Zombies, Lilliputians and Sadists: The Power of the Living Dead and the Future of Australia

By Boris Frankel, Fremantle: Curtin University Books, 2004, 336 pages, paperback, $29.95. Reviewed by Kris Brankovic in the May 2005 issue.

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'Zombies, Lilliputians and Sadists: The Power of the Living Dead and the Future of Australia' is the final instalment in Boris Frankel's long-running critique of 'contemporary Australia'. It began in 1992 with the (similarly) imaginatively titled 'From the Prophets Deserts Come' and continued in 2001 with 'When the Boat Comes in: Transforming Australia in the Age of Globalisation'. Boris Frankel is a former university professor and radio, newspaper and television commentator who describes his work as 'an updated version of classical political economy which attempts to synthesise cultural and environmental issues with politics, philosophy, sociology and economics'. Frankel has expounded much colourful and candid commentary on dominant right and left social and political thought in his career, and in this latest work, he continues to bemoan the 'outdated and shortsighted' discourse and policy formulation in Australia's most powerful public and private institutions.

Frankel delineates Australia's socio-political movers and shakers into three 'species' of individuals to give effect to his thesis. The first is zombies, comprising politically and culturally marginalised individuals whose ideas and frameworks 'are stuck in a bygone era' and who are largely irrelevant and powerless. To find these individuals, Frankel examines politics of nationalism and neo-liberalism, socialism and the trade union movement, religious fundamentalism, and elements of the popular media and market economics. Within these fields, Frankel dismisses many established or accepted paradigms of social development as irrelevant to twenty-first century Australia. There is nothing new here, but the discussion effectively sets up Frankel's subsequent analysis of more recent policy developments, the utility of which Frankel also questions.

Lilliputians are influential people who are 'tiny in mind and timid in their expectations' but who see themselves as at the cutting edge. Lilliputians are the current gurus of knowledge and innovation policies that permeate economic discourse. Frankel claims that Lilliputians see the ideas championed by zombies as obsolete but are oblivious to how their own ideas are short-sighted and small minded. Frankel aims to prove this thesis through an analysis of theories surrounding the knowledge economy, the creative industries and network economics. As well as a critique of the current cultural landscape, there is also an attack on education policy and the competing learning models bandied around by various interest groups today.

Finally, sadists, 'in sharp contrast to zombies, are powerful. These sadistic decision makers are politically and emotionally the living dead', argues Frankel. 'They use dehumanising and controlling economic and administrative practices for their narrow ends'. For Frankel, sadistic bureaucrats and professionals are the biggest threat of the three species to the development of a prosperous and equitable Australia. Frankel depicts the 'dehumanisation and institutionalisation of sadism' through a critique of industrial relations and economic development policy on both the economy and social relations. By examining everything from dole bludgers to constitutional reform, Frankel argues that the very structures of public and political life are conducive to such short-sighted opportunism rather than long-term equitable policy development that should be their aim.

Despite the semblance of satire that is created by Frankel's delineation, Zombies is a clear and focused attack on the contemporary milieu that allows unimaginative, untalented and myopic 'thinkers' to rise to positions of power in Australia. Like the other books in the trilogy, Zombies is premised on the warning that Australia is becoming a 'cultural and political-economic desert' and that the 'spread to once fertile social and ecological habitats' is well underway. The spread stems not from a lack of ideas, but from a lack of original and useful ideas. Frankel hammers the message that current discourses on social and economic development are dominated by outdated viewpoints and allegiances. They stem from many reasons, but largely the mass conformity that is expounded by powerful media and business interests, the repression of dissent in private and public institutions, and the status quo established between the current 'progressive' and 'conservative' political regimes.

Frankel's critique is wide-ranging and persuasive, and backed up with numerous examples. However, after dedicating ten chapters to the discussion of the problems confounding Australia, Zombies ends without offering much in the way of solutions to the articulated challenges. This is, perhaps, a weakness. Frankel concludes that Australia needs 'a connecting or overarching strategy for and conception of an alternative to the existing private and government sectors' -- a significant undertaking. But there is little suggestion of this transformative process can be initiated and sustained. There is only a short discussion of the need for 'an environmentally sustainable 'social-industrial complex' embodying a new notion of social citizenship that is broadly inclusive of the marginalised and disenfranchised; welfare and education reform; urban and regional renewal; greater investment into the environment and sustainable industries; cultural diversity; and the democratisation of public institutions.

To be fair, Frankel never claims to have the solutions, nor the qualifications to expound them. Rather, his ambition is the realignment of the political 'mainstream', and the engendering and legitimising of an alternative paradigm for social and economic development, through inciting debate. In this, Frankel succeeds with a very accessible and well researched critique of 'contemporary' Australia.

Citation

• Kris Brankovic. 'Review: Zombies, Lilliputians and Sadists: The Power of the Living Dead and the Future of Australia by Boris Frankel' [online]. Network Review of Books (Perth, Australian Public Intellectual Network), May 2005. Availability: <please cite the web address here> ISSN 1833-0932. [accessed 30 July 2010].

Back Cover Blurb

• In this provocative and original interpretation of contemporary Australian society, the iconoclastic writer, Boris Frankel, not only subverts conventional notions of this society, but also offers a host of alternative policy suggestions. He criticises Australia's outdated and shortsighted Right and Left social and political movers and shakers and shines a bright and unflattering light on Australia's major political and social institutions - including a devastating critique of Australia's educational system.
  
  Zombies' ideas and frameworks are stuck in a bygone era - they are politically and culturally marginalised, the 'walking dead'.
  
  Lilliputians are more influential and extol the knowledge economy and a raft of policies that they see as cutting edge. They see the ideas championed by zombies as obsolete but are oblivious to how their own ideas are short-sighted and small-minded.
  
  Sadists, in sharp contrast to zombies, are powerful. These sadistic decision makers are politically and emotionally the 'living dead'. They use dehumanising and controlling economic and administrative practices for their own narrow ends.

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