Russell Brand and Max Keiser Tear Up Her Majesty (video)

Russell Brand remains one of the brightest of the relatively new guys in the game.  Conservatives dismiss him as a radical clown but they've forgotten one of the roles of the clown as the court jester.  His thoughts are radical but there's nothing wrong with radical ... so long as it works.

Radical is another word which has been turned into an expletive by extreme conservatives.  Their negative reaction is not surprising as that's what they do and a big change will get a bigger reaction.  However, the methods used to take down the message often have little or nothing to do with the message.  It came from a radical, you know.  Well, there's nothing more I need to hear is there.

Something Brand envisions is an agriculture-based communal existence and I agree that's the ideal but where it fails is where will you put all the people.

There are seven billion people in the world and New York City has eight and a half million.  Will everyone fan out from the city and return to a village existence.

It's not realistic to believe the growing city phenomenon will change any time soon as there's not much else you can do with that many people.  In the video, the corrupt financial overlords are charged with forcing everyone into miserable cubicle existence and the charge is generally valid but, at least to some extent, what else will you do with all those people, particularly in such a compressed space.  In Tokyo, some people rent spaces like foot lockers and sleep in them, returning to some kind of home at the end of the week.

The financial corruption is a huge problem but it is not The Problem which is what happens when you have too many people with nothing to do.  Much of corporate life is a complete waste of time but it keeps a lot of people busy in a small area even if the work itself doesn't produce anything more than getting checkboxes marked on governmental forms which are reviewed by people who think only in terms of checkboxes.

The idyllic vision of life in a little German village is a beautiful thing but there are way, way too many people for that to be a realistic dream for everyone.  Some work along that line happens already with architects designing and building villages.  Whether they will be there in fifty or one hundred years is anyone's guess but the models they present for sustainable existence are important.  The same problem exists for them as anyplace that's cool for a village probably already has one.

My view is not pessimistic as radical is fine ... so long as it works.  I don't think this will but that doesn't obviate the need for discussion of any other radical thinking.  Brand has an impressive mind and it's usually interesting to hear his thoughts.