Russell Brand and Paganism
Russell Brand is a comedian with a conscience and spiritual awareness. Easy to dismiss if judged after a few minutes as vulgar or trivial, it is no surprise that the Dalai Lama chose Brand to introduce him on his last visit to Britain. Here he talks about his stint as editor of The New Statesman with Britain’s most famous political TV journalist, Jeremy Paxman, known for his confrontational no-nonsense interviews.
You can find his New Statesman editorial here. readers of this blog should like this excerpt: “The model of pre-Christian man has fulfilled its simian objectives. We have survived, we have created agriculture and cities. Now this version of man must be sacrificed that we can evolve beyond the reaches of the ape. These stories contain great clues to our survival when we release ourselves from literalism and superstition. What are ideologies other than a guide for life? Throughout paganism one finds stories that integrate our species with our environment to the benefit of both. The function and benefits of these belief matrixes have been lost, with good reason. They were socialist, egalitarian and integrated. If like the Celtic people we revered the rivers we would prioritise this sacred knowledge and curtail the attempts of any that sought to pollute the rivers. If like the Nordic people we believed the souls of our ancestors lived in the trees, this connection would make mass deforestation anathema. If like the native people of America we believed God was in the soil what would our intuitive response be to the implementation of fracking?” Russell Brand
15 Responses to “Russell Brand and Paganism”
What a quote! Just brilliant.
Brilliant
Just an idea for you Russell.
http://stoptherecession.weebly.com/
” The Wrennall Economic Plan
I have produced a plan to resolve the current economic crisis. I wonder if you would like to take a look at it and see if it is something that you can support.
These are the Objectives that I set for the plan:
To:
1. Stimulate socially responsible economic growth.
2. Enhance the quality of life of all citizens.
3. Eliminate all involuntary unemployment.
4. Eliminate all involuntary economic hardship.
5. Stimulate opportunities for work that is economically, psychologically and socially rewarding.
6. Eliminate wasteful and destructive forms of public expenditure.
7. Address the fiscal crisis of the state.”
Go, Russell, go!
I like the guy (even if anther site I follow calls him a tool). Who knows right?
And his end quote is spot on.
I’m also anti fracking and a pagan but I think that it’s going to take a lot more than ‘just having a laugh’ to change things in this country, and encouraging the young people he is a role model for, not to vote is shameful. I think he’s right about how corrupt the system is, and even about the fact that we will probably need a revolution to change things, but I find his lack of serious thought about alternatives really depressing. It’s like he wants someone else to do his dirty work (politicians building a movement that listens to the people he cares about, the ‘underclass’) and will sit around sulking until he gets it.
AWESOME
Bravo Russell! His perspicacity has impressed me ever since I read his commentary on the legacy of Margaret Thatcher, in the face of the adulation that was then being heaped on her at the occasion of her death. (I could seriously relate, as we went through such an appalling response by the public on the occasion of Ronald Reagan’s death!) His grasp of the real importance of Earth-Centric Paganism only raised my estimation of him that much more!!! Cheers, Russell!!!
In the interim between the unjust now and the egalatarian then, Russell seems to want it both ways – indifference and revolution. Or, is he calling for an indifferent revolution? His arrows strike and are thrilling to watch but they bounce off the targets. I’m a pagan but he’s a bit muddleheaded…IMO.
Love this!
Hope nobody minds me expressing my opinion but I must admit he is not my favourite person as I find his comedy a little too immature and very content light.
I listened to this interview a couple of times and whilst he is very articulate he provides no hint of a solution and in fact I thought he was really regurgitating headline sound bites and just hitting back at the status quo which is always very easy to do.
I did at one point wonder if it was a bit of planned show boating between the two of them
Its very easy to blame government (whomever is in) and its very easy to be a victim (I see it so much) and I’m not saying peoples moans and groans are unjustified (particularly with this governments embarrassing solutions). But it takes action not apathy to change things and intelligence not articulating your gripes to make that change work. Brand’s arguments lacked all of these imo.
His talk of revolution brings images of Pigs and Horses to mind and the net result is that without good leadership we would all remain as chickens. Four legs good, two legs bad. Its great to have objectives (if only he had some) but you need a plan
We do need to do much more to help our planet but we chickens are so media driven that we are missing the point. Action is needed not sitting back accepting the media as truth and moaning.
We have within a democracy a number of tools by which to excerpt pressure of change and we should resort to that before falling back on Plato. It is our apathy that allows democracy to become unjust
Stand up!!!
I like him. I am surprised and delighted by the way he expresses himself. Have you seen the clip of him talking about yoga?
Just watched the youtube interview. I agree with all he says about what is wrong with the system, and what it does wrong. I do agree however, with Paxman about the need to articulate what should be done to remedy the situation. I don’t think that not voting will remedy anything either – then you end up with no one voting but those who are served by the system and those who’ve been duped by their lies. Things won’t change just by not voting.
When he talks of revolution, I am always concerned, as I always am when I hear talk of revolution, about what happens when revolutions occur: there are those by nature are motivated by the love of power, and those people always manage to get themselves into to the thick of it when revolutions happen. Then, as Pete Townshend perceptively observed some years back, it’s “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”. History reveals this repeating tendency to be true, and those who don’t know history tend to just repeat it, of course. I think Russell would do well to delve into the historical and theoretical side of things, and begin to be concerned with them, or to find someone to work with who can be his authority on those aspects while he is the fire behind the wind!
Yes I agree Rylin. Look at Iraq! After toppling Saddam and 10 years of bloodshed and the introduction of democracy, who is running the show now? A dictator and his son who is in charge of the secret police. Simply revolution is far too simplistic a call, and yet we need people like Russell to stir things up and get us thinking – and hopefully acting!
Russell – I LOVE YOU!!!
Gabriella
How can people not see through the false messiah that is Russell Brand?
Perhaps they are trying to get something for themselves from the association with Brand… in reality, you will see the energy go out of them, and they will lose more than they gain.
As the Ancient Ones knew: look into the eyes.
And follow your own path, not someone else’s.
Comments are closed.