There are those who reckon the end of the Roman empire was foretold by the mindless and bloody sports of the Colosseum, which were used as diversions for the masses so they wouldn’t notice the parlous state of the crumbling empire. And every time our culture dips ever deeper into the bogan barrel of mindless entertainments they tell us that this is it, we’re definitely on the slippery slope this time.
Of course, they’re probably wrong, those learned but misguided academics who make such proclamations. It’s not like boob jobs door prizes or cougar nights (two recent local promotions) are organized by the state to divert the attention of its people. They’re organized by the people for the people and they’re disturbing and they’re antithesis of fixie culture in every way state and form but it’s probably nothing more than a sign of the quantity of cashed up bogans in our economy, not the end of our cultural and economic universe as we know it. People (including and often especially me) do get carried away.
Let’s face it, a lot of very stupid and crude people are currently making shitloads of money. Some economists use an unofficial economic measure that counts the amount of bogan toys being sold (jetskis, fishing boats, trailbikes etc) to judge how healthy the economy is. With our economy presently composed almost entirely of mining and construction we should actually be rather pleased to see how many bogan toys and bogan entertainments are available to us. And if it all starts to feel a little bit like we’re living in Idiocracy then you only have to remember that it only costs about $500 to buy a decent fixie and then when all the V8 Commodores and Prados are lines up bumper to bumper on the Gold Coast highway, when the trip from Southport to Surfers is an hour by car, you’re still cruising past on your fixie looking fly in some tighty jeans and ironic t-shirt.
You’re cruising past a monster truckload of cash that’s poured into our economy by people too stupid to know better, and in the process they prop up our economy so that people like you and me with our cheap and efficient transport and entertainment machines can have a job and a home to go to. As an employer myself, and somewhat who employs fixie riders, I rely on those monster truck bogans to finance the economy that drives my business. It’s a humbling thought, but in effect monster truck madness isn’t an indication of the end of our society, but is actually a indication of the health of our society. Doesn’t mean we have to join in of course.
