I want to be famous so I wrote a blog about Russel Brand

Russel Brand excites me.

It is strange when you feel an adrenaline rush from watching something completely non-static. Although describing a Brand interview as non static is a bit of a stretch. When I watch the Lord of the Rings, it is expected for me to want to jump up and scream at the screen like a lunatic; but unlike crazy rock music that might have a similar effect, words of change can spark wonders particularly when packaged in an accessible way.

I have a similar experience watching Aaron Sorkin’s work. ‘Moneyball’ got me pumped as hell, even though it was a film about people talking about baseball – nothing sounds less exciting. I’m a sucker for great writing, but reading aesthetically beautiful classical prose like Shakespeare does not have the same effect; that is because we want to relate. No one speaks Elizabethan English, so when someone makes an epic one-liner in Hamlet, it is very different from the effect of hearing a certain catch phrase uttered by John McClane.

Much like the reasons for political apathy that Mr. Brand speaks about, politicians do not represent the vast majority. For this reason amongst many, it can be very easy to ride off vote-seeking white, middle class males in suits who swear they’re looking out for your best interests.

Au contraire, it can be easy to fall head over heels for someone who comes out of the stereotype and hail them as the new messiah; the ‘Barack Obama’ effect, where the first black President is going to fix all the problems of this current unrepresentative system.

In Mahdi Hassan’s interview of Mr. Brand on Monday evening, when posed the question whether he would vote for someone that came from a poor background, similar to Russel’s own background, the glorious response was, ‘what is he going to do?’

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/11/05/huffruss-russell-brand-in-conversation-with-mehdi-hasan_n_4221633.html?utm_hp_ref=uk-politics&ir=UK+Politics

I don’t agree with some of his ideas, or methods, but boy do I want to jump up and scream at the screen when he rants about how our system is messed up and no one seems to care. He’s not a man with answers, but no one should expect him to be. In my opinion, he is providing solutions by begging us to come up with something better. All the social scientists, political activists, politicians, great thinkers, keyboard warriors perhaps: the onus is on you. Unless we have accepted that mankind needs to come to a stagnant plateau and that our current system is the best solution to addressing problems of economic disparity, and social inequality, then why should we criticise someone on the basis of wanting to make a change?

Sure, scrutinize his ideas, but he’s doing a hell of a lot more than many of us.

Mr. Brand represents an idea. Despite coming from a poor,  junkie background, he can sit down and hold his own with senior politicians and thinkers, without coming across as an idiot; and if he does, he makes the entire room laugh in the process.  He is highly eloquent, and is very much symbolic of the fact that being well educated does not mean solely scoring a double first class from Oxbridge. Much like a great film, he delivers ideas to us in a way that we, the masses, can appreciate and comprehend.

I have been critical of him in the past, and I am not jumping aboard the ‘Brand for PM’ bandwagon just yet,  but the next time he speaks, I will make sure I listen. That is more than I can say regarding most of the politicians in this country.