The Bogan Delusion, D Nicholls, Affirm press 2011
Great title, pity the contents don’t match up. After reading this book, and further perusal of parts of it, i’m still unclear what the author is trying to say.
At times it seems like a paeon to the virtues of suburbia against the horrid ‘elites’ of the inner city. Sort of what you might expect from the IPA or any other extreme Right wing organisation. Yet he can qualify himeslf reasonably well, as he did on page 15 by debunking the Right wing mythology of we are a classless society.
Unfortunately this insight seems to end from there, as he trots out all the horrid cliches of the Right, of middle class elites, anti-bogan elites, the privileged few of the inner city cafe society, all this you can read in the Murdoch media.
The book generally flows along these lines, through its 200+ pages.
In his conclusion he talks about the divisions which are becoming more pronounced in Australian society, and the way individuals and groups in our society are writen off but, by his own use of extreme Right wing rhetoric, he perpetuates the problems, he intimates he wants us to tackle. Not good enough.
So if you have a spare $22.95 I suggest that, rather than obtain this book, it’s far wiser to wait for the next TAB meeting at Leeton or Naranderrra, and invest it there.
Cheers,
Glen!
