight changes in it gives it legitimacy
It is a tacit acknowledgement of your acceptance of the premise.
It’s akin to begging your rapist to use Vaseline.
It is also useless and counterproductive.
Useless in the sense that only a minuscule percentage is even considered, let alone acted upon, and counterproductive in the sense that even if it is successful, meaning that you get your wishes, it creates an obligation. You are expected to be grateful and supportive of the government who granted your wish.
I am not the kind of person who signs petitions or marches in protests. They are just part of the circus commonly understood as politics.
We shouldn’t dismiss them completely, as they do shed some light on the dirty deeds of governments, but I am yearning for a world where there is no need for them, where there is nothing to protest or petition about.
I also have an issue with its psychology.
When you open the petition page from the email, you will land on a donation page for the organization. What the organization is selling you is the illusion that you can make a difference, that you can do the right thing and you can get your voice heard.
Not very different from the charities who spend 90% of the donations on themselves and their fundraising efforts. On average, less than 10% goes to the hungry children or the latest endangered poster-creatures.
The organization, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, is also dabbling in opinion research asking deeply philosophical questions like: “Is Canada going in the right direction or wrong direction?”
The only positive function petitions have is keeping a tab on governmental power expansion and overreaches.
I have many friends who go to protest marches, answer opinion polls, sign petitions and donate to causes. I love them all and occasionally I do some of it myself, but we all must understand that they are just businesses to satisfy our psychological needs, selling us the illusion of agency and the phony satisfaction of doing “the right thing.” Every page, petition, survey and campaign is just an excuse to ask you for more money.
Doing any of these is NOT real politics, just performance art that you pay to participate in.
Like everything else on Substack, this is a reader supported publication.
You can help it by following or subscribing.
You can engage with it by clicking on like and/or commenting.
A ‘like’ costs nothing and is worth a lot.
You can help this Stack grow by sharing, recommending, quoting or referencing it.
You can support it by pledging your financial support.
Any and all of it will be much appreciated.
