How They Get You, by Chris Kohler

A fun read, but not a hopeful one

I found Chris Kohler on one of the identical algorithmic short-form video platforms (Facebook, maybe?) and fell in love with his videos. He was highlighting the very absurdities of corporate power and government inadequacy that I was reading about in many of my books, but with a humour and a subtlety of facial expression that I found irresistible.

In that vein, this book was a fun even if not deeply insightful, highlighting many of the daily absurdities and indignities that Australians (or most citizens of the developed world) are subject to, often without even realising it. Kohler covers everything from the quotidian (insurance, mortgages, petrol prices) to the obvious (gambling, crypto, making the biggest purchase of your life at a public action — yep, that’s how Aussies buy houses).

As funny as the book manages to be, it largely fails to be optimistic in a broader sense. The mostly unwritten conclusion feels like a shrug of the shoulders — this is just how it is, so we’ll have to learn to live with it, and keep one eye out for the biggest scams.

I think this reflects a broader feeling among Australians and our English-speaking counterparts that there is no alternative. This line of thinking is one of the many ‘successes’ (or rather, toxic byproducts) of the neoliberal age — an age which most of us have overwhelmingly outgrown, but one for which we can’t seem to conjure up a replacement.