Russell Brand on Revolution

[frogwoman]

I agree with the 'into the mainstream' stuff, it's as if nobody knew about any of this before! How patronising is that! I agree that it's nice to have a celeb come out with vaguely leftist stuff but loads of them were doing that anyway, like the Fonz, but in a much less self promotey way AFAIK. Why have there got to be celebs to make it mainstream? What an awful view of the general public. This is the country where over 2 million people went on demonstrations against the Iraq war ffs

 

[frogwoman]

Out of interest what does rb say when the antisemitic stuff is pointed out to him?

Did he ever condemn that pickup artist he was posing with by the way?

 

[coley]

I agree with the 'into the mainstream' stuff, it's as if nobody knew about any of this before! How patronising is that! I agree that it's nice to have a celeb come out with vaguely leftist stuff but loads of them were doing that anyway, like the Fonz, but in a much less self promotey way AFAIK. Why have there got to be celebs to make it mainstream? What an awful view of the general public. This is the country where over 2 million people went on demonstrations against the Iraq war ffs

And got totally ignored for their troubles, that's the problem we have a political class who feel they are totally invincible, and it will take a lot more than the waffling of a few celebs to change that.

 

[frogwoman]

And got totally ignored for their troubles, that's the problem we have a political class who feel they are totally invincible, and it will take a lot more than the waffling of a few celebs to change that.

Exactly.

 

[BigTom]

Out of interest what does rb say when the antisemitic stuff is pointed out to him?

Did he ever condemn that pickup artist he was posing with by the way?

Didn't he say he had no idea who he was (which is fair, unlike not knowing who pressTV are) and didn't want to be associated with him or was that someone else?

 

[BigTom]

And got totally ignored for their troubles, that's the problem we have a political class who feel they are totally invincible, and it will take a lot more than the waffling of a few celebs to change that.

I think celebs are not a useful part of the change that is needed, I think their role fits too nicely with the individualist liberal politics of Thatcherism and neo liberalism (see also: intersectionalism) to be welcomed at a strategy level.

There may be times when tactically celeb involvement is good (fund raising for example), but the uncritical welcoming of brand smacks to me of a strategic not tactical choice, and I think it leads us further in the direction we've been going for 40 years, not somewhere better.

 

[DexterTCN]

 

[albionism]

very easily.

next.

Yeah, i know, but wouldn't you be using it? Every time i was on the box or
conducting an interview, i'd be on their case.

 

[Mungy]

If he's not bothered he should be. And the fbu fund a communications dept making videos just for this. Presstv is not a proper news channel either given it broadcasts anti semitic filth.

by proper i meant traditional tv channel, which i am assuming presstv is. had you not mentioned it i wouldn't have known who presstv were. if what you have said is true, and i am taking it on face value that it is, i find the irony of the only tv broadcast footage that could be found to illustrate the news that firemen were in dispute was from a country who persecutes trade unionists a thing of macabre beauty.

 

[Mungy]

I think celebs are not a useful part of the change that is needed, I think their role fits too nicely with the individualist liberal politics of Thatcherism and neo liberalism (see also: intersectionalism) to be welcomed at a strategy level.

There may be times when tactically celeb involvement is good (fund raising for example), but the uncritical welcoming of brand smacks to me of a strategic not tactical choice, and I think it leads us further in the direction we've been going for 40 years, not somewhere better.

what i understand rb to be doing is trying to get people to engage in activism in their community, be involved in things going on around us. if people did that - those who didn't know that their actions could make a difference - i think that would be a good thing. what am i missing?

 

[Cheesypoof]

Of the book...well being a Russell Brand 'fangirl' as VP puts it, of course I have read it!! It's a pretty good (if a bit long, Utopian, idealistic, pedantic, at times eloquent, overtly wordy and at other times, sixth form schoolboyish) read). Theres a lot of referencing of 'that bloke Noam Chomsky' and stuff like that. He does a hell of a lot of referencing and ranting, like a student. Took me two weeks to get through it on the bus, but I liked the spiritual side that he seems terribly keen on.

Of the 'God' factor, well at one point he talks about how addicts are searching for this kind of oblivion which is the 'God' factor, and that's why they end up getting addicted. That seems to make sense, given his own stance on religion (he believes). He seems to be on a spiritual quest for Truth. He is a bit of a lost man....flitting from one thing to another - it is the work of a hyperactive mind, at times, juvenile and fairly shallow, but a keen errant one.

Another thing which surprised me but made me chuckle was his dissection of the St Francis prayer, and how ironic it were that Margaret Thatcher read it at her inauguration. And his blasting of Donald Trump as this superficial, fake who just happens to be skilled at making money, like Hungry Hippo. I wouldnt regard it as a masterpiece or real manifesto, but its something for us all to think about. I think he is halfway to reaching (spiritual) enlightenment (yes, you can laugh).

 

[BigTom]

what i understand rb to be doing is trying to get people to engage in activism in their community, be involved in things going on around us. if people did that - those who didn't know that their actions could make a difference - i think that would be a good thing. what am i missing?

It relies on a top down media/celeb based organising strategy. If you want to build something that doesn't rely on that, it seems the wrong place to start.

 

[frogwoman]

Umm haven't pressed play but that screen shot of him half naked on his sofa reminds me of peter dow
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/meet-the-lonely-heart-from-hell-1079428

 

[treelover]

Why does he do 'the trews' in various states of undress? hard to take anyone seriously, can you imagine Karl Marx or Chomsky doing talks in their jim jams..

 

[Mungy]

Why does he do 'the trews' in various states of undress? hard to take anyone seriously, can you imagine Karl Marx or Chomsky doing talks in their jim jams..

no idea. i often listen to the trews whilst browsing the interweb in another tab. besides, i have no interest in what he is or isn't wearing, it's what he is saying that's the important bit for me.

 

[Mungy]

It relies on a top down media/celeb based organising strategy. If you want to build something that doesn't rely on that, it seems the wrong place to start.

he's not organising people, he's telling us to go out and get involved in local stuff. on youtube, are there any non-celeb channels that are saying the same sort of thing, highlighting issues, promoting local activism? if you or anyone else knows if there are, i would be interesting in watching/listening to them also.

 

[Pickman's model]

Cheesypoof you should have left it and stopped digging. you're not much of a fan if you never looked into the first 35 years of his life.

 

[BigTom]

he's not organising people, he's telling us to go out and get involved in local stuff. on youtube, are there any non-celeb channels that are saying the same sort of thing, highlighting issues, promoting local activism? if you or anyone else knows if there are, i would be interesting in watching/listening to them also.

Nah, he is organising people in the stuff he's directly involved in, but that's not my point.

If you're relying on him to either get people involved in things you are interested in, or on him to find things to be involved with, then you are relying on a media led celeb culture to make things happen.

If you do this, then you can find yourself in a position where this is the only feed in to your activities (I think this is where we are now in a broad sense) and, for instance, you'll be chasing media attention for your activities as an end in itself.

So someone like brand seems good because he acts as a route in, but in doing so he reinforces a wider culture that keeps people out.

Imo the opportunity for this kind of organising was ~2009 to ~2012, after the financial crash, passing t social democracy in opposition to the austerity program. This failed, and in fact it's ukip who have then the opportunity. left labour was lost decades ago, green party and tusc have failed to do so, greens picked up a bit but not massive amounts.

Why? Imo because there's not the social pressure to create the political pressure for change, we need to build this first and that means rebuilding the communitarian (not sure this is the right word, opposite to individualism) ways of thinking/approaching problems.

For me, celebrity is not part of this.

 

[coley]

Cheesypoof you should have left it and stopped digging. you're not much of a fan if you never looked into the first 35 years of his life.

Ah but he's "changed" lessons have been learned

 

[ViolentPanda]

you sound like a poundland terry eagleton

I'd give my eye-teeth to sound like a Poundland Terry Eagleton!

 

[ViolentPanda]

he's a top man

So you're saying he works for Zionist lizard Philip Green, then?

 

[ViolentPanda]

My gawd, Russel Brand is getting street politics onto the mainstream.

Therefore he must be dodgy.

How is he "getting street politics into the mainstream"?
The answer, of course, is that he isn't. He's churning out a mish-mash of opinions that you take to be "street politics", but which are actually, apart from his espousal of a handful of local causes, the same sort of dreck that you'll hear politically-unaware teenagers trot out - "the system is corrupt, maaan"; "smash the system, maaan" and other neo-hippy bollocks.

It's not dodgy. It's inane.

 

[ViolentPanda]

There is a reason your called a copliker

Yes, it's called "irony".

 

[ViolentPanda]

I wish more like minded people in the public eye would come out and stir shit up.
How can anyone famous claim to be "progressive" and not use the luck/privilege
of fame to attack the system at every given opportunity?

It's known as "defence of privilege". The majority of people who taste what it is like to not be treated like some sort of troglodyte, don't want to give that up. Brand is insulated enough by his fortune that he can play the game both ways for the time being, but he's no fucking Paul Robeson.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Out of interest what does rb say when the antisemitic stuff is pointed out to him?

Not a lot.

 

[Cheesypoof]

Cheesy has gone a bit quiet.

I was at my Christmas party last night!

 

[Cheesypoof]

What are rubberbandits?

Funny as fuck hip hop duo from Limerick

 

[Ld222]

The language that is used to defend/support Brand is illustrative.

Talk of bringing issues/politics "into the mainstream" suggest (to me at least) an upside down perspective. The job for the " left" or activists or whatever is surely not to persuade the "mainstream" (yuk) that these causes are significant but rather to identify and pursue causes people already have?

So if Socialism was mainstream you would considered it 'yuk', ffs.

 

[Ld222]

I think it depends what you mean by politics, and what you mean by getting it into the mainstream.

He's certainly getting significant media coverage for himself, and perhaps a little for a few causes/issues, though as has been mentioned umpteem times now the coverage of the causes tends to be mediated through his celebrity involvement rather than being coverage of the causes/issues themselves.

And the version of politics which is getting into the mainstream, or rather the one which is already dominant and which is being re-enforced by his involvement, is unfortunately a top-down, elitest, celebritised version, rather than the bottom-up, inclusive, participatory one that many of us would like to see (and which Brand appears to think he's encouraging).

All of this is a consequence of the fact that Brand is using his celebrity status to "do politics" and would be problematic whoever the celebrity was; that's before we even get into specifics about his personal baggage, including some of his dodgy behaviour, statements and associations.

If this is your and Brand's idea of getting politics into the mainstream in a serious and productive way I don't think much of it...

So, would you prefer it, if done he do nothing?.

Each according to his ability and all that.

 

[Ld222]

How is he "getting street politics into the mainstream"?
The answer, of course, is that he isn't. He's churning out a mish-mash of opinions that you take to be "street politics", but which are actually, apart from his espousal of a handful of local causes, the same sort of dreck that you'll hear politically-unaware teenagers trot out - "the system is corrupt, maaan"; "smash the system, maaan" and other neo-hippy bollocks.

It's not dodgy. It's inane.

To you, perhaps, but if he strike an interest in younger less experienced people, surly that's a good thing.