‘Welcome to Everytown’ by Julian Baggini
25 April 2008Julian Baggini is the editor of The Philosophers’ Magazine and a leading proponent of popular philosophy. I really like his pieces for The Guardian and a few years ago I went to see him speak at the Edinburgh Book Festival. On that occasion he explained that one of the difficulties of becoming known as an articulate spokesperson for the liberal intelligentsia was that he was often being asked to appear on Radio 4’s Today Programme but then proved unable to satisfy their requirements for a polarised debate because he kept finding that he could see both points of view: sometimes he was just too reasonable for his own good! This struck a chord with me – I often feel that I should probably have stronger opinions on key topics up my sleeve. I think I also relate to Baggini as we are a similar age: I knew I was on comfortable ground when I started to read his excellent guide to the meaning of life, ‘What’s It All About’ and discovered a quote from ‘The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ on the first page. Julian Baggini’s latest book, ‘Welcome to Everytown’, which I have been reading this week starts with a quote from Alan Partridge. In ‘Welcome to Everytown’ Baggini sets out to uncover the English character by spending six months living in England’s most typical town – which, from demographic analysis, turns out to be Rotherham (or, more precisely, the S66 postcode area). His immersion in working class life, mainstream media and local culture produces a challenging and thought-provoking analysis – both of the people he encounters and of his own liberal, middle class attitudes and prejudices. Never poking fun, he is honest, frank and respectful – apart from his vitriolic dislike of the Daily Mail. I found his observations on mass culture especially interesting in relation to Arts Council England’s recent work on segmenting the population according to their cultural participation. Fascinating and important stuff.
Labels: Books
posted by Robin Simpson @ 2:39 pm
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