He's NOT The Messiah, He's A Very Talky Boy! | Revolution by Russell Brand - Review

At one point in Revolution, Russell Brand’s latest book, the comedian considers the problem of homelessness; the fact that we have enough housing for everyone in the UK, yet we still have many rough sleepers. ‘”Don’t give them any money:”’ Brand quotes a well-oiled phrase, “they’ll just spend it on drugs.” …so what?’ He argues. ‘I find it hard enough to not take smack sleeping in my cosy flat, take that away and I’ll need at least a ten pound bag of brown warmth to take the edge off.’

Of course, as Brand has always been so keen to remind us – frequently, in Revolution – he knows whereof he speaks when it comes to easing the pain of reality through drug use, even if he has never been homeless. For Brand, if you didn’t already know, drugs were his way of dealing with the boredom and listlessness of growing up in the economically depressed area of Grays, Essex, continuing to use as his media career progressed.

When he saw that drugs were causing him more harm than good, Brand quit. That addictive personality soon sought satisfaction in other ways, though, through sex, fame and…yoga. What with Revolution, his YouTube show The Trews (i.e. ‘true news’) and his film, The Emperor’s New Clothes it’s easy to see politics as Brand’s newest drug of choice, which at least benefits people other than dealers.

Whether at the start of a sentence or not, Brand always pretentiously writes the word ‘Revolution’ with a capital ‘R,’ as if he invented it. Perhaps it’s to get us to roll the ‘R’ like he often has on TV, like, ‘Ooh, let’s ‘ave a lovely Rrrrevolution, me dears. Won’t it be lovely?’ All said with wide, come-hither eyes and a hand on one hip. For Brand, it's uncharacteristically bland as a title, almost as much so as Brand reusing the title of Andersen’s children's book for his follow-up film (which, going by the trailer, hardly seems dull). I mean, at least put a word before it, like Christian activist and speaker Shane Claiborne did with his 2007 book, The Irresistible Revolution, which pretty much covers the same ground as Brand’s tome but with clearer writing, greater humility and from a more explicitly Christian perspective (although Brand pays quite a lot of heed to Jesus and the Bible). Something unlikely to appeal to the popular market Brand is simultaneously courting and criticising with Revolution. The title on the cover is styled to have the word ‘LOVE’ backwards within it – tricky to do throughout the entire book and I suppose Love Revolution or Revolution of Love just sound cloying.

I’ve always found Russell Brand repulsive and compelling in equal measure. He could be obnoxious and inappropriate (Sachsgate, for example) but there was something more appealing about him– a sense of the spiritual and a willingness to engage with people from all walks of life. A quick look at the Revolution hardback in Waterstones a while ago revealed that Russell brings up the St. Francis Prayer -‘Lord, make me a channel of thy peace…’ etc – early on. This inspired me to read the whole book - a library copy of course, abiding by the author’s anti-capitalist message by not parting with my money, even if at least some of it goes toward his ‘Trew Era Café’. It appealed to me that Brand uses prayer himself, even if he considers it to be ‘linguistic codes…that initiate neurological procedures’. This seems a rather reductive, materialistic description of prayer for such an apparently spiritual man.

My goodness, though, if Brand doesn’t half bang on about us all getting into Kundalini yoga and transcendental meditation in order to bring about a spiritual ‘Revolution’ of collective consciousness, where we free ourselves of our need for stuff, therefore our need for capitalism and therefore, corporations that run on capitalism and therefore, governments what are internally corrupt ‘n’ that cos they only serve these rich businesses, rather than the people who vote for politicians, yeah? DON’T VOTE! (Except for Labour in 2015, as Brand told us in the Trews edition where he interviewed Ed Milliband, for all the difference it made.)

It’s not that I’m against what ‘Ol’ Russ’ is proposing. It’s just that I’ve heard or read it before and communicated better, which is odd to write regarding a professional talker like Brand, who writes pretty much like he speaks – very stream-of-consciousness and filthy, with some unnecessary rhyming, to boot. Yet, there is brilliance in here, including some killer one liners. Whilst writing about performance being like calling down information from other realms, Brand counters himself with an imagined response from the reader, '"Russell...are you bringing down information from other realms when you're talking about your willy at the Hammersmith Apollo?"'

It’s such a mixture of the sacred and profane (and all inbetween), it’s like he kept a journal addressing the reader and sent the latest volume to Random House. It’s nice of Ol’ Russ to be so jocular with us, as if we're mates he just hasn’t yet met but the book’s juxtaposition of larks and seriousness is jarring at times. Not so in others, though.

I really struggled with all of the economy stuff, partly because it read like Brand was merely parroting information and partly because he didn’t add any jokes in these bits (which is probably pretty hard to joke about, anyway) but other heavy, or dry, parts of the book are more enjoyable for the levity.

With a good editor, Revolution could have been a storming read. As it is, it’s like ploughing through a first draft and is hard work at times. I found myself wanting to throw the book on the ground after reading another quote that Brand expands upon, another non-sequitur chapter ‘ending’, or, most annoyingly, another story or quote from one of Russell’s mates whom I’ve never heard of and whose opinion I am supposed to respect. Nik, for example (for it is he) thinks that, ‘the first act after a successful Revolution should be the execution of its leaders’ in order to prevent power going to their heads. Cheers, Nik.

I believe that there is something in all of this spiritual business; it’s just that its practical application is a little lost in Revolution but other authors, such as those quoted in it, put it better. Whilst relying a little too much on his mates’ ideas, Brand also quotes from people most of us have actually heard of – Orwell, Chomsky, Tolle, Jesus etc but when I read ‘another world is possible’ (or words to that effect) I had to wonder if Brand actually has a copy of Irresistible Revolution on his shelf (in which that phrase appears, although Claiborne appropriated it elsewhere) he just doesn’t want to admit it, since his Revolution-ary plans are too similar. Shane writes of his experiences working with Mother Teresa and helping Iraqi children, whereas Brand has listened to and read books by a lot of clever people with a social conscience and once let a homeless person sleep in his flat for one night for TV. However, it is fascinating that Brand has reached the point he has after an unfulfilling life of drugs, sex and fame. Brand's point of view is very different from Claiborne’s and just as valid. Kindness is not a competition but, in fairness, I can’t say that I’ve done anything as altruistic as either of them. I’ve also never been addicted to drugs, sex or fame and, honestly, I feel a touch of regret about that. I could still do those things but I fear they would taint my halo of social conscience. Such as it is!

Brand is a Prodigal Son, of sorts, abandoning a hedonistic lifestyle and returning to the Father, or, at least, some sort of spiritual peace involving God. He’d probably rather be the Son of God, though, even if he comes off more like Rik, Rik Mayall's anarchist character in The Young Ones. Brand is a man who did a stand-up show called Messiah Complex in which he compared himself to Christ, amongst other revolutionaries, including Hitler, I believe. In Chapter 10, Brand urges us, as if he is ‘like some weird, bizarro Jesus’, to take pity on the rich, for they, too are slaves to the same corrupt system as the rest of us. Fair point. 

 Whilst very respectful, indeed inspired, by Christianity – Brand even dedicates a whole chapter to the Lord’s Prayer  - his spirituality is a hodgepodge of the Bible, Buddhism and a bit of Paganism thrown in for good measure. He sees it all as coming from the same Source that those of us enslaved to the capitalist matrix need to return to if we’re gonna get this bloody revolution, whoops, sorry, ‘Revolution’, off the bloody ground, right? Such is the force of Brand’s argument, however, he even nearly had me convinced that religion is merely a human construct but that there is, beyond it, a spiritual awareness. Dedicating a chapter to the Paternoster prayer, however, not to mention other chapters that take us through Manifest Destiny, the Co-Op manifesto and, most laughably of all, the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous as a foundation for Brand’s ‘trew’ world order, is lazy writing. Claiborne’s book had the ‘Marks Of A New Monasticism’ list at the end but Brand takes up whole chapters with the things. OK, he admits that he wants the Revolution to be fun but leading up to the Twelve Traditions as his bedrock for a better world made me wonder if he was just taking the piss altogether.

Saying that, it’s not entirely unconvincing.

Brand is easy to bash and is the first to call himself out on his own problems, mistakes and hypocrisy. He admits to not having achieved enlightenment quite yet and still struggles with his own ego. He knows he’s having a go at Apple whilst writing the book using one of their products (as I am to write this review; slave to the system that I am.) He realises that people will take shots at him for his views (haven’t they always) but bless me if Brand doesn’t have a winning sincerity at times.

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