Journal Entry 1 by MooMoo1977 from Lismore, New South Wales Australia on Monday, April 16, 2007

"The airheads are winning. We live in an upside-down world where celebrity matters more than substance; correct spelling is considered less important than knowing how to do PowerPoint; bright maths and science students go into investment banking so they can make truckloads of money; and small girls seriously regard a trashy hotel heiress as a role model.

"We have an American president who gets Sweden and Switzerland mixed up and Australian politicians who spend millions on spin doctors while schools and hospitals go begging.

"The age of the airhead has one message. Commonsense doesn't pay off. If you're smart, be smarter: play dumb.

"Shelley Gare has been writing about the rise of airheadism for almost a decade. When she first spotted that airheads were soaring like hot-air balloons, she thought she was seeing things. She was so, like, wrong. How did the airheads win? What were the rest of us doing?" 

Journal Entry 2 by MooMoo1977 from Lismore, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Very, very funny book looking at the undeniable rise of airheadism within the 21st century and the effect it's had on the world. It's a tad frightening to see that we have grown used to, and even accepting (albeit, begrudgingly) of the airhead and the society it's created.

Oh the paradigm of postmodernism is finished. Rise for the Paris Hiltons of the world...eek. 

Journal Entry 3 by MooMoo1977 from Lismore, New South Wales Australia on Thursday, April 19, 2007

posted to DrCris 19/04/07 

Journal Entry 4 by DrCris from Templestowe, Victoria Australia on Monday, April 23, 2007

Arrived today. I read the forward and am quite intrigued by the concept - I love the fact that it is focussed more on the trend rather than saying that everyone is an airhead. I am reading another book at the moment, so I will get to this next. 

Journal Entry 5 by DrCris from Templestowe, Victoria Australia on Tuesday, May 08, 2007

I loved this book. This is the sort of book that I spent my time discussing with everyone I met. What's more, the division into chapters that focus on such different themes was really good - some of the topics I had no experience in, but the following chapter was invariably one I knew about.

I reckon the cover illustration of this book is misleading. It makes it look like more of a joke book. 

Journal Entry 6 by DrCris from Templestowe, Victoria Australia on Thursday, May 10, 2007

In the mail to tqd today. 

Journal Entry 7 by tqd from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Monday, May 14, 2007

Turned up in the mail today, thanks DrCris!

I've got one other bookring ahead of it, but should get to this one fairly soon. Looking forward to it! 

Journal Entry 8 by tqd from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Okay, I have sat on this one for far too long, and am still only about halfway through! Time to post it on with some regret, because it was a good read, but I have other bookrings piling up behind this one now.

I found it rather amusing that Shelley Gare quoted Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities a day or so after I read the exact same passage. And that she referenced Don Watson's Weasel Words a day or two before I got a copy of that on a bookring.

I'm very glad I did read the chapter on education. The school that Mr Bear will be attending next year (Kindy already! He was just a baby a few weeks ago, I swear!) really pushes their literacy and numeracy programs. Obviously a large number of parents in the local area are about as impressed with current "educational theory" as Shelley Gare was. And I can now proudly count myself amongst their number, as I have been informed! (I dislike choosing a side in an argument until I've had a chance to find out what's happening. Call me a fence sitter...)

I have to agree with DrCris, I found the cover of the book rather badly designed. It made it look more like a joke book, when it was really a rather serious book about serious issues. Although it did make me feel rather gloomy, because I never know what to do about these big issues - the dumbing down of education (which is very dear to my heart given my addiction to education; they practically had to prise me off the Uni campus in the end); the rise of stupid management speak and the underlying idiocy; the short-term solutions of most modern politicians, etc.

I felt I'd read quite a bit of this book before as well (apart from her cross-references to my other reading material as noted above): economic rationalism in John Ralston Saul's Voltaire's Bastards; globalisation in Naomi Klein's No Logo; modern politics in Michael Moore's Stupid White Males.

I agree with DrCris - it was a book that I wanted to discuss with everyone. And I disagree with MooMoo1977 - I didn't find it all that funny. It was funny, but a very black sort of funny that sometimes just makes me want to kill everyone and start all over again. (Gwan, wouldn't the world be a better place if we could get rid of all the people who make us miserable...? No? Oh well, spoilsports. :)

Thanks for the chance to read this, MooMoo1977! I have your address and shall pop this in the mail asap.

UPDATE 11-SEP-2007: Popped in the mail to MooMoo1977 today. Thanks heaps! 

Journal Entry 9 by MooMoo1977 from Lismore, New South Wales Australia on Saturday, September 22, 2007

Returned while I was away in Sydney. Thanks to tqd and DrCris for being part of my ring. I shall now place onto the shelf for another rainy day. :)