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December 29, 2003
Some see an earth shattering political significance of Mark Latham being a fan of Meatloaf, and the Bat Out of Hell. Taste expresses personality is the argument.
It is the Xmas season after all, and elevating suburban adolescent passion and desire to operatic dimensions does not seem amiss. And loving '70s pop culture as a fan is all the rage these days, is it not?
Meatloaf is all about humor and theatricality. Is that not politics? And Bat Out of Hell's pastiche of oldies, show tunes, prog rock, folkie narratives and blistering hard rock in this teen rock opera could symbolize Latham's pastiche of public policies.
Note Latham's fondness for the American music expression of teenage dreams, angst and sexual experience, as opposed to the Australian musical expression. That does not bode well for protecting Australian cultural content in the forthcoming free trade agreement.
It is the non-economic arguments---rarely acknowledged by free trade economists----that provide the backbone to the resistance to the free trade vision of a borderless world. Issues such as compensating those losing out, national security, environmental protection and cultural protection are usually dismissed as trivial and so do not require trade intervention.
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So it would have been better if he preferred ACDC? This is a silly arguement.