Beating dickheads

Featured in

  • Published 20150724
  • ISBN: 978-1-922182-90-6
  • Extent: 264 pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

I KNOW EXACTLY how you feel. I see you at the brekkie table, reading a newspaper. You – a decent citizen, a reasonably informed voter, patriotic in your own quiet way. I know exactly, because I’m the same. Whether it was Julia Gillard and Labor who got your goat, or Tony Abbott and the Liberals who make you spew, the urge is universal: you sit at breakfast and poke your finger once, twice, thrice into the newsprint or touch screen. You turn, tongue-tied, head shaking, managing only to say to your spouse: What a dickhead!

This is natural. Healthy. A reasonable defence mechanism. We all feel disenfranchised, from time to time. From election to election, it’s like our vote is ultimately useless. Like our choices are always only the lesser of a few evils. Because what else can we do?

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

About the author

Miguel Syjuco

Miguel Syjuco is from the Philippines and the author of the novel Ilustrado (Vintage Australia, 2010), which won the Man Asian Literary Prize and...

More from this edition

Behind the mask of an emergency

EssayWinner, 2016 Walkley Young Journalist of the Year Awards – Student Journalist of the Year categoryTHERE WERE MANY things I didn’t understand. I grew...

The conscience of Somchai

EssayTAKE A BANGKOKIAN. Let’s called him Somchai. He’s in his mid-thirties and is of (typical) Thai–Chinese ethnicity.Somchai grew up in a well-to-do middle-class family....

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.