So said one of the 21st century's greatest thinkers. Me. Prudence. I believe my lifelong fascination with my own ever-so-smart opinions began when I wondered why I was so much smarter than everyone I met. As a shopkeeper's daughter, I understood all the poor people who weren’t Prudences. You had to keep an eye on them. They nicked stuff.
The thing that really surprised me was not the opinions, but that they were articulated so clearly and unambiguously.
Ever since it became not really proper to that sort of thing in public and they took that verse out of All Things Bright and Beautiful*, explaining the moral bankruptcy of the ne'er-do-wells was shifted from God's hands to neoclassical microeconomics. Thus it is framed in terms it being their choice (or even more insidiously, their preference) to partake of the rough end of the welfare pineapple.
* From the original hymn lyrics, but generally no longer sung:
"The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them, high or lowly,
And ordered their estate."
For those unfamiliar, in these post-Christian times, the tune was the background music to those RSPCA ads with the bandaged animals walking across the screen.
Goward's article is so breathtakingly entitled and tone-deaf that even the most ignorant of editors would have known it would cause a shitstorm. So why did they run it? To reap the shitstorm and deepen the culture war I guess. How that hels the Fin Review I'm struggling to understand though.
Congratulations on satirising the unsatirisable. Nice to know that Pru has other uses for the poor other than maintaining the supply of Soylent Green. I'm starting to think that Stutchbury has actual brain damage. Surely no sane editor could publish Pru's rant thinking it was worthy of human consumption.
Outstanding response to Ms Gowan's piece, though for myself all I could hear when I read what was showing up on my social media with her writings was the echo of Percy Bysshe Shelley "Rise like Lions after slumber
Easily one of your best. A brilliant line-by-line parody of the original, which itself was so absurdly snobbish and offensively patronising, that if anyone didn’t know Pru’s form, they would have thought it a parody, too.
I've just forwarded on this brilliant piece of parody to my fb page. A friend sent me the AFR piece on Tuesday - appalling nonsense - incoherent - her various references indicate she knows little - and the whole tone reminded me of thing so much as that other shop-keeper's daughter - Meg Thatcher. What on earth is Pru's "underclass"? That she continues to be invited on to The Drum totally mystifies me. She stuffed up DOCS(FACS) when Minister - now she's pointing her fingers in a gatling gun fashion at a wide swathe of our society (though, then again, that other shop-keeper's daughter said there is no such thing as a society - only the individual)! If her effort were an essay handed in by a senior student (I was once a secondary school teacher of English) it might suggest to me the necessity for calling in the parents for a little chat. Or for remedial work in forming a coherent piece of writing. Or for anything which might assist her to develop a sense of compassion. But as it stands - not a pass standard! As for your parody - of her "parody", John - and as others here have already noted - first rate!
so aahhh for those of us living under a rock (or who didn't read the piece in the Fin, nor the fallout commentary) this was a bit esoteric. thanks to the comments below I was able to pick up the vibe....the prose was still enjoyable but feels like I missed the best of the satire as I haven't read the source material......so a quick search of the interwebz later.....WOW.
Oh look, got some old self development colleagues who think like that. One tried to 'help' me get a job a while back. Thankfully she must have complained to another prior colleague who got in touch and we've had a few great chats.
Damo - I'm really glad, in a way, that some people are saying this crap out loud. Like the CEO (?) who was on Fox or MSNBC or CNN saying that people "aren't worth $15 an hour". To hear that I was like - Thank god someone actually said that out loud. In public. On TV. Lets us see the rot.
I tell you guys, I reckon with their entitlement they feel protected by some unwritten rule that shame doesn't catch up with you. My theory anyway. No shame. Past never happened. No one cares anyway.
Either that or being reckless cos times up on being callous.
The thing that really surprised me was not the opinions, but that they were articulated so clearly and unambiguously.
Ever since it became not really proper to that sort of thing in public and they took that verse out of All Things Bright and Beautiful*, explaining the moral bankruptcy of the ne'er-do-wells was shifted from God's hands to neoclassical microeconomics. Thus it is framed in terms it being their choice (or even more insidiously, their preference) to partake of the rough end of the welfare pineapple.
* From the original hymn lyrics, but generally no longer sung:
"The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them, high or lowly,
And ordered their estate."
For those unfamiliar, in these post-Christian times, the tune was the background music to those RSPCA ads with the bandaged animals walking across the screen.
You’re so brutal, this one alone is worth the $50. Legend!
Goward's article is so breathtakingly entitled and tone-deaf that even the most ignorant of editors would have known it would cause a shitstorm. So why did they run it? To reap the shitstorm and deepen the culture war I guess. How that hels the Fin Review I'm struggling to understand though.
Congratulations on satirising the unsatirisable. Nice to know that Pru has other uses for the poor other than maintaining the supply of Soylent Green. I'm starting to think that Stutchbury has actual brain damage. Surely no sane editor could publish Pru's rant thinking it was worthy of human consumption.
Outstanding response to Ms Gowan's piece, though for myself all I could hear when I read what was showing up on my social media with her writings was the echo of Percy Bysshe Shelley "Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number--
Shake your chains to earth like dew 370
Which in sleep had fallen on you--
Ye are many -- they are few.'
Easily one of your best. A brilliant line-by-line parody of the original, which itself was so absurdly snobbish and offensively patronising, that if anyone didn’t know Pru’s form, they would have thought it a parody, too.
And yet, I like them. ... Doesn't even need tweaking.
I've just forwarded on this brilliant piece of parody to my fb page. A friend sent me the AFR piece on Tuesday - appalling nonsense - incoherent - her various references indicate she knows little - and the whole tone reminded me of thing so much as that other shop-keeper's daughter - Meg Thatcher. What on earth is Pru's "underclass"? That she continues to be invited on to The Drum totally mystifies me. She stuffed up DOCS(FACS) when Minister - now she's pointing her fingers in a gatling gun fashion at a wide swathe of our society (though, then again, that other shop-keeper's daughter said there is no such thing as a society - only the individual)! If her effort were an essay handed in by a senior student (I was once a secondary school teacher of English) it might suggest to me the necessity for calling in the parents for a little chat. Or for remedial work in forming a coherent piece of writing. Or for anything which might assist her to develop a sense of compassion. But as it stands - not a pass standard! As for your parody - of her "parody", John - and as others here have already noted - first rate!
No mention of soap? That's what you do with the bits that you don't make into capes or chapeaus, jaunty or otherwise.
If this piece was found in the actual pages of AFR, would the satire be the proverbial tree falling in the forest for a segment of it's readers?
Brilliant work.
PS: Fuck that ol Pru shits me!
so aahhh for those of us living under a rock (or who didn't read the piece in the Fin, nor the fallout commentary) this was a bit esoteric. thanks to the comments below I was able to pick up the vibe....the prose was still enjoyable but feels like I missed the best of the satire as I haven't read the source material......so a quick search of the interwebz later.....WOW.
The original was so breathtakingly naive in its 1950s snobbery, satire has to go to Cruella to avoid being confused with truth
Oh, and obviously liked and disliked this satire. Cheers JB.
Oh look, got some old self development colleagues who think like that. One tried to 'help' me get a job a while back. Thankfully she must have complained to another prior colleague who got in touch and we've had a few great chats.
Damo - I'm really glad, in a way, that some people are saying this crap out loud. Like the CEO (?) who was on Fox or MSNBC or CNN saying that people "aren't worth $15 an hour". To hear that I was like - Thank god someone actually said that out loud. In public. On TV. Lets us see the rot.
I tell you guys, I reckon with their entitlement they feel protected by some unwritten rule that shame doesn't catch up with you. My theory anyway. No shame. Past never happened. No one cares anyway.
Either that or being reckless cos times up on being callous.
Original FR article - Ms Goward's stated intention = Pony Club Superiority Complex