What do the words freedom, democracy, truth, woke, choice, and taxes make you feel? Carol Off writes in such an urgent and engaging way about what happens when the meaning of words get distorted, how that impacts not only our politics, but our relationships and our daily lives.
While each chapter is dedicated to a specific word, each chapter builds our understanding of what is happening in real time--right now, in real life. The final chapter on taxes is a brilliant crescendo that brings together everything we most value, connection, community, nature, health, education, equality, and illuminates the massive dark forces that are purposefully and intentionally working to take everything part, to spread climate disinformation and squash science, dismantle education, dismantle government regulation, and to elevate profit and wealth as the only value. It's wild reading this as it is all happening not only in real time (because it has been happening for a while) but accelerated to never before seen levels. What are these dark forces? People who use their enormous wealth to influence politics--even though they believe that governments should have little influence over people's lives. A major part of that thinking is anti-tax. And where did the most influential people--who are literally impacting our daily lives right now-- get their wealth from? The fossil fuel industry. Carol shows how this is not just happening in the USA, but in Canada with how anti science Harper was, and could rise again in this country, and it is all about protecting the most wealthy people and the most destructive industries.
What does this have to do with gender equality? Well, look at who is weilding the power, who is doing the dismantling--and who is being impacted. Income inequality is growing in Canada at the fastest pace on record creating a moral crisis with so few people holding the majority of the wealth. Carol refers to Astra Taylor who says that inequality is fundamentally about insecurity.
Carol writes: "What I hope for is that we find ways to renew our committment to being citizens who contribute and not serfs who bargain. It's about reconstructing a government that takes care of its people (even those who fail to vote for it) and a poltical sustem that's transparent; its about chooseing collectively who runs our country; and it's about universal access to all of the above."
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