Hi, Margo et al.

First and foremost, I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my increasingly cynical heart (watching the unfolding of this election campaign will do that to a person) for giving me something to finally hang my political hat on. (Yes, that was a split infinitive. No, I don't much care.) And I've only read the introduction of Not Happy, John! -- the Great Whomever knows how I'll feel by the time I get to the end of the book!

I have for some years been lamenting the impending death of democracy, as I see representativeness not-so-gradually decaying among our political and bureaucratic institutions. Reading John Ralston Saul's wonderful book Voltaire's Bastards is giving me words and concepts for what have been until lately merely gut feelings about the way in which we are being manipulated by media-savvy career politicians (and bureaucrats). Your book, I have every confidence, will take that process a step further by giving me a more specifically Australian perspective on the potentially palliative years of democracy in this country.

If I'm to be perfectly honest -- and what better way to be, given the subject matter of NHJ! -- I had begun to wonder if it was too late to do anything about the increasing opacity of government and lack of representativeness among our politicians. I firmly believe there has been a shift from representative parliaments in this country to what I consider has become almost the rule of a political and bureaucratic elite. These are people who genuinely see themselves as quasi-emperors (although not so much born as trained to rule) rather than the political representatives of the people who elect them. And the opacity I mentioned is their greatest tool for keeping things that way. That an increasing proportion of our current crop of politicians has never had a job outside the political circus is also gravely disturbing, but that's another story for another day.

I feel compelled to mention that I'm not a socially isolated conspiracy theorist seeing ASIO assassins behind every picket fence in suburbia (though the town in which I live is a far cry from suburban Australia, I hasten to add). But I do yearn for just a smidgen of openness and truth in government -- and for the Australian public to grow a collective, linear memory that reaches beyond today's headlines (assuming they even bother to read a serious newspaper) or 10-second electronic grab. Who remembers Howard's first term, in which he implemented his much-vaunted code of ministerial conduct? Three or so ministers down the toilet later and that code of conduct bit the dust faster than a Mexican in a Clint Eastwood Western! And this is a prime minister who wants us to elect him on the basis of trust?

The political world in which we Australians (and, at more extended levels, Westerners and then global citizens) live leaves so much to be desired that I don't even know where to begin. Or didn't until this morning, when I picked up your book, Margo. And then I visited the NHJ! website, and suddenly I see that there is hope for those of us poor, deluded souls who still believe democracy not only should be democratic, but perhaps even still can be. For that I cannot thank you enough.

I grew up in north-western NSW, in the National Party heartland, and attended an all-male agricultural high school. No prizes for guessing where my political allegiances lay at first! For the first couple of elections in which I participated I felt genetically compelled to vote National. Then I went to college (which became a university while I was still there recovering from my first-year student hangover, an ailment that afflicted me for about two and a half years) to study journalism, and rubbed shoulders with many of the types of people against whom I had once railed (or worse, felt sorry for) in my conservative (and born-again religious) adolescence: gays, Aborigines, people of various ethnicities and non-Christian religious persuasions, and so on. At the same time, the world of ideas began to open up for me, slowly at first to be sure, but ultimately it was as if a dam suddenly burst in my soul. I am now, in short, an atheist with a broad leftist streak when it comes to matters of social justice and politics. That I am a huge fan of Philip Adams will tell you a great deal, no doubt.

The point of the preceding paragraph was partly to position myself personally and politically (and the point of this sentence suddenly became to practice my alliteration skills -- what fun!), but also to show that change is possible. If I can have my world turned on its head, my belief system totally rebuilt from the ground up, then why can't others? And I don't mean that in terms of the left-right political spectrum, but rather of what we expect of our representatives in parliament and our bureaucrats. The idea that we simply take what's given us by our political leadership can and should become anathema to the vast majority of Australians, whatever their political persuasion. I guess the question then becomes 'will it?'. That is a whole other can of worms or kettle of fish (depending on your culinary preferences). I wish you luck, though the cynical little grub that's eating into my heart is trying to tell me it's a vain wish. How I wish I could plunge my fist into my chest and squish that nasty little bugger 'twixt thumb and forefinger! Maybe Margo's book will do that for me.

I've taken enough of your time (assuming you've made it this far without screaming or lunging at the scotch bottle for a medicinal dram), but might feel compelled to bend your e-ear again when I've finished reading the book. In the meantime, back to this dreadful election ...

Cheers, David