Dear David Cameron, and maybe all of us, me included.

I received a letter from David Cameron yesterday. I live in what is considered a marginal constituency in the coming election and therefore he wanted to beg for my vote by bad-mouthing Ed Milliband and the SNP and talking about the economy. A lot. And nothing else.

I felt angry. I thought I should respond, it would be rude not to right? Even if it was just so I could untangle my own angry knot. As I wrote, my anger grew and became uncomfortable and itchy. I realised my anger was not exclusive to David Cameron, but probably many of the other parties, the choice I face in this election, the pressure to have to vote tactically to keep someone out, rather than vote for who I want to see in government, and also anger at the world, our age old global cultural paradigm built on White colonial power that still covertly rules, however politically correct we pretend to be. And at myself, for my impotence in being any different or standing up to things I disagree with. It's easier to eat a doughnut or watch a YouTube video of a cat meeting a lizard and freaking out.

Anyway, this letter won't really help. But more than anything, it's a message to myself not to forget where my passion lies and to keep doing the work I think is important, on myself. It starts from right here, where each of us stand. If we can't be the change, what's the fucking point?

Here is David's letter:

 

 

 
My response:

David!

How did you know how much I love receiving post? Aww, you really shouldn’t have. Especially at such a busy time.

No seriously...you needn’t have bothered.

It felt like getting a letter from an old friend, except for the fact that you left off my younger sister who has been knocking around for 21 years and is also registered to vote in this constituency. I would expect an old friend to know that. But she will soon be footing her £44,000 bill of tuition fees, so perhaps you thought she might not want to hear from you right now?

If I’m honest, by the 5^th use of my first name I started to feel quite uneasy David. As if you didn’t want to tell me anything at all, or fill me in on your news, but just show off how good you are at mail merge.

Language is interesting, your letter reminded me of that.

-          You mentioned us by name 7 times. Cheers for that. Really hammered home my own name to me.
-     You mentioned the economy or used money-based language 15 times. In one short letter. You used it even when you weren’t talking about the economy. Shows where your priorities lie eh David?

I get it - you want to put an end to austerity and ‘continue building the British economy’. The problem is, you don’t seem to care about the fair distribution of that wealth or anything else besides economic wealth?

Let’s talk about what matters; our country. Oh, and how about the rest of the world, other species and the environment? Hang on. If we think about the rest of the world, we risk actually giving a shit about people other than ourselves don’t we? As we’ve seen, that’s not really on, because division is absolutely key to your economic plan. And the economy is key to, well, everything.

Britain needs to get back on top in your eyes, clamber back up on its hierarchical ladder where it can poke away any rage from the marginalised with a sheepish smile, a furrowed brow and the insistence that using the newest politically correct language means you are actually politically correct or aware of or open to discussing issues of diversity or inequality.

If we look inwards, to Britain, we see stories of how you have helped to grow the British economy and started getting us back on track. All this success while more people than ever are using food banks. So where is their share? The welfare and social care sectors are facing increased cuts in order to ‘balance the books’ while the corporations get away with lucrative deals and tax-dodging.

How you treat your own people is reflected in your view on to the wider world. But it’s not just you David, I’ll admit that. It’s the whole of our archaic global cultural paradigm that desperately needs to shift. First World nations have set the bar by cashing in their wealth and attempting to drown out protesting voices that don’t fit their narrative. We have forgotten the sacred importance of community in favour of focussing on the individual. We need voices that represent everyone. We need to recognise that we are everyone. If we fail at diversity, we fail to connect in the deepest sense as a community. We become unsustainable as a group and do little good for anyone around us. Shit needs to change. Badly.

How do we do it? Awareness. Start by being aware of your own functioning. Seek to come into contact with your own prejudices every day. Don’t pretend you don’t have any. Talk to someone that repels you, or that you realise you already have a stereotyped perception of, before you’ve met them. Name what comes up for you – discuss the stuff we try to avoid all the time because it makes us uncomfortable and causes friction with our rooted perception of the world. Seek to expand beyond mainstream ideas that can make you feel like a claustrophobic pea. What do YOU think? The work is everywhere, in every moment, for all of us to do. Try to be open, be curious. Try listening. Until we own our own shit, we’ll just keep projecting it onto ‘the other.’ It’s safer that way apparently. But the danger is what we’re seeing playing out in the world – repression of a problem doesn’t make it go away. If we fail to own our own shadow, we cast a collective darkness much bigger than the one we’re running away from.

It’s a tall order, but one we can all do something about. Starting right now.

It may seem like I’ve gone off on a tangent, but really these issues underlie the surface of a politics and a modern culture that frustrates a great many of us today. I’m looking for a leader who is actually a decent human being with enough self-awareness to understand how his or her decisions will impact the group of people he or she is leading. A leader who looks out for everyone, not just his own. David - your inability to acknowledge the marginal voices in Britain (as well as elsewhere) is why I won’t be helping you out in this marginal constituency on 7^th May.

As far as I’m concerned, you can jog on.