Comedian and actor Russell Brand doesn’t want you to vote—he wants you to revolt.
“The planet is being destroyed. We are creating an underclass. We’re exploiting poor people all over the world. And the genuine, legitimate problems of the people are not being addressed by our political class,” he said in a bombastic BBC interview.
And what would that revolution look like?
“A socialist egalitarian system based on the massive redistribution of wealth, heavy taxation of corporations and massive responsibility for energy companies and any companies exploiting the environment. The very concept of profit should hugely reduced. David Cameron says profit isn’t a dirty word. I say profit is a filthy word,” Brand declared, sitting at the edge of his seat.
Brand guest-edited the latest edition of the New Statesman, a British weekly magazine, on the very topic of revolution.
When asked for details about how such a system would work, Brand deflected.
“Don’t ask me to sit here in an interview with you in a bloody hotel room and devise a global utopian system,” he said.
“You’re calling for revolution!” interviewer Jeremy Paxman fired back.
“Yeah, absolutely! I’m calling for change; I’m calling for genuine alternatives,” Brand responded.
Brand noted in the interview that he has never voted and encouraged others to do the same.
“Stop voting, stop pretending, wake up, be in reality now!” Brand said. “We know it’s not going to make a difference!”
Paxman was a deliberate choice for the Brand sit-down—a combative interviewer, he’s famous for once asking a government minister the exact same question 12 times in a row.
Pundits have sneered at the interview, while Brand’s bombastic plan for the new world order has been well-received by fans, particularly on social media.
This isn’t the first time Brand’s hyper dictation of terms has made headlines. Not too long ago, Brand took over the Morning Joe newsroom to tell the panel how to do their jobs.
Jane Timm