Seen as sullen, hoody-wearing students, with addictions to social media (and Nandos), YAs have been diagnosed with a political apathy to shame our predecessors. A positive correlation between voter turnout and the age category shows shockingly few young people turn up to vote, with just 43% turnout of 18-24 year olds in 2015.
These statistics are misleading, the mindset of the political elite that young people are simply too stupid or too lazy to vote is a delusion of pure fantasy. We have grown up in a time, bombarded by the misdemeanours of politicians, from the expenses scandal to the Iraq War to the economic crash of 2008, where taxpayer money was used to bail out the bankers, so little wonder why YAs see little point in voting, when it has been a choice between the lesser of two evils.
Jones captures the injustice of the Establishment perfectly in his book, which will awaken both anger and inspiration inside you. As well as the issues mentioned above, he talks of the biasness of a dominated right wing media, the generous pay roll too many politicians seem to be on from the UK’s big businesses and the rise of authoritarianism in our police since the start of Thatcherism. Structured into 10 parts, it is addressed almost as an essay, he reasons out the corruption and revolving door system of the Establishment, exposing the harsh truths hidden behind back doors and in board rooms.
Now, nonfiction books can be a daunting challenge and until quite recently, I was still a complete fictionite. However, I’ve found facts can be just as powerful as the emotive world of fantasy and that’s really what makes The Establishment for me. I’ve been through countless highlighters, striking under the mind boggling bits of information encapsulated into this book, ready to preach to my friends the next day:
People estimate that 27% of social security is claimed fraudulently, as opposed to the true figure of 0.7%.
In 2012 2,714 bankers were paid more than €1 million!
And just hilarious bit of trivia:
In 1975 David Aaronovitch was part of a team on the BBC’s University Challenge who subverted the show’s format by answering every question with the name of a Marxist leader.
As Russell Brand said, if this generation has an Orwell, Owen Jones is it! His socialist, democratic stance helping to create an alternative to the dogma the right wing press tend to shove down our throats as their mantra. As a young person it can be hard to plot yourself on the political scale, if you’re left you’re naïve, if you’re right you’re heartless. Yet, reading The Establishment gives you some hard-core facts to back up your ethos; even if you’re a plotted UKIP or a staunch Tory supporter, The Establishment is still an interesting insight of the other side of the coin (and who knows, by the end of it, you may have even been converted)!
Jones certainly provides a fresh perspective on our society, in a forward and engaging way that makes this book a lot less dense than Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’, but still a perfect introduction to politics.
It’s time for our generation to think what sort of society we want to build and that’s why I think The Establishment is a book all YAs should read.
- Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
