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Revolution Hardcover – October 14, 2014
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"A delight to read ... Revolution is a text that will help politicise a generation." Independent "Revolution is funny, full of charm, and engaging." -- Owen Jones Guardian "Brand puts forward a logical and witty argument ... in a shifting world where political disillusionment is the norm, Brand offers a hopeful handbook of new ways of thinking." -- Twiggy Garcia Guardian
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
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About the Author
Russell Brand is a British comedian, actor, radio host, and author. He has had a number of major film roles including parts in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek. His most recent stand-up show was the critically acclaimed Messiah Complex, which included his views on Malcolm X, Jesus, Che Guevara, and Gandhi. He was selected by the Dalai Lama to host the Buddhist leader’s 2012 youth event in Manchester, England.
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More About the Author
Russell Brand is a well-known actor, radio host, and comedian in the U.K., and his star is on the rise here in the United States--he appears as Kristen Bell's new boyfriend in the recent Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and he is slated for another Judd Apatow (40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up) movie early next year.
My Booky Wook has been a huge bestseller in Britain, selling more than 600,000 copies!
My Booky Wook has been a huge bestseller in Britain, selling more than 600,000 copies!
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
78 of 85 people found the following review helpful
By
G. LoPorto
on October 14, 2014
Format: Hardcover
1 Comment
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Russell Brand mixes wild stream-of-consciousness rants informed by interviews with Naomi Klein, anarchist David Graeber, and economist Thomas Piketty, with personal memoirs, calls to arms and, ultimately, a call to love. In short, he reminds readers that when the rich are shafting everyone else, the planet is being destroyed, and everyone’s had enough… it’s time for a revolution!
He opens with two of this past year’s most alarming statistics of inequality: Six people whose dad founded Walmart have more money than hundreds of millions of struggling Americans; and a bus full of 85 plutocrats, royals, and oligarchs have more money than half the earth’s population combined.
“You can hear that is crazy, you can see that is wrong, you can feel that this is beyond disturbing. We’re told there’s nothing we can do about it, that this is 'the way things are.' Naturally, of course, that verdict emanates
from the elite institutions, organizations, and individuals that benefit from things being 'the way they are.’"
He points out that Brad Werner of American Geophysical Union said the capitalist system is so rapacious in its consumption of earth’s resources that the only hope we have to save the planet is for action to come from “outside the system.” Which Russell adds to: "That means by us. We require radical action fast and that radical action will not come from the very interests that benefit from things being the way they are."
You can tell he sincerely means to get out of the bubble of celebrity and get back to his roots as an earnest activist, which I applaud him for. He even went so far as to tell a recent interviewer he's "ready to die for this.”
“These things were always in me.Read more ›
He opens with two of this past year’s most alarming statistics of inequality: Six people whose dad founded Walmart have more money than hundreds of millions of struggling Americans; and a bus full of 85 plutocrats, royals, and oligarchs have more money than half the earth’s population combined.
“You can hear that is crazy, you can see that is wrong, you can feel that this is beyond disturbing. We’re told there’s nothing we can do about it, that this is 'the way things are.' Naturally, of course, that verdict emanates
from the elite institutions, organizations, and individuals that benefit from things being 'the way they are.’"
He points out that Brad Werner of American Geophysical Union said the capitalist system is so rapacious in its consumption of earth’s resources that the only hope we have to save the planet is for action to come from “outside the system.” Which Russell adds to: "That means by us. We require radical action fast and that radical action will not come from the very interests that benefit from things being the way they are."
You can tell he sincerely means to get out of the bubble of celebrity and get back to his roots as an earnest activist, which I applaud him for. He even went so far as to tell a recent interviewer he's "ready to die for this.”
“These things were always in me.Read more ›
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48 of 55 people found the following review helpful
By
Ezra Carman
on October 15, 2014
Format: Hardcover
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Lawrence O'Donnell's clarion, insightful interview with Russell Brand about his new book "Revolution" underscores an inescapable reality. The oligarchic "way things are" is a done deal. The apparatus to dismantle the "military-industrial-[congressional] complex" (Eisenhower's 1961 farewell address) has been long since neutered. The usurpation is complete and irrevocable, leaving but one option. Drop out as completely as possible. The understanding, tolerance and love Brand rightly promotes is wholly intolerable to the merchants of greed, class hatred and proxy theocracy. If you don't like having this fascist agenda crammed down your throat, stop voting, stop shopping at WallyWorld, stop gorging at McDonald's, stop buying useless crap, stop subsidizing the very forces that hold you in their iron grip. In short, stop being an instrument of your own demise. Get out of the stock market. Hit them where it really hurts, in bank assets. Now more than ever, less is more. What if they held an election and nobody came? I don't know. Let's find out.
No nonviolent revolution has ever fully succeeded. Sooner or later all came to violence when the rapacious powers that be could no longer coerce belligerent peasants. Both Gandhi and MLK were assassinated. Does that tell you anything? Yes, people will again be brutalized and die. Many more will live marginal lives without the purported blessings of plutonomy and freedumb. That's the price we pay to cast off brutes. In the end it's the only thing thugs understand because brutality is their preferred weapon. Remember Kent State. We of the '60s well understood this during the Vietnam/Civil Rights era and were ultimately suborned by banking interests empowered by creeping totalitarianism.Read more ›
No nonviolent revolution has ever fully succeeded. Sooner or later all came to violence when the rapacious powers that be could no longer coerce belligerent peasants. Both Gandhi and MLK were assassinated. Does that tell you anything? Yes, people will again be brutalized and die. Many more will live marginal lives without the purported blessings of plutonomy and freedumb. That's the price we pay to cast off brutes. In the end it's the only thing thugs understand because brutality is their preferred weapon. Remember Kent State. We of the '60s well understood this during the Vietnam/Civil Rights era and were ultimately suborned by banking interests empowered by creeping totalitarianism.Read more ›
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22 of 28 people found the following review helpful
By
Ex-Patty
on October 18, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
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If you only thought of Russell as a weird comic who married Katy Perry, like me until a few days ago, you may want to give him a second look. Always dirty and hilarious, he shakes down the current world order and obsolete economic system with comments from Thomas Piketty (economist), Helena Norberg-Hodge (anti-globalization campaigner - buy local products, etc.), Noam Chomsky, (and many others who if you're not familiar with, you will be) and a rollercoaster ride inside his own, very erudite and hyper-aware brain. There's also a lot of spiritual examination in this work. He's telling us if he can go from buying into the capitalist system as the only way to live, to a "new emergent strain of understanding that challenges the dogma of the time to re-contextualize the way we" understand ourselves and our planet. The crux of his message is that "we must immediately overcome our superficial differences of accent and lexicon and come together to organize society effectively." But don't let my clumsy review spoil the fun read Russell is in "REVOLUTION". My final comment: It may take an insane person to bring sanity to our world.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By
Suzanne
on October 26, 2014
Format: Hardcover
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Until I read about his book "Revolution", I had never heard of Russell Brand. Yes, I am older; don't watch t.v.; and don't follow pop culture, but a blog post I read recommended checking out his book. I am glad I did. I was taken with Russell Brand's honesty about his personal struggles and with his insights about our consumer driven culture which is creating more inequality along with destroying our planet. His criticisms of our current political parties also resonated with me. I have felt for some time now that our democracy continues to be sold at a faster and faster rate to the highest bidder unabated which only dilutes the "freedoms" we once had as citizens. I think corporate America, the media moguls and the military industrialized complex have successfully distracted us with trinkets, fear and other distractions with one hand while taking our democracy with the other. Even if you might not agree with all his ideas for "revolution", I would hope people might read this book and find some of ideas provocative enough to get you thinking, exploring and discussing how "we" as a collective can make positive changes for all.
Highly recommend...
Highly recommend...
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