RUSSELL BRAND

In 2014, The British comedian/actor Russell Brand wanted us all to reject ‘politics’ and to be more ‘spiritual’, as if to suggest that politics and spirituality are completely separate from each other. I disagreed. All issues are political and spiritual.

For many people, words such as POLITICS, POLITICIAN, and DEMOCRACY are terms of abuse, in contrast to their original usage as neutral, technical, words to describe the various ways by which the world’s resources are distributed.  POLITICS is not inherently bad nor good: it’s the specific method of politics selected that is either good or bad. The same principle applies to the word SPIRITUALITY.

I believe that the ruling elite now want us to think that ‘politics’ is evil; that ALL politicians are greedy and corrupt; and that any good, well-intentioned, people who want to ‘go into politics’ are foolish. Why? Because the ruling elite don’t want us to do their job, as evidenced by the 1000s of years of elite rule. When we eventually got to vote in democratic elections, it was a very weak form of democracy that gave us little power or wealth, hence the current dissatisfaction with democracy and politics in general.

There is- I believe – an insidious ‘new age’ passiveness that is being encouraged by the ruling elite. They want us to be ‘as little children’; to let some parental figure do the organising of human affairs, whether it be a human agency or non-human(‘divine’, even). Either way, we would be puppets on a string. I propose that we all get more involved in politics via Direct Democracy, Co-operative politics, etc. If we don’t return politics back to the people where it belongs, the ruling elite will just go on ruling as usual, and we will continue protesting, meditating and dreaming as usual.