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A Chardonnay Socialist is defined as ‘a person who espouses Socialist ideals while enjoying a wealthy and luxurious lifestyle.’
And not wanting to live like the down-trodden, marginalised people they support!
The armchair revolutionary is the perfect subject for author, journalist and broadcaster Graeme Johnstone in this sometimes cynical look at the world, via a collection of whimsical poems, originally broadcast on radio - 88.3 Southern FM - in Melbourne, Australia.
Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Australia’s Prime Minister, known as ScoMo, are all appraised, along with stockbrokers, federal police, high court judges, government ministers, COVAID-19, the Queen, Facebook, and a cyber attack on his fridge. And the Big Bang Theory - In Reverse!
Graeme adds that in many ways, he is a Chardonnay Socialist himself.
Not one of stratospheric riches, he hastens to add. Not like those entertainers, film stars, artists, musicians and other billionaires bemoaning the experiences of the less fortunate. But he readily admits he has, along with his wife and family, enjoyed a lovely life in a very comfortable home in a beautiful bayside suburb once described as a ‘quiet middle-class backwater.’
Still, he doesn’t believe that should disqualify him from commenting on the world’s inequalities. Oh no. He loves to offer an opinion!
And poetry, he believes, is a wonderful medium to get the point across.
A poem is a beautiful thing, he says. It stretches the creator’s skills. It can jump from tragedy to humour within a couple of lines. It fills the listener with anticipation of things about to rhyme.
That’s him, an old fashioned poet who writes in rhyming couplets, three-line stanzas, the classic techniques.
Very often the subject is what he considers an unjustness in life and the heaving mass of greedy capitalism that has caused it all - a somewhat delicious irony considering that the radio station is based in Melbourne’s upmarket beachside suburb of Brighton, about twenty minutes’ drive from his home.
In fact, the opening poem, Chardonnay Socialist, explores that glorious conflict.
