The swagman he up and he jumped in the water-hole,
Drowning himself by the coolibah tree,
And his ghost may be heard as it sings by the billabong,
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

'Waltzing Matilda', A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson (1895)

Three weeks before the American presidential vote, the political right was victorious in the Australian federal elections of 9 October. On 12 October I went to a book launch in Melbourne at which suicidal depression prevailed. The mood matched the text being launched, Boris Frankel's Zombies, Lilliputians and Sadists, a withering condemnation of socio-political non-progress over the past decade.[1] Australia has come to be run by zombies, who as they gain in confidence turn into four-wheel-drive, roo-bar sadists ('roo-bars' are the Australian version of 'bull-bars'). Footling left-wing Lilliputians have failed to contest this shift, occasionally making things worse.

LRB 18 November 2004 | PDF Download