They are terrorising us all.

by Shahmir Sanni

We are waking up in the morning every day now exhausted. Not only has the pandemic ignited a deep fear within our hearts, it has invoked many to cater to their most irrational desires and views. What has enabled this chaos is not God, but a system designed to not handle it.

Just a few days ago one of the most prolific leaders of the ruling Party insulted an organisation for feeding British children. That children were being fed was an issue for the people in power. Is this not terrorism?

More and more we are seeing how corruption and ineptitude are not mutually exclusive, and that in the comfort of their million dollar homes, political leaders are finding comfort in this chaos in which we are consumed. Centrists are fighting people more attuned to the left, liberals are shaming progressives and vice versa. When we should all be coming together in the face of such economic and health-related catastrophe, we are instead distancing ourselves and becoming ever more consumed by our own needs and desires.

Selflessness is difficult precisely because it requires a lot of hard work. It is not easy to just say you are kind — it requires consistent and committed action on a daily, hourly basis. Every approach and thought we have requires scrutiny and when the world is falling apart, it is understandable when people do not want to bring further burden onto themselves in the form of self-reflection and self-critique.

But how can we expect the individual to practise love and kindness when the foundation on which their entire countrymen stand is so centred around selfishness and personal ambition. Many are depressed, even more are anxious. Britain has always had a problem with mental health and now more than ever we are seeing a crisis of both physical and mental health exposed. The problem itself being exasperated by a lack of support, a lack of kindness and a lack of love.

In my own personal journey through British politics, and after, I have tried to understand this system through literature, journals and qualitative analyses. I have found nothing new, nothing that hasn’t been said before that needs to be immediately brought to light. But one of the many lessons I’ve learnt is that it is but a part of human nature to be apathetic to history, and when we are not apathetic, apply historical analyses without nuance and understanding in order to satisfy our own irrational fears.

The fact is, billions of pounds have been given to private companies and individuals connected to our government. Children have been left so helpless by the British state that football players and members of the public are having to intervene to not let them starve. The sheer calamity of our social crisis is unbearable to many of us, and the ignorance toward it from our leaders and half of the country is even more debilitating. It is for this reason that so many of us have tread down a path with no resolution or justice — a path that has centred not our own needs or our own communities but the needs and desires of a people that do not like us, will never like us and have never liked us.

So irrational has our fear become that many of the people we look upto are focusing their attention, wealth and passion onto those that have caused great pain. Instead of focusing on building ourselves as stronger and bigger, we are instead resorting to tit for tat fights with right-wing journalists and commentators who merely build their platforms on our insatiable rage over the injustice we see and experience. Instead of putting our efforts onto movements and organisations and people that are focused on building a new Britain, we have become comfortable with picking on the right for their inadequacies in the useless and unforgiving hope that some right-winger may see the rationality and reason of our outrage.

Here is where I feel that so much of our current state of being is being torn apart. In this desperation to try and make others aware of our self-righteousness we have forgotten and disregarded what it means to be righteous and good. We justify our actions of resentment for the right because it makes us feel good — but all it does is reaffirm our own sorrow and enable them to double down on the absurdity of our actions to their own supporters.

Now look, I don’t claim to have answers — again, I can speak from only the books, journals I have read and my own personal lived experience within Westminster and as a campaigner. But I find it increasingly concerning that so many of the people who are fighting the right have become so consumed with ‘calling out’ and entertaining the right-wing press and people of this country rather than building on something better, greater and more scalable than what the right have offered to the British public.

Can we blame the country for voting Tory when the people who aren’t Tory are building movements around anger rather than around dreams and ideas that no Tory would ever dare to consider? Just to be clear, I do believe we can blame the country for voting Tory and I think that Tory voters should be ashamed to even consider that their values are the same as the corrupt criminals sitting in government. But here is why I am frustrated and concerned about our fight. The innate belief that somehow Tory voters will see their own irrationality shows a deep misunderstanding of British culture, elitism and classism. It shows a total lack of understanding of how white supremacy works and how the Conservative government has radicalised their electorate into never appeasing or listening to us. So why are we wasting time trying to meet them in the middle…there is no evidence, no qualitative or quantitive study that says this is a good idea. It is merely the whims and advice of advisors and politicians who have put us through a dozen failed progressive campaigns. The people we have propped up as our leaders and truthsayers are a product of the apathy I spoke of earlier. And it is time for us, as the public, to demand more from our own side. And to remind them that if they do not refocus their efforts on giving us dreams to imagine, rather than Tories or Brexiteers to amuse, they will no longer hold their positions of power.

It is high-time that we move away from appeasing the idea that reason will win over the hearts and minds of people who are entirely driven by hatred and selfishness. They will never vote for us because their values are not ours. It is not divisive to say this, it is merely a reflection of one person who has taken on the state and been brutally violated by it. Through that trauma I have learnt much, but moreso I have learnt about the need for dreams and love and kindness to return to our side.

If we continue to try and find reason from people that hate us, and that will never listen to us, what is the point of calling ourselves good people. It is not in the thoughts we have that we should seek validation but in the actions we take to ensure that none of these people ever gain power. And if you, personally, are not acknowledging the absolute danger and catastrophe of the Tory regime, then you are complicit in the continuation of a system designed to keep us fighting, while they keep winning.

I don’t see room for compromise when the compromise is trans people, muslims, black people and the working class pushed to the bottom. Consider why you feel comfortable making allowances for violence to affect everyone else but yourself.

Treat them as you would a terrorist organisation. Treat them as an extremist cult because they have radicalised themselves and their base to a delusion that is impenetrable. Give them not kindness when they give you hatred. They are starving your children. They are stealing your money. And they are driving this country down to a path of utter destruction, only for you to stand up and say ‘hey, listen, this is bad…surely you can see this?’ as they beat you over and over again. Look not for empathy when there is none, but seek resolution where there are people who can dream for everyone, regardless of their identity.