Russell
Brand doesn't think a revolution is coming... he knows it. 'I ain't got
a flicker of doubt. This is the end—it's time to wake up.' (Screenshot:
BBC)The British left weekly
New Statesman has
taken a chance on an up-and-coming rogue editor, but the actor-comedian
and newly welcomed progressive-minded firebrand Russell Brand seems so
far to be a brilliant and elegant choice.
Tapped to guest-edit the magazine's 'Revolution' issue this week, Brand is making waves both for
his feature-length essay on the topic but also with a televised interview that aired Wednesday night on the BBC with veteran
Newsnight
anchor Jeremy Paxman. In the ten-minute interview, the 38-year-old
Brand points at the futility of voting in a corrupt democratic system
determined to serve the interests of the ruling class and not only
predicts, but guarantees, that the "disenfranchised, disillusioned
underclass" created by the current economic and political system—both in
the UK and worldwide—will rise up in popular revolution against the
failings of the current corporate-controlled paradigm.
Paxman questioned why a comedian such as Brand, especially one who
doesn't vote, should be trusted to offer his views on the political
system.
"I don't get my authority from this preexisting paradigm which is
quite narrow and only serves a few people," Russell responded, himself
questioning why voting or not voting in a corrupt lopsided system should
provide moral or intellectual authority. "I look elsewhere for
alternatives that might be of service to humanity."
Additionally, he said: "It is not that I am not voting out of apathy.
I am not voting out of absolute indifference and weariness and
exhaustion from the lies, treachery and deceit of the political class
that has been going on for generations," said Brand.
In response to Paxman asking if he saw any reason for hope, Brand
jumped at the question "Yeah, totally. There's going to be a revolution.
It's totally going to happen," he said. "I ain't got a flicker of
doubt. This is the end—it's time to wake up."
The interview is worth a complete viewing:
Asked
to outline the possible revolutionary scheme, Brand explained: "I think
a socialistic egalitarian system based on massive redistribution of
wealth, heavy taxation of corporations, and massive responsibility for
energy companies and any companies exploiting the environment. I think
the very concept of profit should be hugely reduced. [British PM] David
Cameron says 'profit' isn't a dirty word. I say profit is a filthy word,
because wherever there is profit there is also deficit. And this system
currently doesn't address these ideas."
Further pressed for
specifics on the mechanics of this post-revolutionary world, Brand
called out Paxman for the ridiculousness of the demand. "Jeremy, don't
ask me to sit here—in a interview with you in a bloody hotel room—and
devise a global utopian system."
"I'm merely calling for change," he add. "I'm calling for genuine alternatives."
Later,
Brand acknowledged there were many brilliant people in the world
offering wonderful and specific solutions to humanity's problems, but
that those voices and their ideas are repeatedly excluded from popular
debate and ignored by elected officials.
Best known in the United
States for his roles in film comedies such as 'Get Him to the Greek' and
'Forgetting Sarah Marshall,' Brand has increasingly emerged as an
astute observer of both politics and culture. An admitted (but
recovering) drug addict, in his sobriety Brand has been passionate and
insightful in his comments about celebrity culture, substance abuse, and
a growing number of other social issues.
As Adam Taylor, at the
Business Insider, points out:
Brand's
transformation from an outrageous comedian know for puerile jokes, a
history of drug abuse, and one-night stands with Hollywood starlets to
one of the U.K.'s most popular essayists was certainly an
unexpected turnaround.
However, recent writings on events personal (the never-ending fears of relapse for a former addict) and political (the death of Margaret Thatcher) have won a lot of plaudits.
And
The Independent's
Simon Kelner (no sympathetic left-winger himself) gave the political
and philosophical sparring trophy not to the establishment journalist
Paxman,
but to the revolutionary-minded comedian:
Brand,
who sounded like the love child of Stanley Unwin and Will Self, was
goaded to genuine anger by Paxman's patronising assertion that he was “a
trivial man”. Whatever Brand may be, he's not trivial. His call for
revolution may be Spartist nonsense, but Brand definitely articulates a
strain of thinking among a growing number of young people who feel
disenfranchised, disenchanted, disengaged and, most important,
disinterested in the idea that politics can change the world.
Most
politicians don't lay a glove on Paxman. Brand made him look
uncomfortable and faintly ridiculous. And his retort to Paxman's
consistent sneering was priceless. “Jeremy, you've spent your whole
career berating and haranguing politicians,” he said, “and when someone
like me says they're all worthless, and what's the point in engaging
with them, you have a go at me for not being poor any more”. A bit of
verbal slapstick it may have been, but there was just the sense, when
Jeremy met Russell, that some of the old certainties may be shifting.
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