Russell Brand on Revolution

[Awesome Wells]

If you're stupid or gullible enough. Conspiraloon = not worth the time of day. Proclaiming yourself to be 'openminded' about batshit conspiraloonery = read rag to my anti-loon bull

I don't like Russell Brand, his writing is intensely irritating and he strikes me as not nearly as smart as his vocabulary makes him think. He seems to have read plenty of books (?), but I'm not sure at all about his judgement of what he's read (see conspiraloonery above)

And as said above



Spot on really.

I don't really agree. It seems entirely simplistic to dismiss what he's saying as mere self promortion. he's not exactly short of money so he doesn't need to write a book about his political views just to enhance his profile. he's already famous. I think this is a lazy accusation.

 

[butchersapron]

Loads of talk on here about the profits of his book without the recognition that he's using them all for charitable purposes, setting up some sort of foundation, I forget the details - I don't disagree that there is a huge element of self-promotion though

Social enterprises:

. Brand told The Guardian: "I'm going to use all the money now for social enterprises."

Sadly for readers of Third Sector, Brand went on to say: "We need systemic change, not charity." This is eerily similar to the message spelled out by the government's enterprise adviser Lord Young of Graffham at the Social Economy Alliance's fringe event at this year's Conservative Party conference. He told us that social enterprise was a concept that differed fundamentally from charity. With almost half of all UK charities already identifying themselves as social enterprises, it is clear there's work to be done to educate politicians and celebrities.

It's the advance he's promised to buy a juice bar with. The sales, nah.

Anyone who claims to be on our side who maintains their wealth rather than putting the overwhelming majority of it at the disposal of those movements and people they say they support loses a huge chunk of credibility and goodwill in my eyes. And before anyone says but what about Engels - that's precisely what he did.

 

[lefteri]

I don't really agree. It seems entirely simplistic to dismiss what he's saying as mere self promortion. he's not exactly short of money so he doesn't need to write a book about his political views just to enhance his profile. he's already famous. I think this is a lazy accusation.

You're confusing riches with profile surely

 

[butchersapron]

I don't really agree. It seems entirely simplistic to dismiss what he's saying as mere self promortion. he's not exactly short of money so he doesn't need to write a book about his political views just to enhance his profile. he's already famous. I think this is a lazy accusation.

Ego does not equal money.

 

[killer b]

He says in the timeout interview up there he's using the profits from the book for a recovery cafe fwiw (don't disagree with your general point though)

 

[lefteri]

Social enterprises:



It's the advance he's promised to buy a juice bar with. The sales, nah.

Anyone who claims to be on our side who maintains their wealth rather than putting the overwhelming majority of it at the disposal of those movements and people they say they support loses a huge chunk of credibility and goodwill in my eyes. And before anyone says but what about Engels - that's precisely what he did.

I agree

Seems he's being economical with the truth then, but to be pedantic he won't get sales, he'll get share of profit after advance has been deducted, the amount of which will depend on the deal struck -of course we'll never know these details

 

[butchersapron]

He says in the timeout interview up there he's using the profits from the book for a recovery cafe fwiw (don't disagree with your general point though)

He says profits there - in other interviews its changed to advance.

 

[Awesome Wells]

You're confusing riches with profile surely

I think he's genuine about what he's doing, whether it's the best way to objectively achieve the chance we need is another matter. But he's allowed to be somewhat fallible in his thinking in that regard surely? He's not advocating people send him money or do anything harmful. I don't really get the self promotion angle. I suppose he could have self published and given the book away free, but that's not necessarily evidence he's false.

 

[Cheesypoof]

Nina - i wouldnt have a clue what is in the charts - all the music i listen to is from the 40s and the 60's. The Libertines were one exceptional band for me, and I think the music they made was extraordinary - and political - but they were a one off and a complete fuck up. Pete DID fuck it up and they wont go back....

Since then i have not noted any bands of cultural significance- we need bands like Rage Againist the Machine and The Sex Pistols - i mean ANGRY bands relentlessly exposing the consistent lies we are being told and disenfranchisement that we are experiencing - not only in London, but around the world.

if you can truly say that there are brilliant bands out there making some noise that is documenting the times, tell us all about it....there have always been some good underbelly bands around...NoFx is one of my favourites, but they have been around since the 90's...i mean new bands with fire in their belly

 

[Blagsta]

Have a listen to Sleaford Mods, cheesy

 

[butchersapron]

Nina - i wouldnt have a clue what is in the charts - all the music i listen to is from the 40s and the 60's. The Libertines were one exceptional band for me, and I think the music they made was extraordinary - and political - but they were a one off and a complete fuck up. Pete DID fuck it up and they wont go back....

Since then i have not noted any bands of cultural significance- we need bands like Rage Againist the Machine and The Sex Pistols - i mean ANGRY bands relentlessly exposing the consistent lies we are being told and disenfranchisement that we are experiencing - not only in London, but around the world.

if you can truly say that there are brilliant bands out there making some noise that is documenting the times, tell us all about it....there have always been some good underbelly bands around...NoFx is one of my favourites, but they have been around since the 90's...i mean new bands with fire in their belly

And they have to in the classic four white blokes with guitars format do they?

 

[Pickman's model]

Nina - i wouldnt have a clue what is in the charts - all the music i listen to is from the 40s and the 60's. The Libertines were one exceptional band for me, and I think the music they made was extraordinary - and political - but they were a one off and a complete fuck up. Pete DID fuck it up and they wont go back....

Since then i have not noted any bands of cultural significance- we need bands like Rage Againist the Machine and The Sex Pistols - i mean ANGRY bands relentlessly documenting the of pisstaking and consistently being lied to and disenfranchisement that we are experiencing - not only in London, but around the world.

you seem interested in this lying and disenfranchisement but disregard that perhaps the best album about disenfranchisement (if not lying) may be sham69's 'that's life'.

however, it's long been my understanding that it was a musician's role to make music and not their role to relentlessly document the pisstaking etc all around the world, which would in any event get in the way of their making the music they wanted to do in the first place

 

[DotCommunist]

carl barrat and the jackals new single is quite good. Not angry tho.

 

[Cheesypoof]

Have a listen to Sleaford Mods, cheesy

okay. I will listen to any bands people recommend, with an open mind. I would LOVE to think that we have our own form of infuriated punk today....the world needs it...

 

[Cheesypoof]

And they have to in the classic four white blokes with guitars format do they?

since when were Rage Against the Machine four white lads??

 

[treelover]

Brand was on the Start The Week on R4, it was like listening to a different person, no histrionics, well a little, cogently argued ideas, including a rebuffal that he is just about 'not voting', and referencing academics like Graeber, and for me importantly he didn't promote new grand narratives, but locally focussed activities and even better attacked inequality, food banks, etc.

 

[Cheesypoof]

carl barrat and the jackals new single is quite good. Not angry tho.

Carl is alright on his own...have seen him live a few times, but bored with it now

 

[butchersapron]

since when were Rage Against the Machine four white lads??

Alright - four blokes with guitars.

 

[Awesome Wells]

I agree

Seems he's being economical with the truth then, but to be pedantic he won't get sales, he'll get share of profit after advance has been deducted, the amount of which will depend on the deal struck -of course we'll never know these details

So he signs a book deal and he's Public Enemy 1?

Seriously?

 

[Blagsta]

okay. I will listen to any bands people recommend, with an open mind. I would LOVE to think that we have our own form of infuriated punk today....the world needs it...

Plenty of angry hip hop acts. Conscious and political reggae too.

 

[butchersapron]

No one said any such thing.

Seriously.

 

[DotCommunist]

braintax is a quality one for angry, politically aware uk hip-hop.

 

[killer b]

No shades of grey allowed sorry. Its either all good or beyond the pale.

 

[imposs1904]

Anyone know exactly when Das kapital was published, I can get 1867, but I'm after the month- did Mr Marx have one eye on the the Xmas publishing market when he released his tome?

I believe it was published two weeks before that year's London Anarchist Bookfair. He knew his readership.

 

[Pickman's model]

Brand was on the Start The Week on R4, it was like listening to a different person, no histrionics, well a little, cogently argued ideas, including a rebuffal that he is just about 'not voting', and referencing academics like Graeber, and for me importantly he didn't promote new grand narratives, but locally focussed activities and even better attacked inequality, food banks, etc.

i'd be better pleased if he referenced academics who weren't graeber

 

[butchersapron]

i'd be better pleased if he referenced academics who weren't graeber

Or didn't rely on academics as a shorthand short cut to credibility with journos at all.

 

[Pickman's model]

Or didn't rely on academics as a shorthand short cut to credibility with journos at all.

it would be good if he dropped a couple of names which showed he knew what he was talking about, even e.p. thompson or mike davis for fuck's sake.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Sure but Cheesy is suggesting that he's the new messiah and we should follow him.

Because Cheesy believes (as many do) that revolutions need figureheads. The problem with that is it generally implies some kind of top-down "revolutionary" organisation behind the figurehead - a vanguard, if you will - and the imposition of an ideology on the class. Russell calls himself an anarchist, but while he may be anarchic, the politics he's so far enunciated are inchoate. They're neither fish nor fowl.

 

[butchersapron]

it would be good if he dropped a couple of names which showed he knew what he was talking about, even e.p. thompson or mike davis for fuck's sake.

i think the thing is, he relates to the celebrity-academic-activist thing as it mirrors his own experience. So graeber is the man right now, 25 years back it may have been negri...and so on. This is not a criticism of him for reading graeber but for his choice to play the game of trying to impress journos, begging them to take him seriously on an intellectual level in effect (seem this many times with people from a w/c background who have read a lot). He -doesn't need to do that. No one does.

 

[Pickman's model]

i think the thing is, he relates to the celebrity-academic-activist thing as it mirrors his own experience. So graeber is the man right now, 25 years back it may have been negri...and so on. This is not a criticism of him for reading graeber but for his choice to play the game of trying to impress journos, begging them to take him seriously on an intellectual level in effect (seem this many times with people from a w/c background who have read a lot). He -doesn't need to do that. No one does.

on the bright side, at least it wasn't slavoj zizek.