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June 13, 2003
Public opinion has taken some flack for suggesting that John Howard's social conservatism is constructed around the image of the white picket fence. That imagery from the 1988 Future Directions document does not accord with lived political reality thunder the emails. Nobody is living in the suburban 1950s, with a working dad, a stay-at home mum and two children, thunder others.
According to this article by Dennis Shanahan Howard retains the imagery of the suburban white fence and just modifies it. Instead of a working dad, a stay-at home mum we have a lower middle class dad (a policeman working full time) and his wife working as a casual sales assistant for around 10 hours per week).
Why hang onto the white picket fence in a globalized world? As Shanahan suggests the white picket fence signifies an imagery of security in an insecure world that embodies specific suburban values. It is Howard's modern equivalent of Robert Menzies' forgotten people and is tacitly counterpoised to the trendy, full time highly-paid, tertiary-educated professionals living in their town house in the inner city. Those to whom Howard's use of the imagery of the white picket fence appeals are aspiring (they want to climb up the ladder), they believe in equity and choice, hard work in being responsible for themselves and in community.
But they live in a globalised world of rapid change. They fear having their hours cut and not being able to keep up with the mortgage repayments. The do not feel too comfortable and relaxed because they are too busy trying to stay afloat in a deregulated economy and educating their kids. They fear falling down the ladder, given the job losses, cost cutting and the shift to casual employment with no paid sick leave, holiday or redundancy pay. What is called wage flexibility means insecurity in a market economy.
The image of the clean white picket fence is where society meets the market economy. This suburbia is a world away from the city and its holes in the welfare net, homelessness and emergency social services provided by the church charities. It's resonance is premised on an urban/suburban divide.
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Gary,
Love it when you lefties air your patronising opinions about the middle classes and the suburbs. Maybe some of us like to know we won't be spending our entire lives paying mortgages; maybe we like having a competitive, safe shopping centre nearby; maybe we like living near our kids schools, so we can play a role in the school community; maybe we like the community spirit and microcosm of society found in the suburbs and regional towns; and most of all maybe we like the contentment that seeps along the streets and over the back fences. The only thing spoiling it is the emergence of fucking chardonnay bars and latte lounges in the main street. Fuck, I even saw a bogan in the mall the other day dressed all in black and carrying a Penguin Kerouac. Send the bastard back where he came from, I say.