Out of the ordinary – Bad luck, disaster, democracy
BY JOHN KEANE
Griffith Review: Edition 28 Still the Lucky Country? (Review’s website here); an edited extract from this essay was published by the Sydney Morning Herald 26-Apr-2010, Page: 9
The Lucky Country by Donald Horne is among my treasured Australian books. When first tempted to open its covers, as an undergraduate student of politics, long-haired and lined up for conscription to Vietnam, I found myself attracted to the unsettling question posed within the opening pages of its deft description of contemporary Australia: what if things turned out badly? What if disaster struck down the arrogant politicians too set in their ways for the good of their country? What if bad luck suddenly laid its hexing hand on the shoulder of the sun-tanned bloke in an open-necked shirt, the natural-born democrat solemnly enjoying an ice-cream, his kiddie strolling beside him?