Russell! Brand! Unleashed!

  On 3/16/2015 at 10:35 PM, Godwin Austen said:

It just boggles my mind.... why, in your opinion Caze, (putting aside the concrete example of Brand) no-one in the end really wants what he's selling? what makes you believe that?

can you first lay out what exactly it is he is selling?

i think it's really easy to get caught up in the superficial with this kind of situation. yes he can be extremely annoying and yes he probably is getting something out of it somewhere along the line. however, what he is doing is raising awareness of some very important social issues which many people are unaware of. housing is a crucial social issue and is a root cause to many of the social problems, especially in places like London. local councils seem to have no problem with riding rough shod over the needs of the local community, turning a blind eye to the suffering of familys living in their constituency. absolutely no government has taken the situation of affordable housing seriously and most continue to ignore it. it shouldn't take a genius to figure out that if more affordable social housing was available (rather than the pitiful amount created by the existing schemes as a grudging add on by upscale property developers) there would be a great deal more cash going into the local economy.

currently in the UK there is approximately 610,000 empty properties in the UK (stats from http://www.emptyhomes.com/),and there are around 810,000 homless familys (stats from http://www.shelter.org.uk/). the government should be working with these organisations and taking on board their valuable feedback, instead they would rather sweep the issue under the carpet so that they can protect the property prices for existing home owners. this is all very well until people actually want to sell their property and find that they can't because not enough people have managed to get on the property ladder for them to do so.

anyway, rant over. fuck the government etc.

i would love brand if he showed how committed he is to the truth by admitting that he was wrong about voting. the revolution he wants is one from the inside.

hunter s thompson ran for mayor of aspen and almost won. he called it the freak ticket. stewart smalley from saturday night live ended up being senator al franken. having a name helps, but you dont even need that. it's possible to get in there. that's what's needed, new people in there.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. - Edmund Burke

aren't Russell Brand & Blackie Lawless one & the same?

  On 3/16/2015 at 10:52 PM, very honest said:

probably the best way for russel brand to actually get something like the results that he wants is to organize a political movement including candidates to be voted for

The main thrust of his argument is that the 'system' (UK) is not fit for purpose as it doesn't serve the electorate as effectively as it should or could. I've heard lots of people say if he has a problem with it, he should stand for election- why? His whole argument is that the system is unrepresentative, ineffective and highly resistant to change, standing for election wouldn't be logical. I do think by 'revolution' he just means electoral reform, which sounds less sexy.

the british people were offered electoral reform, and they rejected it.

i only remotely like the guy because he's a closeted 9/11 truther, otherwise whatev

  On 3/15/2015 at 10:43 PM, AdieuErsatzEnnui said:

 

officials are not necessary in the new world. the internet has made them irrelevant.

Although it's still early days, I think future generations will look back at the technology and communications infrastructure we already have now and wonder why on earth we were still doing things the way we are. I'm not a farmer who will never travel or speak to anyone outside the village I was born. I can travel to anywhere in the UK within 4 hrs and speak to anyone in wish to in the developed world almost instantaneously. We've got the means to create a better democracy than some cunt toddling off to London to 'represent' me and the ~70000 other people in my constituency who may or may not have voted for said cunt

  On 3/17/2015 at 11:18 PM, caze said:

the british people were offered electoral reform, and they rejected it.

If you're referring to the alternative vote referendum, we were offered two choices (av or stay fptp), and zero discussion. I don't recall anyone really advocating av before or after that ref, anyone talking about electoral reform is usually referring to pr anyway. Token gesture

quite a nice reply from john lydon

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/15/johnny-rotten-lydon-russell-brand-revolution-vote

Russell Brand is doing new podcasts with his old chum Matt Morgan and they are great fun, I really enjoy him just being a normal person talking shite with his mates.

https://audioboom.com/channel/therussellbrandpodcast

  On 3/12/2015 at 1:11 PM, azatoth said:

 

  On 3/12/2015 at 1:44 AM, LimpyLoo said:

Russell Brand is...well...his heart might be in the right place but goddamnit if he isn't a knob.

 

As terrible as both parties are (in the US), to not vote because they are "indistinguishable" is just being willfully obtuse for effect.

I think in the US there is a good reason to be miffed about the choices on offer. How many independents are there in their congress, a handful? And with all the gerrymandering and established structures, it's really difficult for non-Republican and non-Democrats candidates to get into office. Might be slightly easier on a state level though.

Oh believe me I we're on the same page regarding the choices on offer.

However, the solution isn't to not vote. The solution is to collectively leverage whatever power we, the people, have to get someone we want on the ballet. And then to get run-off voting implemented so that 'a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush' isn't a worry.

And furthermore, there are many perverse incentives within the political system that need to be destroyed: Politicians playing safe to ensure reelection; fund-raising causing politicians to be beholden to donors, implicitly or explicitly; the game-theoretical problem of not voting for a third-party for practical reasons (as stated above); media coverage being influenced by advertisers and all the widespread social and political repercussions of that...

If we can erode these sorts of issues, then heaven only knows how good things could get.

its all well n good preaching revolution to the masses when u've earned your millions making diabolical Hwood comedies, Russell,

but what about the rest of us?

1st sign of any revolution & that cunt's bank transfers would be going into over-time

#hypocrite

He doesn't need to be doing any of this but he is, rich or not that is still more than most people bother with.

  On 4/17/2015 at 10:49 AM, tec said:

He doesn't need to be doing any of this but he is, rich or not that is still more than most people bother with.

but he's not doing anything worthwhile. so he's actually doing less than what most people bother with.

  On 4/17/2015 at 12:49 PM, caze said:

 

  On 4/17/2015 at 10:49 AM, tec said:

He doesn't need to be doing any of this but he is, rich or not that is still more than most people bother with.

 

but he's not doing anything worthwhile. so he's actually doing less than what most people bother with.

 

He done this just last month. http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/mar/26/russell-brand-donates-profits-book-hackney-cafe

he's opened a café! wow, cameron and miliband are presumably quaking in their boots.

You're right, he shouldn't have bothered, none of us should. Fucking hell mate.

do you honestly believe that if Brand's film "career" had taken off he'd be back in Britain spouting any of this crap?

c'mon, the world is a far more cynical fuckin place & i trust Brand about as far as i trust Noel Edmonds

I do, I've been a fan of his for awhile and even in the early days of his career he said he would take his fame as far as it would go until he grew bored of it and then move into what he is doing now.

  On 4/17/2015 at 11:13 PM, cwmbrancity said:

 

c'mon, the world is a far more cynical fuckin place

I think there's often a self-fulfilling prophet element, whereby people think the world--or human nature, etc--is inherently cynical and so they themselves become cynical. How, in response to idealism, people often say "that's not how the world works," not realizing that if everyone who said that instead said "that's a good idea, we should work towards that" then we'd live in a less cynical world.

Just like fiat currency or emotional feedback loops.

TL:DR = saying "the world is a cynical place" is a large part of the reason that "the world is a cynical place"

Moreover, i think 'human nature' is malleable and when you have an epidemic of backwards values coupled with perverse incentives (*cough* capitalism *cough*) then you get the sorts of problems that we see in our current world.

i think he's part of the problem, not part of the solution and to twist your cynicism as a construct of pessimism argument (by cynical i mean people "looking to profit" in the entertainment industry, which Russel is mos def doing), i'd call questioning the likes AND motives of some1 like RB as justifiable & mature practice

his use of language & rhetoric, like a swallowed thesaurus being repeatedly barfed up, indicates clear issues with aggrandizing

he's an incubus of ignorance & in the pragmatic world of Realpolitik a fortunate irrelevance

  On 4/18/2015 at 7:07 AM, cwmbrancity said:

i think he's part of the problem, not part of the solution and to twist your cynicism as a construct of pessimism argument (by cynical i mean people "looking to profit" in the entertainment industry, which Russel is mos def doing), i'd call questioning the likes AND motives of some1 like RB as justifiable & mature practice

 

his use of language & rhetoric, like a swallowed thesaurus being repeatedly barfed up, indicates clear issues with aggrandizing

 

he's an incubus of ignorance & in the pragmatic world of Realpolitik a fortunate irrelevance

Did you bother to read the article I posted earlier? I am fairly sure caze didn't, but it baffles me that someone is doing some good and you're still calling him a problem. Are you jealous of his hair?