Russel Brand: The time for Revolution is now.

muzzleflash
reply to post by frazzle

 

I agree its dumb to print money on interest.

I meant personal loans are ok to profit from specifically rather than treasury notes. There is little logic on paying interest on the act of printing currency itself.

Sorry I wasnt specific.

Ah, no problem, I may have read it wrong.

Fortunately the tsunami of personal debt has eaten away enough of our substance by now that more and more people are realizing its a Ponzi scheme and they're trying to pay down their personal and credit card debt in order to "get free". Not enough of them yet, obviously, and I'd say they're a day late and a dollar short anyway, but of course this puts the banks at further risk because its only continuous large scale borrowing that keeps their Ponzi scheme going. The United Bubble Machine is due to pop. That's why the government is taking up the slack in borrowing.

The government(s) hold primary responsibility for all that's happened economically since the nation's inception and more importantly for the past 100 years of dickering with those whose interests lie ONLY in profit. No one resents just compensation for services rendered as long as the services are beneficial and fairly administered for both parties. What we have is 180 degrees away from fair or beneficial to any but those who WRITE the contracts and profit from them. I'd ask, is it a service they provide or is it a trap?

Shakespeare had it right ~ neither a borrower nor lender be.

I'll tell you that he is bang on the money with the problems we face.
He is a champion. I was worried his Messiah tour was not living up to expectation.

reply to post by benrl


Russel Brand is simply too gung-ho to calmly, patiently and most importantly - equitably - discuss the issues that exist. Here's why I say that (and perhaps this is indicative of all "extremist" positions, whether they be to the far right or the far left, they have nasty habit of absolutizing their contentions.)

Russel wants there to be more "equity" in British (and presumably world) society. But within all systems, there is always a cost and benefit tradeoff. There is no such thing as a perfect society. Take Mao's idea of a "perfect" society. During his "great leap forward" - which was a period of massive redistribution of resources - tens of millions of Chinese people died of famine. Mao's problem (and delusional fantasy) was believing he could work society top-down as if it were a clockwork product of central planning. Wrong. Mao learned (in the end, when he opened China up in the early 70s) how incorrect he was.

Socialists like to claim that socialism will only work when it's implemented worldwide. Implied in this statement is the willingness to do all that it takes to implement socialism worldwide. I'm not sure whether this can happen, and it's in this basic, fundamental uncertainty, an uncertainty basic to existence, that propels people outside this fact into the narrower (hell Russel brand) position that only their system should work, and all others are grossly unjust. Xio Denpeng demonstrated the type of versatility that hardlined fanatics like Mao were too immature to appreciate: that you have to compromise with the world. From this compromise, prosperity, wealth and harmony can emerge.

What is a basic, interminable fact of life? I would say "opposites". With up, there's a down; with left, theres a right; and with left leaning liberals, there are right leaning conservatives. With regard to political orientation, "leaning" i.e having a tempered bias in this way or that way is normal. What's ABnormal, is when you fly to the far left or far right and begin to forget that the world is not made in your image, and that your ability to effect change - especially change gainsaid by existential facts, such as those cemented by evolutionary biological processes - is intrinsically limited. People like this leave this world marked with its restriction and begin to orchestrate strategies to implement change, showing little regard to the environmental impediments that will upset the type of change they want to see.

We should all be weary of the bromide "disenfranchisement" "has reached a fever pitch" rhetoric that Brand is regurgitating. It's been said again and again and again. When it comes from someone like Brand - and the political extremism he represents - its meaning has less of a utilitarian quality and more of a "I am serious" quality. This position is so laughingly discredited, and always produces the same shoddy results - its amazing that people still subscribe to it (and you know Brands affinity with eastern meditation is filling his noggin with unreasonable political dreams; he is not be the first person to suffer from this delusion).

First, our generation is considerably more well off than earlier generations. Steven Pinker put the claim "we are more violent than earlier generations" to analysis in his book "the better angels of our nature", and not surprisingly, it turns out that we are living in the safest period in human history. We also are living longer, receive greater healthcare, enjoy more nutritious diets and appreciate greater leisure time than earlier generations. And yet, for Brand, another privileged celebrity enamored with left-wing doctrines, this world is a nightmare; government is so hopelessly invidious that he can't bare to participate in the political system.

I'm not saying there aren't problems, but the word "revolution" doesn't strike me as an appropriate term. A more apt term would be "reform".

Where I live, I'm actively involved in educational reform to include interoceptive practices into elementary and highschool curriculums. I don't see "the corporate elite" as a necessary problem to this issue. In my mind (and according to my understanding) capitalism builds wealth. The reason why this is is because capitalism enables the free-movement i.e. spontaneous organization, of free agent entrepreneurs. The Benefit to this approach is: it builds wealth and is more creative. The Cost is: Greed.

Now, the job of the person who wants to improve humanity is to pressure business magnets to contribute to the betterment of society. Surprisingly, many are willing. Take the turn to healthy foods and healthy living; shows like Dr. Oz, the doctors, and others, promoting a more healthy lifestyle. There's profit in this approach; but it's also good.

Progress takes time - and this is what Russel Brand fails to recognize. The term "revolution" often connotes violence. If Brand believes *yawn* that violent revolution would be good, please, just look at what happened to the other countries which had socialistic revolutions: Russia, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Czechoslovakia, etc. They all turned capitalistic, and they did so because its a wealh builder, and its a wealth builder because this is simply how human beings operate: we are most creative and effective when we don't have people delegating to us what we should do.

Massive taxation of corporations? Massive redistribution of wealth? This clown should really tone down his language - as I don't think the word "massive" supports his argument. Don't get me wrong. Business should be better regulated; government should be there for basic public objectives - it's imperative on a basic judicial level that everything not be privatized, as extremist liberterians think. But "massive"? aye. Brand reveals himself to be just the latest joe-shmo celebrity in love with leftist political ideas. If only he read more, particularly in psychology, evolutionary psychology, developmental psychology, anthropology, and history, would he learn the lessons that more and more academics are learning.

It's not Left or right anymore. Its Left AND Right. Both sides, both ideas, are relevant. Socialism is relevant is some aspects of society, to keep things more fair,, while private ownership, capitalism, is the wealth builder that keeps society progressing.

reply to post by frazzle


He had it right, avoid loans.

I avoid them at all costs.

The worst debt Ill accept is like 50$ from a friend , that way things always work out cuz I pay em back.

Or vice versa.

Bank loans are risky and painful.
Avoid evade escape.

pavil

muzzleflash


The mob WILL vote for a celebrity before they would pick a real statesman who knows how it works.

Isn't that kind of what we do already????

Sad, isn't it?

Sad is an understatement.

Not only will they vote for em, look how they deify em.

In this thread alone how many times was homeboy compared to Jesus?

Ever seen Monty Pythons "Life of Brian" ?
It is pretty insightful and shows a lot of examples of this behavior. And its hilarious, win-win.

reply to post by muzzleflash

Bank loans are risky and painful.
Avoid evade escape.

Amen!

Somebody needs to convince congress about that.

Ah yes...wit...my FAVORITE kind of intelligence.
I'll be willing to bet good money that he would test at a genius level.
I find it strange that people who tend to be humorous aren't judged as intelligent.
I know this much...
being underestimated is an advantage.

I also happen to think that Steven Colbert is the smartest person in the country...aside from Jon Stewart.

They are both funny as hell...but I'd hate to have a serious debate with them, as I know that they would probably disarm me to the point of defeat.

It takes a vast amount of intelligence to be witty...a lot of things must come together in order to tickle someone's sensibility and get them thinking about a serious topic...at the SAME time.

I always liked Russell. There is something about him that I'm drawn to. I feel like I could pick his brain all day...I also feel that he could put things into perspective in a way that most wouldn't...he's free.

Disarm you with a smile.
Cater to your sensibilities...
then he throws a whammy at you and still has a smile on his face...but the thing is...so do you.

Genius.

They really didn't let him talk about his topic too much...but,
I will say this...those anchors looked like idiots when he was done...he wasn't even trying...
Svengali or Rasputin???
Take your pick.

and remember,,,





ok that was fast,,

lets try,,,,,

he doesnt care, he just wants to be on tv.
he will say anything.

its easy to say the right thing if you have dont have to back it up.

reply to post by JakiusFogg

Wow! 10-12 hours a day, 6 days a week eh?

That's my normal work schedule..

NOT my start-up ..

projectvxn
reply to post by Komodo

 

IF ...................your net profit ............makes 1billion ........in 1 quarter of the year...............adjust the wages according .. to those under the executive staff...meaning re-invest BACK in to human resources .........NOT better mats, and R&D .. that's already budgeted in .. right .. ?? !! as it should be already for the YEAR ..

Guess what else is already budgeted in. RAISES.

It's not profit if you have to dump it into something business related. That's called an expense.

I"m talking about...

REAL profit sharing.....not this BS they throw at us ..

raises.. there's another joke from the elitists..

Should we revolt? Well I don't think we are at the point of war. We should maybe demand some easy answers and more honesty from our chosen leaders. Test the waters to see what really matters to them.

Brand says he doesn't have an agenda yet only that he is convinced that the system is broken enough to warrant change. That is a little assumptions when you don't say what consequences there will be.

People would need to have a general idea of what was the dangers of revolting were, not just during but after.

reply to post by angryhulk

You don't like him because he ruined your experience of watching Big Brother?

Says it all really. Please don't participate in this discussion.

This doesn't make any sense.

I used to like watching Big Brother, therefore that disqualifies me from expressing an opinion about Russell Brand.....who used to present a discussion show about Big Brother?

HUH?

Strange logic you folk have got up there, north of the border.

I blame the deep-fried Mars bars (they clog up the arteries you know, especially the little ones in the brain...)

benrl
reply to post by ColCurious

 

It's simple to grasp our current form of capitalism relies on cheap labor to profit. It used to be that manufacturing jobs paid well.

Now because of the current model there is a real moral deficit, these profits come at the cost of human suffering.

Your telling me a new iPhone every year is worth the suffering of thousands of Chinese labor.

That is a moral deficit, the cost of connivence of the western world and profits for the corporations is causing suffering around the globe.

Worse yet our culture idolizes the entire thing, and it's defended by the very people it harms.

Our jobs go away, and we buy the crap we used to make from cheep labor sources, cutting the middle class twice with and outsourcing of jobs while convincing them they need to consume these products.

All so the Walton family and the likes if which can drain the citizens dry and add more zeros to their already obscene wealth.

I'm all for capitalism but this is not it, we subsidize these company's to our own detriment.

edit on 24-10-2013 by benrl because: (no reason given)

edit on 24-10-2013 by benrl because: (no reason given)

Thank you, that is one of the most succinct summaries of one of the primary underlying problems I have seen.

benrl

Domo1
I really didn't like Brand when I first became aware of him, but that has changed drastically, and for a while now I've thought him incredibly bright, articulate and hysterical. I agree with a lot of the things he was saying, and wasn't surprised when I finished the video quite impressed with his points and delivery. We need to get him on ATS live.

Oh he annoyed the crap out of me, Until I heard him on Stern and actually listened to what he was saying. But he freely speaks his mind and intelligently about anything that's put to him.

................ unless it's criticism of him. He was on the political panel show Question Time in the UK some weeks ago and I think he acted like an attention seeking 16 year old, which would be fine if he actually was 16. He sprouts off the ideology, blames everything on rich people in suits.... while bringing out DVDs and doing tours which net him a few million.

reply to post by Komodo

I"m talking about...

REAL profit sharing.....not this BS they throw at us ..

raises.. there's another joke from the elitists..

Profit sharing only makes sense if you're involved with the development and ownership of the company.

Profit sharing already occurs. It's called the stock market.

I always notice the most financially ignorant people are the ones demanding the most from their jobs. If you want more start your own business or invest.

guidetube
Brand says he doesn't have an agenda yet only that he is convinced that the system is broken enough to warrant change.

Well "CHANGE" won the last two elections as I recall.

Is it getting better yet??

A revolution is both over-due and needed

An American blossoming of the world-wide social media revolutions is seriously needed... with Tweets & Facebook interactions to start the momentum ...

The momentum needed to oust Øbama and his regime...not just to impeach this man that is manipulating the fringes of legality to obtain a dictorial power platform

His actions and the real purpose for them needs to be brought to light & ALL of his Agenda needs to be purged from our Republic

reply to post by benrl


So ATS is all in favor of the Fabian Bankster's Shill???


Isn't it about time to DENY IGNORANCE?

If you bothered to look you would find he is a shill for the Wolf in a Sheepskin, the Fabians. See ATS thread Beware The Fabian Society and The Fabian Model - British Fabian Society dynastic banking families

It is no coincidence that FABIAN ex- prime minister Tony Blair [was] Appointed Senior Advisor to JPMorgan Chase His part-time job carries an estimated $1 million salary. LINK Nice part time job if you can get it isn't it?

“We are at present working discreetly, but with all our might, to wrest this mysterious force called sovereignty out of the clutches of the local national states of the world. And all the time we are denying with our lips what we are doing with our hands.” - Arnold Toynbee, Fabian Society – City Of London

... It is as if you are staring not across a two-lane highway, but into a different dimension.

That is the City of London. The City is not to be confused with London, although they share a name. The City is much smaller and far older. London is the capital of England, but the City, the ancient heart of Greater London, is the capital of capital—and when the offices glow with light...
the City is not just a money machine. It has the oldest representative body of local government in the world, and is a unique combination of private company and public authority. This hybrid entity, called “the Corporation,” is vastly wealthy, and has used that wealth—and its attendant connections—to charm friends and buy off enemies for centuries. Though its electoral freedoms long predate those of the rest of Britain, the City is also swathed in the kinds of mystery and ritual rarely seen outside the Vatican.

But north of Norton Folgate is a warning for anyone about to enter these canyons of glass and steel. There on a brick gable beyond the City’s limits is some white graffiti. Written out in block letters, positioned to be legible to the office workers, it says: “We will ask nothing, we will demand nothing, we will take. Occupy.”

The City has survived many challenges over the years—water-borne piracy, rat-borne plague, rapacious kings—but those words represent a threat it has never known before: grassroots citizen democracy. Angered by the City’s greed, by the financial crisis, and by the bankers’ failure to respond to it adequately, an ad hoc coalition of socialists, Christians, and neoconservatives is taking the opportunity of elections on March 21—which will decide the Corporation’s 100-member Common Council—to challenge the cozy establishment that has ruled the City for so long....
www.newrepublic.com...

The move toward a One world Government is a real fact. But not one that the People of the world have asked for or want. Who are the men and women that are enforcing their will over the People, and what is their background and ethics?
...John Redwood –
Head of N.M Rothschilds & Sons London global Overseas Privatization Unit
Wrote “Public Enterprise in Crisis
Sir Robert Douglas –
Contracting consultant by City of London Banks, World Banks & others.
Wrote “Unfinished Business”
Both books are primary handbooks used by central & local govt finance ministers & officers around world
Tony Blair
Was Vice-President of Socialist International
Wrote "The Third Way: New Politics for the New Century" calling for "ethical socialism" - published in September 1998 by the Fabian (Socialist) Society.

George Bernard Shaw, a leading member of the Fabian Society, said the Society made it possible for respectable citizens to support socialism without suspicion of lawless desire to overturn the existing order.

He also stated: “Fabianism feeds on Capitalism, but excretes Communism.”

And again: “Our propaganda is one of permeating – we urged our members to join the Liberal & Radical Associations in their district, or, if they preferred it, the Conservative Associations - we permeated the party oganisations and pulled all the strings we could lay our hands on with the utmost adroitness and energy, and we succeeded so well that in 1888 we gained the solid advantage of a Progressive majority full of ideas that would never have come into their heads had not the Fabians put them there."

Also look up the London School of Economics and News Statesman.

www.fabians.org.uk...
The London School of Economics & the New Statesman

Two other abiding contributions of the Webbs that persist until the present day are the New Statesman magazine and the London School of Economics.

The London School of Economics, today one of the most pre-eminent universities in the world...

...Fabian Henry Hutchinson to the Society for “propaganda and other purposes” was used by the Webbs, Graham Wallas and G.B. Shaw to found a research institute to provide proof positive of the collectivist ideal. The LSE flourished and continued to associate with Fabian academics...

Today, the Fabian Society and the LSE continue to work closely together....

The New Statesman was founded in 1913, the brainchild of Beatrice and Sidney Webb. With the financial support of George Bernard Shaw and other Fabian Society members...

A lot more from Russell Brand (About 35,800 results) in The New Statesman: www.newstatesman.com...

Both Tony Blair and David Rockefeller are associated with the London School of Economics.

www.fabians.org.uk...
New Labour and Beyond

In the 1990s the Fabian Society came to be a major force in the modernisation of the Labour Party...

After Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997, over 200 Fabians now sat in the House of Commons, including many of the Cabinet. However, the Fabian Society developed its role as a critical friend, supporting the Blair and Brown government’s in developing policy...

muzzleflash
He is scripted to say it, and these folks clap when the applause light comes on.

Probably. But he might be sincere, a lot of people feel the same way.

Also talk of Revolution means :
Death, Murder, Chaos, Insanity

Revolt this time will only bring Evil to our lands. Airstrikes, tanks on street, entire city blocks raided like in Nazi times.

They are being LED BY THIS MEDIA off the cliff!

I agree. There's another thread on Julian Assange right now that approaches this topic from a different angle.

All this anger is fabricated and facilitated by forces that want them eliminated from the world politic equation.

I don' t know about the media, but I'm happy to assume the worst. About people, though, I think a lot of people are pretty frustrated. Sparks don't set off kindling if it's not already dry.

Its about dissolving our Nation actually.
Only we can defeat the USA

I believe that. I agree it sucks that it's going that way.

thats why they are manipulating citizens into massive anti gov mentality.

I assume you mean 'the media.' I think they are simply taking advantage of people like Brand, whose intelligence is no match for his ego, believing that he's something special and that's why media likes him, as opposed to, because he's a saleable product for the moment. Most pop stars doing porn pop videos think that too.

It would be super helpful if our government could quit doing stupid evil crap that makes the public distrust them and gives the media and our enemies new opportunities to do us damage with the secrets or the fallout.