This concerns all of us

When I readnewsthat a man had offered to lower a woman's rent, who was in financial difficulties, in exchange for her sleeping with him, my first reaction is despair over how far we still have to go to #respectoursisters. At least many of us are sadly far from it.

When inequality is discussed, it usually happens in a bloodless way; figures are presented, left-wingers talk about distortion, and right-wingers accuse them of fabricating statistics to tax people. This has become such a cliché that we know politicians' reactions by heart. And we don't pay attention to it because someone in a tie starts talking about an index, and we were always bad at math in school (at least I was), and the seriousness of the matter doesn't hit us in the face.

Not until news like this comes out.

This is not just about men and women and the respect deficit between them, although there is certainly a problem there. The news would have been just as ugly if the landlord had been homosexual and demanded similar services from a male tenant. Let's dive a little deeper and see how inhumane our interactions can become when one person is in a position to corner another simply due to unequal material status. Let's see what money can buy when all avenues are closed. Let's not look away, but let it sting our eyes what kind of circumstances we create by accepting that people are driven into despair and hopelessness!

We do that with our votes.

We are responsible for what happens in Iceland. We are citizens in a democratic state, and the distress of our fellow citizens is our distress. They are our brothers and sisters. A disparity in power, like the one reported in the DV news, is not an isolated incident that only has to do with the perversion of one man, but a screaming warning to us about how important it is to promote economic equality. To break down the man-made wealth structures that stand in the way of Iceland being able to provide people with the basic human rights of having a roof over their heads, access to education and healthcare, and opportunities to do good.

I am human like others and can therefore lose myself in bitterness in the run-up to elections and call the servants of capital evil names. This understandably upsets those who know people who vote for the Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn and their ilk every time a ballot is placed in front of them. People I care about do this unthinkable thing too. Those people are not bad, just to be clear. And property owners who wrap their claws around our democratic institutions and prevent us from making any changes for the benefit of the less fortunate? No, they are not bad either. The word evil is value-laden and empty. Let's rather use the word "unconsciousness."

The thing is, tomorrow we vote, and then it matters that unconsciousness is not allowed to continue. Wealthy people should have the decency to stay out of politics. Everything they do is a potential conflict of interest. But as long as they offer their services in political work, it is our responsibility to deny them our mandate. Just as one would deny a drunk person their car keys. Money is not just numbers on paper. Inequality is not just a fucking math problem. It is a dungeon where one person has to surrender their self-respect to receive basic human rights from another.

Símon Vestarr