I remember back in the earlier part of the 2000’s Russell Brand was making a huge name for himself, he possessed that irresistible combination of sass, blatant cheek, snook cocking naughty boy charm, and an anti establishment, devil-may-care approach to his career; we know Russell very well from his huge success as an actor, comedian and critic of popular culture; Russell Brand built a brand!
I must admit to disliking Russell from a great distance back in the day, I think most heterosexual males envied Russell his panache, his courageous camp style, and his lady killer credentials, society is just like that, we tend to dislike successful people on some level, admit it!
Anyway, after a meteoric career such as Russell Brand’s one expects either a tragic death, or a prolonged ‘rehab’ lasting decades, Russell chose to settle down and grow up, have some children and fall in love with a sweet girl, how terribly old fashioned of him!
It seems just like Ricky Gervois Russell saw the wisdom of calming the fuck down and using his considerable talents as a communicator for the greater good. Russell is a recovering addict, he makes no secret of this, and he has been a champion for addiction, and drug law reform for a long time; critical thinking is Russell’s domain, you cannot be a good comedian unless you can observe, evaluate and relate popular culture in some way.
The growth of Podcasting has been a massive part of Russell Brand’s re-launch as a cultural figure, he has embraced independent media production is a big way, this is an intelligent use of the media resources we all have access to; the fact that he was famous to begin with only adds punch to his production, this guy is doing God’s work.
I admit to reviewing my opinion of Russell Brand, I now consider him to be a genuine voice of sanity and critical thinking, the naughty boy of British comedy has undergone a Phoenix-like transformation, the writer of ‘My Booky Wook’ has completely changed, he offers his four million plus subscribers a platform where all of the major issues and events of our social world are processed and examined in an entertaining, but serious way: Russell Brand has become a public intellectual!
If a curmudgeon 60+ boomer such as myself can appreciate Russell Brand’s critique of popular culture, I imagine he is having an even larger impact on his favored demographic of 20-50 year olds.
I very much doubt if Russell Brand would care even for one second what I write about him, but I admire and respect what he is doing, I like it very much because in these days of ‘Cancel Culture’ and blatant conformity with ‘right think’ ideology and a total absence of critical debate and discussion, where people can be ordered out of public Q & A events for daring to question the accepted narratives, someone of Russell Brand’s popular stature is providing authentic critical analysis of our world, I say ‘Good on you Russell, more power to you mate’.
* I need to add a little note here: Russell Brand’s obvious support for the prick who advises Klaus Schwab, who advocates anti-human approaches to using ‘A.I’ and hacking the human mind, who proposes the exact opposite of what a humanist would say, well…I am devastated Russell, have you really thought this one through Russell, how do you think your support of these revolting egotists measures up with your self image of being a ‘holy man of the media’? We all make mistakes, and I think I have made one with the above support of your quest: I will leave it here as a stark warning to others, it is always best to wait a while and observe people, watch who they support, who is pulling their strings – in this case we have a shameful display of very confusing values.
