In the ideal world where I am Santa Claus, my gesture for world peace will be to fill the stockings of politicians with books.
Just books I’m afraid. I’m liberal as to subject matter but a puritan about object matter. No bottles of single malt. No Tom Waits triple CD (alas). Only books. Blame my family. For years my beloved father-in-law used to disappear into his bedroom at about 11am on Christmas morning to emerge with a Penguin Classic for each one of us. My husband got the same book three times in one decade. But you can’t have too many copies of The Confessions of Saint Augustine, particularly if you are an agnostic philosopher whose first approach to the woman who will eventually become your wife is to sell her a copy of The Freethinker.
With one exception (read to end), I haven’t specified which politician should get which book. But I have appended a loosely devised "degree of difficulty" so you can decide whether you want to read the book yourself or give it to Great Uncle Alistair (I have one lined up specially for G.U.A, but use your own discretion).
And yes, I am being devious. Yes, I do want you to read some of the books yourself because they are what I would unembarrassedly call, signs of the times. At the very least, stand up or sit down in your favourite bookshop and browse through them. Be tempted. I discovered quite a few of my best books that way. In one American university bookshop that boasted squishy armchairs, I read half of Lewis Lapham (of him more anon), and a few toxic chapters of Ann Coulter (more of her too). I subsequently paid good money for Lapham but put Coulter back, all pristine, on the "new releases" table (she’s the kind of author one should read wearing white gloves lest the bile rub off) and resisted the temptation to cover her with a copy of Bob Woodward’s State of Denial.
Okay, here’s the little list.
Start with Amanda Lohrey’s lucid and generous Quarterly Essay, Issue 22 (Black Inc), "Voting for Jesus, Christianity and Politics in Australia". If you are worried about the rise and rise of fundamentalism in Australia this is the (slim) volume for you. And if you are anxious about a blurring of the line between church and state, then it’s also for you. Note