Title: Revolution
Author: Russell Brand
Year: 2014
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
Synopsis: Interesting,
informative and enjoyable read with a very distinctive Brand tone of voice.
I
have become a pretty avid viewer of Russell’s Trews show this year so when I heard
about the book I was keen to give it a read.
As my synopsis would suggest all in all I found this to be an enjoyable
and entertaining read after which I definitely felt more informed on the
current ways of the world and how our money orientated system is having a
negative impact on society – although at this point I should probably call out
that this is a subject I am pretty new to.
There
were some stand out facts that have stuck with me, such as the 85 richest
people in the world have the same wealth as 3.5 billion of the population,
(that’s half of the world), and that this ‘fun bus’ (as Russell calls it) of
the super rich are getting richer by the day, partly due to the huge power they
wield over governments to pass legislation in the interest of their big
corporations. In essence no major
surprise there but that ratio of 85:3,500,000,000 is pretty staggering!!
Another
really interesting fact is that every president of the United States of America
I must
say at this point, I have seen a number of Revolution reviews that throw some
of Russell’s facts into question and whilst I’m not yet knowledgeable
enough to know whether there is truth in this or not, through a
combination of the Trews and this book, Russell has opened my eyes
to some of the sobering realities of our capitalist society and absolutely inspired me to
know, learn and read more to understand the truth and how we can improve things for the future.
How, is another area where Russell seems to have come under a bit of fire for
not having laid out enough tangible, actionable solutions to the problems he has
identified. I feel the need to defend
Russell here as whilst he is clearly an intelligent guy (I had to consult
a dictionary on more instances than I care to admit whilst reading this book),
I think it’s a bit much to expect one man to devise a new global economic
system single handedly. Plus as Russell
recognises on several occasions power and decision making shouldn’t be placed
in the hands of individuals or a chosen few it should be the work of the
collective so I think the how is one for us all to figure out.
In
summary, I would definitely recommend this book, with perhaps just a few
exceptions... Firstly, I would suggest any Russell Brand haters steer clear as I think you’ll struggle to get passed his flowery language, long
winded rants and at times very random analogies - for me its one of the joys of
the book but I can see this not being to everyone's taste.
Secondly
I can imagine the sterner aficionados of the world of
politics might not appreciate Brands comedic style and finally any relations of George Saxe-Coburg-Gotha might want to avoid chapter 10 – Ich Bin
Ein Monarch.
Other
than that get yourself a copy and give it a go as you might just learn
something!
