<nettime> Russell Brand: We deserve more from our democratic system

["Patrice Riemens" <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

Since I am rather 'nyekoultourniye' when it comes to pop music, I had
never heard of Russell Brand till Vesna 'Becha' Manojlovic attended me to
him. A famous pop star, known by millions, now turned eloquent,
hard-hitting critic of 'the system': how long now till the walls of
Jericho will crumble?
(however, I am a long-term fan of Jeremy 'the proper relationship between
a journalist and a politician is that of a dog to a lamppost' Paxman of
BBC's Newsnight!)  Cheers, p+5D!

............

original to:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/05/russell-brand-democratic-system-newsnight


Russell Brand: we deserve more from our democratic system

Following his appearance on Newsnight, the comedian explains why he
believes there are alternatives to our current regime


I've had an incredible week since I spoke from the heart, some would say
via my arse, on Paxman. I've had slaps on the back, fist bumps, cheers and
hugs while out and about, cock-eyed offers of political power from well
intentioned chancers and some good ol' fashioned character assassinations
in the papers.

The people who liked the interview said it was because I'd articulated
what they were thinking. I recognise this. God knows I'd love to think the
attention was about me but I said nothing new or original, it was the
expression of the knowledge that democracy is irrelevant that resonated.
As long as the priorities of those in government remain the interests of
big business, rather than the people they were elected to serve, the
impact of voting is negligible and it is our responsibility to be more
active if we want real change.

Turns out that among the disenchanted is Paxman himself who spends most of
his time at the meek heart of the political establishment and can't
summons up the self-delusion to drag his nib across the ballot box. He,
more than any of us is aware that politicians are frauds. I've not spent
too much time around them, only on the telly, it's not pleasant; once
you've been on Question Time and seen Boris simpering under a make-up
brush it's difficult to be enthusiastic about politics.

The only reason to vote is if the vote represents power or change. I don't
think it does. I fervently believe that we deserve more from our
democratic system than the few derisory tit-bits tossed from the carousel
of the mighty, when they hop a few inches left or right. The lazily
duplicitous servants of The City expect us to gratefully participate in
what amounts to little more than a political hokey cokey where every four
years we get to choose what colour tie the liar who leads us wears.

I remember the election and Cameron didn't even get properly voted in, he
became prime minister by default when he teamed up with Clegg. Clegg who
immediately reneged (Renegy-Cleggy?) on his flagship pledge to end tuition
fees at the first whiff of power.

When students, perhaps students who had voted for him, rioted they were
condemned. People riot when dialogue fails, when they feel unrepresented
and bored by the illusion, bilious with the piped in toxic belch wafted
into their homes by the media.

The reason these coalitions are so easily achieved is that the
distinctions between the parties are insignificant. My friend went to a
posh "do" in the country where David Cameron, a man whose face resembles a
little painted egg, was in attendance. Also present were members of the
opposition and former prime minister Tony Blair. Whatever party they claim
to represent in the day, at night they show their true colours and all go
to the same party.

Obviously there has been some criticism of my outburst, I've not been
universally applauded as a cross between Jack Sparrow and Spartacus (which
is what I'm going for) but they've been oddly personal and I think
irrelevant to the argument. I try not to read about myself as the mean
stuff is hurtful and the good stuff hard to believe, but my mates always
give me the gist of what's going on, the bastards. Some people say I'm a
hypocrite because I've got money now. When I was poor and I complained
about inequality people said I was bitter, now I'm rich and I complain
about inequality they say I'm a hypocrite. I'm beginning to think they
just don't want inequality on the agenda because it is a real problem that
needs to be addressed.

It's easy to attack me, I'm a right twerp, I'm a junkie and a cheeky
monkey, I accept it, but that doesn't detract from the incontrovertible
fact that we are living in a time of huge economic disparity and
confronting ecological disaster. This disparity has always been, in
cultures since expired, a warning sign of end of days. In Rome, Egypt and
Easter Island the incubated ruling elites, who had forgotten that we are
one interconnected people, destroyed their societies by not sharing. That
is what's happening now, regardless of what you think of my hair or me
using long words, the facts are the facts and the problem is the problem.
Don't be distracted. I think these columnist fellas who give me aggro for
not devising a solution or for using long words are just being
territorial. When they say "long words" they mean "their words" like I'm a
monkey who got in their Mum's dressing up box or a hooligan in policeman's
helmet.

As I said to Paxman at the time "I can't conjure up a global Utopia right
now in this hotel room". Obviously that's not my job and it doesn't need
to be, we have brilliant thinkers and organisations and no one needs to
cook up an egalitarian Shangri-La on their todd; we can all do it
together.

I like Jeremy Paxman, incidentally. I think he's a decent bloke but like a
lot of people who work deep within the system it's hard for him to
countenance ideas from outside the narrowly prescribed trench of
contemporary democracy. Most of the people who criticized me have a vested
interest in the maintenance of the system. They say the system works. What
they mean is "the system works for me".

The less privileged among us are already living in the apocalypse, the
thousands of street sleepers in our country, the refugees and the
exploited underclass across our planet daily confront what we would regard
as the end of the world. No money, no home, no friends, no support, no
hand of friendship reaching out, just acculturated and inculcated
condemnation.

When I first got a few quid it was like an anaesthetic that made me forget
what was important but now I've woken up. I can't deny that I've done a
lot of daft things while I was under the capitalist fugue, some silly
telly, soppy scandals, movies better left unmade. I've also become rich. I
don't hate rich people; Che Guevara was a rich person. I don't hate
anyone, I judge no one, that's not my job, I'm a comedian and my job is to
say whatever I like to whoever I want if I'm prepared to take the
consequences. Well I am.

My favourite experiences since Paxman-nacht are both examples of the
dialogue it sparked. Firstly my friend's 15-year-old son wrote an essay
for his politics class after he read my New Statesman piece. He didn't
agree with everything I said, he prefers the idea of spoiling ballots to
not voting "to show we do care" maybe he's right, I don't know. The reason
not voting could be effective is that if we starve them of our consent we
could force them to acknowledge that they operate on behalf of The City
and Wall Street; that the financing of political parties and lobbying is
where the true influence lies; not in the ballot box. However, this
15-year-old is quite smart and it's quite possible that my opinions are a
result of decades of drug abuse.

I'm on tour so I've been with thousands of people every night (not like in
the old days, I'm a changed man) this is why I'm aware of how much impact
the Newsnight interview had. Not everyone I chat to agrees with me but
their beliefs are a lot closer to mine than the broadsheets, and it's
their job to be serious. One thing I've learned and was surprised by is
that I may suffer from the ol' sexism. I can only assume I have an
unaddressed cultural hangover, like my adorable Nan who had a heart that
shone like a pearl but was, let's face it, a bit racist. I don't want to
be a sexist so I'm trying my best to check meself before I wreck meself.
The problem may resolve itself as I'm in a loving relationship with a
benevolent dictator and have entirely relinquished personal autonomy.

Whilst travelling between gigs I had my second notable encounter. One
night late at the Watford Gap I got chatting to a couple of squaddies, one
Para, one Marine, we talked a bit about family and politics, I invited
them to a show. Then we were joined by three Muslim women, all hijabbed
up. For a few perfect minutes in the strip lit inertia of this place, that
was nowhere in particular but uniquely Britain, I felt how plausible and
beautiful The Revolution could be. We just chatted.

Between three sets of different people; first generation Muslims,
servicemen and the privileged elite that they serve (that would be me)
effortless cooperation occurred. Here we were free from the divisive rule
that tears us apart. That sends brave men and women to foreign lands to
fight their capitalist wars, that intimidates and unsettles people whose
faith and culture superficially distinguishes them, that tells the
comfortable "hush now" you have your trinkets. It seemed ridiculous that
refracted through the power prism that blinds us; the soldiers could be
invading the homeland of these women's forefathers in order to augment my
luxurious stupour. Here in the gap we were together. Our differences
irrelevant. With no one to impose separation we are united.

I realised then that our treasured concepts of tribe and nation are not
valued by those who govern except when it is to divide us from each other.
They don't believe in Britain or America they believe in the dollar and
the pound. These are deep and entrenched systemic wrongs that are
unaddressed by party politics.

The symptoms of these wrongs are obvious, global and painful. Drone
strikes on the innocent, a festering investment for future conflict.

How many combatants are created each time an innocent person in a faraway
land is silently ironed out from an Arizona call centre? The reality is we
have more in common with the people we're bombing than the people we're
bombing them for.

NSA spying, how far-reaching is the issue of surveillance? Do you think we
don't have our own cute, quaint British version? Does it matter if the
dominant paradigm of Western Capitalism is indifferent to our Bud Flanagan
belief in nation? Can we really believe these problems can be altered
within the system that created them? That depends on them? The system that
we are invited to vote for? Of course not, that's why I won't vote. That's
why I support the growing revolution.

We can all contribute ideas as to how to change our world; schoolboys,
squaddies, hippies, Muslims, Jews and if what I'm describing is naive then
you can keep your education and your indoctrination because loving our
planet and each other is a duty, a beautiful obligation. While chatting to
people this week I heard some interesting ideas, here are a couple.

We could use the money accumulated by those who have too much, not normal
people with a couple of cars, giant corporations, to fund a fairer
society.

The US government gave a trillion dollars to bail out the big five banks
over the past year. Banks that have grown by 30% since the crisis and are
experiencing record profits and giving their execs record bonuses. How
about, hang on to your hats because here comes a naïve suggestion, don't
give them that money, use it to create one million jobs at fifty grand a
year for people who teach, nurse or protect.

These bailouts for elites over services for the many are institutionalised
within the system, no party proposes changing it. American people that
voted, voted for it. I'm not voting for that.

That's one suggestion for the Americans; we started their country so we
owe them a favour now things are getting heavy.

Here's one for blighty; Philip Green, the bloke who owns Top Shop didn't
pay any income tax on a £1.2bn dividend in 2005. None. Unless he paid
himself a salary that year, in addition to the £1.2bn dividend, the
largest in corporate history, then the people who clean Top Shop paid more
income tax than he did. That's for two reasons ? firstly because he said
that all of his £1.2bn earnings belong to his missus, who was registered
in Monaco and secondly because he's an arsehole. The money he's nicked
through legal loopholes would pay the annual salary for 20,000 NHS nurses.
It's not illegal; it's systemic, British people who voted, voted for it.
I'm not voting for that.

Why don't you try not paying taxes and see how quickly a lump of bird gets
thrown in your face. It's socialism for corporate elites and feudalism for
the rest of us. Those suggestions did not come from me; no the mind that
gave the planet Booky Wook and Ponderland didn't just add an economically
viable wealth distribution system to the laudable list of accolades, to
place next to my Shagger Of The Year awards.

The first came from Dave DeGraw, the second Johann Hari got from UK Uncut.
Luckily with organisations like them, Occupy, Anonymous and The People's
Assembly I don't need to come with ideas, we can all participate. I'm
happy to be a part of the conversation, if more young people are talking
about fracking instead of twerking we're heading in the right direction.
The people that govern us don't want an active population who are
politically engaged, they want passive consumers distracted by the
spectacle of which I accept I am a part.

If we all collude and collaborate together we can design a new system that
makes the current one obsolete. The reality is there are alternatives.
That is the terrifying truth that the media, government and big business
work so hard to conceal. Even the outlet that printed this will tomorrow
print a couple of columns saying what a naïve wanker I am, or try to find
ways that I've fucked up. Well I am naïve and I have fucked up but I tell
you something else. I believe in change. I don't mind getting my hands
dirty because my hands are dirty already. I don't mind giving my life to
this because I'm only alive because of the compassion and love of others.
Men and women strong enough to defy this system and live according to
higher laws. This is a journey we can all go on together, all of us. We
can include everyone and fear no one. A system that serves the planet and
the people. I'd vote for that.


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