opting out of russell brand’s revolution

One thing that is clear after reading/listening to Russell Brand’s political views is that he is an incredibly charismatic guy. He is able to passionately pitch his revolution with humor and make it sound necessary and possible. Brand also makes some very strong points that obviously resonate with a lot of people right now, like growing inequality, the legitimacy of voter apathy and the need for change beyond of the system. I totally agree with him on many of his ideas.

However at the end of the day, Brand is just another rich white guy claiming the spotlight (that his privilege affords him) and I don’t believe any real social change can never start from that point. I think his manifesto is problematic in that it fails to deeply consider the many systems of domination beyond capitalism that contribute to the current situation. This is dangerous because movements that ignore the power relations of colonialism, heteropatriarchy, white supremacy…ect. will inevitably reproduce their oppressive structure. You can see hints of this in the New Statesman article both in his silence on the subjects and when Brand writes about his trip to Kenya. Lines like, “Here amid the pestilence I saw Armageddon. Here the end of the world is not a prophecy but a condition,” dehumanize the most affected and effectively work to silence their voice. His strange comments in the article about women also suggest a crack in the revolutionary foundation.   Even though his misogyny is veiled in humor, metaphor and self-depreciation it clearly objectifies rather than listens. While Brand might see these kinds of concerns as divisive or “a great impediment to momentum,” I think what really slows down change is a movement that doesn’t make space for them.

In Graeber’s article I really appreciate his argument for shifting our conception of value. He argues near the end of the article that value should be re-centered around, “helping and caring labor” as a way to bring about change. I think that this analysis is particularly true here in B.C. where we cut vibrant ecosystems into pieces and sell them as natural resources. The Walbran forest becomes a plantation, the Peace River Valley becomes floodable and Flora Banks is a convenient sandbar to export LNG. It is clear that that these places have a value far beyond what is being attributed. However until, as Graeber suggests, we can re-imagine value as a society and see that their creation of clean air/water is really worth something, they will be threatened.