The Establishment : And how they get away with it by Owen Jones - a book review and analysis

 

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When I take to Twitter there's an almost fifty-fifty chance that I will find the name of Owen Jones trending. More likely than not it will be because he is being called out as a misogynist and a liar by people running right-wing and conservative accounts. However, the only reasons I found for anyone calling him a misogynist is because he advocates for trans rights and trans activists, and because in the past he has mentioned his desire, as a gay man, to have children with a surrogate mother. That's it. And, as for being a liar, I couldn't see that anyone backed up those claims, and they often read more as, "He said something I don't like, if I call him a liar though that sounds better!"

If anything, from reading The Establishment, it seems as though it is the rich white Oxbridge boys living in The City that Jones has his critical eye on (though he his self aware and transparent enough to admit that he is one of those Oxbridge white boys), and not without good reason it seems. Here Jones makes a good case for how our political leaders, big corporation, and our media has been letting us all down, and is interested in serving only itself - The Establishment. His conclusion is that corporate interests are taking priority over the interests of the citizenry and national interest. The real bummer? This book was published about six years ago and, uh, well, have you turned on the news recently? Checked out Twitter? Yeah . . .

However, Jones suggests a solution; a democratic revolution. This consists, essentially, of those of us that would rather see the state working in the interests of its people, not giving up, to keep fighting the good fight. Because, without resistance, the establishment has nothing to stop it sliding towards outright corruption and exploitation.

It can be quite a hard slog, this book, and it probably ought to be, to read about all the ways in which the chips are stacked against you. One of the saddest paragraphs I read in this book concerned a local-council officer being surprised at the lack of objection from low-paid workers and unemployed people at cuts to their council-tax benefit; that the poorer in society were not angry at such treatment, whilst wealthy tax dodgers get away free, but instead resigned to quiet malaise and struggle is what happens when citizens get worn down. But, Jones says, it's exactly in times like these that the fight is very much worth fighting.

This is a book to take your time over, to take note from. I read it over the course of days, and I took notes. If you're reading this a few years after publication, as I have, and you're not up to speed on the political landscape, you might want to take a break now and then and check up on what's going on out there (don't get your hopes up . . .).

When I have finished writing up this post, I will share it through my platforms on social media and maybe I will check to see whether or not Mr. Jones is trending today. If he isn't, I can be pretty certain that I will find outriders, media figures/outlets, politicians, and corporate figures there, clogging up the timeline. Indeed, the platforms themselves (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) are really only using us to keep the money flowing. It might do us well to remember that.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, I would.

It shouldn't really be such a radical thing to suggest that society ought to be ordered in such a way that it serves the people rather than corporate interests and that, when that society finds itself demonising the lowest paid and most vulnerable members whilst it bails out the richest and writes of what's owed by the tax dodging wealthy, it might be time for a little self analysis and restructuring. But, it seems, that's the world we are living in now. After reading this book, however you feel about it, the question worth asking might be, what do you want to do about it?

If you want to purchase a copy of The Establishment : And how they get away with it by Owen Jones, follow this link.

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