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On the Russell Brand charges
Apr. 4th, 2025 01:02 pmIt probably won't come as a shock to know that I am the "Negative Nelly" at most meetings I've attended. I'm the one going, "Wait a second, won't that idea cause THIS problem and unravel this sector." And all too often I was greeted with groans of despair. I feel because 1) people hate going to meetings and 2) people love simple-minded "solutions" that sound good in a sound bite.
The Russell Brand charges have reminded me of something that I have been meaning to address in a Rabid Rant and that is our modern tendency to love a slogan. And to turn real life problems into game show or reality TV fodder, distilling them down into a caricature. We see no end of people who represent a BRAND, an idea that they can embody for us to "understand" it.
Russell Brand represented this cartoonish expression of sexual freedom and "genius" looks at social convention. He painted it all on a satirically huge canvas and then he pivoted to his guru position as a writer and teacher of spiritual truth.
It didn't take much observation to realize that there was a pathology at work under his commercialized facade. Russell himself admitted to pathology in his writings and his comedy. We simply assumed it was a benign pathology at work, because we were used to seeing it on TV and it never harmed us directly.
Donald Trump is much the same. He was also an entertainer on Reality TV. That's who he "Came to fame" as it were. And even though he was scripted on The Apprentice, he still displayed his underlying pathology. He expressed it clearly, even when he had the sense not to ramble in public. His supporters enjoyed the reckless aggression and lack of compassion for others that he readily displayed. They felt it was not harmful, because they had never experienced the harm it could cause. They were inoculated by becoming accustom to his lack of empathy as an entertainment.
Elon Musk dances around on stage with a chainsaw and people have been reading about his "genius" as a rich man for ages. His procreating exploits were all over the covers of People magazine. Complaints and lawsuits from his employees piled up in the courts, but he had the money and influence to be the one on TV, spouting his own pathological ideas as a trope for "being wealthy and successful."
It is the branding of Fox News that all of these attractive people they hire support "success and wealth" for all, while also ignoring pathologically antisocial behaviors in the name of self-aggrandizement. They gave the same lip-service to Patriotism and the Constitution, without ever understanding deeper meaning.
Their caricature of leadership was Donald Trump, who paints such broad strokes of ideas that they can mean anything at all, so nobody can fail to understand them. And yet, those broad strokes cover up the sick fallout happening in our current reality. Locking up anyone who you don't like, does not lead to justice for all. The innocent people dying in prisons that America flew them to without due process as required by our Constitution. The loyal workers who are out of a job, not because they did a bad job, but because they were loyal to something other than Trump.
Slowly but surely the Alt+Right presented us with entertaining figures who offered simplistic (and often sociopathic) solutions to problems, which in reality required the ability to think and plan for the good of most people, not the self-centered gyrations for attention that these "icons" presented to us.
We, as a species, need to start working on ourselves to encourage longer attention spans and more in-depth discussions of issues. We need to tolerate more ambiguity and awareness that our experience is not EVERYONE's experience and that can be a strength for us all if we allow expression of all experiences.
We need to look at who will be suffering from our policies and why caring about those affected people matters. We need responsible, moral people in positions of power, people who understand their own limitations. And that means, despite the onslaught of infotainment and attention-seekers, we need to beware of the Avatars who present a "good idea" without considering the fallout from the single-minded pursuit of the "good idea."
The Russell Brand charges have reminded me of something that I have been meaning to address in a Rabid Rant and that is our modern tendency to love a slogan. And to turn real life problems into game show or reality TV fodder, distilling them down into a caricature. We see no end of people who represent a BRAND, an idea that they can embody for us to "understand" it.
Russell Brand represented this cartoonish expression of sexual freedom and "genius" looks at social convention. He painted it all on a satirically huge canvas and then he pivoted to his guru position as a writer and teacher of spiritual truth.
It didn't take much observation to realize that there was a pathology at work under his commercialized facade. Russell himself admitted to pathology in his writings and his comedy. We simply assumed it was a benign pathology at work, because we were used to seeing it on TV and it never harmed us directly.
Donald Trump is much the same. He was also an entertainer on Reality TV. That's who he "Came to fame" as it were. And even though he was scripted on The Apprentice, he still displayed his underlying pathology. He expressed it clearly, even when he had the sense not to ramble in public. His supporters enjoyed the reckless aggression and lack of compassion for others that he readily displayed. They felt it was not harmful, because they had never experienced the harm it could cause. They were inoculated by becoming accustom to his lack of empathy as an entertainment.
Elon Musk dances around on stage with a chainsaw and people have been reading about his "genius" as a rich man for ages. His procreating exploits were all over the covers of People magazine. Complaints and lawsuits from his employees piled up in the courts, but he had the money and influence to be the one on TV, spouting his own pathological ideas as a trope for "being wealthy and successful."
It is the branding of Fox News that all of these attractive people they hire support "success and wealth" for all, while also ignoring pathologically antisocial behaviors in the name of self-aggrandizement. They gave the same lip-service to Patriotism and the Constitution, without ever understanding deeper meaning.
Their caricature of leadership was Donald Trump, who paints such broad strokes of ideas that they can mean anything at all, so nobody can fail to understand them. And yet, those broad strokes cover up the sick fallout happening in our current reality. Locking up anyone who you don't like, does not lead to justice for all. The innocent people dying in prisons that America flew them to without due process as required by our Constitution. The loyal workers who are out of a job, not because they did a bad job, but because they were loyal to something other than Trump.
Slowly but surely the Alt+Right presented us with entertaining figures who offered simplistic (and often sociopathic) solutions to problems, which in reality required the ability to think and plan for the good of most people, not the self-centered gyrations for attention that these "icons" presented to us.
We, as a species, need to start working on ourselves to encourage longer attention spans and more in-depth discussions of issues. We need to tolerate more ambiguity and awareness that our experience is not EVERYONE's experience and that can be a strength for us all if we allow expression of all experiences.
We need to look at who will be suffering from our policies and why caring about those affected people matters. We need responsible, moral people in positions of power, people who understand their own limitations. And that means, despite the onslaught of infotainment and attention-seekers, we need to beware of the Avatars who present a "good idea" without considering the fallout from the single-minded pursuit of the "good idea."