After the great success of Russell’s Revolution… Remember when Russell Brand was asked about his qualifications for editing a left wing magazine, he told us that he didn’t vote, because political parties were part of a corrupt system and it perpetuated inequality. The interviewer, unfortunately, didn’t ask him if he thought that there was corruption in Hollywood and, if so, did that mean that he wouldn’t be appearing in any more films.
Anyway, a number of Russell’s fans started groups on social media calling themselves things like “Russell’s Revolution” and expressing the view that voting was a waste of time and that we needed a bigger revolution.
Since then, we’ve had the re-election of David “the pig consented” Cameron, Brexit and the election of Donald Trump just to name a few events. As you can see, the idea that things will need to get worse before they get better may have something going for it. However, before the revolution comes, there may be one or two people who didn’t think that one party was much the same as the other, but probably for selfish reasons like they didn’t get funding for their wheelchair or they suicided because their income was cut off.
Whenever someone tells me that they’re not interested in politics, I have a simple strategy.
Imagine I’m trying to point out the terrible dangers of allowing the government to use terrorism as excuse to erode our rights. They say:
“I’m not interested in politics!”
“Are you interested in crime?” I ask.
“Not really,” they usually tell me.
“Fine!” I say. And then I grab their wallet or purse and take out all their money.
“Hey, what are you doing?” they invariably ask.
“Stealing your money,” I tell them.
“Stop it!” they say.
“Don’t worry about it. Look, you’re not interested in crime, so just look the other way.”
“But that’s my money.”
“Yes, but you’re not interested in crime.”
“I am when it’s my money.”
“Ok. I’ll stop. But tell me why you’re getting so upset about someone taking a few dollars, when not interested when politicians try to stuff up your entire life?”
Anyway, I just thought I’d share a couple of YouTube videos with you all. They take a bit of time, so don’t sit down to watch them if you’ve got an appointment in the next ten minutes.
The first is basically a radio interview where Russell Brand interviews Adam Curtis
The second is Curtis’ 2016 documentary “Hypernormalisation”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InbLmw_x6jQ
Enjoy!