Left unread on the shelf

By Aussiegirl

Looks like the same situation prevails in Australia as here. The looney left speak to one another, hate Howard with the same passion that leftists in our country hate Bush, both hate Rupert Murdoch, and no one much pays attention to them. There is hope for Oz, after all.

The Australian has the story:

GO into most bookshops and on the shelf headed "Australia" is a growing genre of books written by academics on the Left and devoted to their version of the culture wars. A stranger to this country might imagine that the number and prominence of these books mark a leftist ascendancy in Australia, a triumph of collectivism over individualism. Anyone living here, of course, knows the truth.

Far from this plethora of books and essays being written by academic comeback kids with a progressive bent, these books represent the Left's last hooray. Anyone seeking to understand why the Left has utterly failed to connect with the people need only read a selection, such as Marion Maddox's God Under Howard, David Carter's (ed) The Ideas Market and Robert Manne's (ed) Do Not Disturb: Is the Media Failing Australia?. Pressed for time? Try Scribe's short book series. Or Dissent, Arena, Overland, Quarterly Essay, The Monthly or New Matilda online.

Reading these you get the feeling left-wing academics and commentators have been reduced to writing for each other. Not only do they appear in each other's publications but their audience is each other, stretching perhaps to their students.

That might be a market in publishing terms, but in the wider market of political ideas, they are singing from the sidelines. They resemble nothing so much as a high priesthood, keeping the faith as a godless populace sinks further into depravity. Or so they think. And that is why, going by the last four elections, the populace doesn't think highly of them, if it thinks of them at all.

This predictable genre of political whinge lit has a few central articles of faith. The Howard Government is the embodiment of political evil and Rupert Murdoch is the media equivalent. The list of commandments includes despising social conservatism and free markets. The list of hate objects has one common foundation: a profound disdain for the electorate.

Theirs are old battles, lost long ago. If the Left is to engage the Australian people, as opposed to its own priestly caste and diehard adherents, it needs to accept the verdict of the populace on these issues and move on.