Russell Brand – his criticisms resonate

Its easy to mock Russell Brand’s new book, Revolution, with its instructions on how a just and fair political structure and society should be organised and run. Brand advocates a social revolution wherein,

“corporate tyranny, ecological irresponsibility and economic inequality” come to an end. It proposes the eradication of the “nation state“, the demise of multinational corporations and the injection of spiritual thought into the structure of society.

Moreover he suggests we should put an end to international trade and live together in cooperative communities. He also suggests that,

… multinational corporations be place-based and accountable to nation states; revoking the charters of any corporations with revenues larger than the smallest national GNP.

Predictably there’s been a backlash; for example:

However, I believe that he has hit a nerve by correctly identifying a number of problems which resonate with the vast majority of the public: the rise of inequality, the gap between Companies and local communities, the massive salaries of CEOs, the list goes on.

I personally don’t believe that Brand has any chance of triggering a revolution but he shouldn’t be dismissed; for instance he has 8.56 million Twitter followers. What I hope will happen is that government will feel pressure to take some positive action on pay structures, tax loopholes or implement other measures to address the issues outlined.

You don’t need to be a fan of Brand to feel that his criticisms resonate.

What do you think? Leave a comment below:

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