Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven In pleading that Shylock spare Antonio’s life, Shakespeare’s Portia appealed to an aspect of humanity that is arguably both instinctive and universal. Given that Caro’s AM has been awarded in the name of Britain’s monarch, a lady whose commitment to the highest standards of education and language could never be in doubt, let’s consider a quotation from one of the greatest writers in the English language. During the Queen’s Birthday weekend, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for ‘significant service to the broadcast media as a journalist, social commentator and author’. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this particular example of Caro’s writing is that she has been a dedicated advocate for public education for decades. So I shall just dance & get pissed & stick two rude fingers up to the truculent turds who voted to turn backwards.Īccording to a caption beneath her picture in 2015 a Sydney Morning Herald autobiographical piece, ‘The irrepressible Jane Caro has built a career out of words.’ In 2018, a Melbourne University Press blurb for her book, Accidental Feminists, claimed ‘The common thread running through her career is a delight in words and a talent for using them to connect with other people.’ Well, Australia may be f.ked and the whole planet not far behind but I am at the best, most brilliant and cool wedding I have ever been too (sic). Jane Caro’s self-confessed drunken tweet appeared during the evening of, as the federal election results were published. The absence of dignity and mercy in messaging encountered in this millennium of relativism is lamented by few, it seems. The written word – reduced to its basest expression in a recent example of linguistic misfire – has the power to reveal, to shame and to kill. Beyond the frantic circles ploughed by aspirant political candidates, however, are those who mercilessly watch and wait and pounce on that which does not please them.

A federal election throws up the good, the bad and the ugly as individuals compete for the prizes they believe will compensate them for their efforts.

The F Word by Jane Caro