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What Do the British Think of the New Russell Brand Graffiti?

Remember when Russell Brand went on BBC's Newsnight two weeks ago, encouraged everyone to stop voting, and thus becoming a pseudo-revolutionary, leading some sort of imaginary charge? Well, a street artist just tagged a mural of his heroic visage onto...

The new Russell Brand graffiti on Cremer Street, East London

Remember when Russell Brand went on BBC's Newsnighttwo weeks ago and encouraged everyone to stop voting thus becoming a pseudo-revolutionary, leading some sort of imaginary charge? It seems that the traces of his rant are still alive, since an artist by the name of SLM tagged a mural of his heroic visage onto a wall in London—a well-known hotbed of sedition.

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Even though the likeness that Russell Brand will become a bona fide revolutionary is, frankly, poor, I was pretty certain that it gave him another push to becoming a Che for our times. I stood on the corner where the fake messiah's mural was and asked a few people for their opinions on their would-be savior and his tribute.

Do you think people should follow Russell Brand's gospel and give up on voting?
Joe Goddard, Hot Chip: It’s all well and good saying what you want, but if there’s no plan on how to achieve it. I’ve got two young kids and I’d be very worried about some revolution becoming dangerous and violent. That’s a worry that I’d have. But society really, really, really needs to have those kinds of changes, so I applaud someone going up and saying that.

Do you think people in his position should be outspoken with their political views?
I think everyone has a right to say what they feel about politics. I don’t agree with any sort of bullshit about if you do a certain job then you’re not allowed to share your opinion on things. I quite like the way that one moment he’s really irreverent and one moment really serious about it—I find that funny. I think he’s got a good sense of humor. He’s very, very intelligent—I’d fucking vote for him. I really liked what he was saying, I’d just like to know how we would achieve that without a lot of people dying. I can’t see these big corporations that he’s got a problem with giving up control without something really awful happening. I would love to see some sort of overthrow of this aggressively capitalist system because it’s fucked.

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VICE: Are you a Russell Brand fan?
Joe: I think he can be occasionally funny. There are sides to his character that I find off-putting, but I think he’s quite self-aware, so he knows there are sides to him that are annoying.

Would he work as a political figure?
Possibly. The stuff he was saying about apathy—I thought he was discrediting the whole political system, which I think is quite dangerous. Even if you don’t agree with everything that a mainstream party is projecting, you’ve got to find a way of buying into that and potentially change it from within instead of disregarding the whole spectrum.

Do you think celebrities should get involved in politics?
Potentially. I think it depends on the celebrity. It has a little bit more credibility coming from Russell Brand than it would coming from Shania Twain, maybe. He has always projected a bit of a personality rather than just selling a product, so with that in mind he’s a more likely candidate for that sort of thing.

What do you think of what Russell Brand said on Newsnight?
Amy (left): It’s a bit out-there, like. I think he’s a bit off the wall to be classed as a political figure.
Jenn: I think it’s ridiculous that he’s even come out with something like this.
Amy: He just does it for the attention. I think he’s fabulous, but he should just stick to comedy.
Jenn: I think he should disappear.

Do you think all celebrities should shy away from voicing their personal political views?
Amy: I think politicians are out there to do politics. Stick to what you know. He’s pushing his views on his fans and it should be their own decision.
Jenn: I think it’s so silly, because if people start following his ideas then where are we going to end up? I think if he were to take over the country it would literally collapse.

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But hasn’t he succeeded in just starting this dialogue?
Amy: If this conversation didn’t involve a celebrity I wouldn’t be talking about it, I wouldn’t really care. But I don’t think somebody should be pushing their ideas like that. I don’t think role models should push their opinions on people. If people want to follow politics, then there are politicians out there for them to follow.
Jenn: He just used a whole load of big words to make himself sound clever. And people will believe him because he used all these big words.

Do you think he should use fewer long words?
Jenn: Now I sound stupid! I think he’s just trying to come across as something that I don’t think he is.

Fair enough.

What are your thoughts on Russell Brand as a political figure?
Chris: I think he should stick to comedy.

You don't think comedians should get involved in politics?
I think that it’s thought-provoking and interesting that he’s challenging things. But, at the same time, I think his views can be misguided and misleading and often very self-indulgent. What would concern me on a practical level is what happens if we all don’t vote except for some extreme right-wing or religious groups that manage to get a large percentage of the vote? We'll all sit there, peacefully waiting for the revolution, meanwhile we’ve put his interesting ideas into the hands of the radicals and then we’re all fucked.

Do think it was dangerous for him to say what he said?
I think it’s an interesting thing to say. I’d like to think that most people are intelligent enough to make up their own minds.

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What do you think?
I think it’s good that people are taking an interest, and I think that everyone should vote. We all have family and friends who fought in wars for that right, and by not doing it we’d be putting ourselves back five decades and we might end up with more Nazis than we’ve got. I think it’s interesting we’re listening to Russell—it’s ridiculous the amount of media interest he garners. I’d rather it were somebody else, but at least he’s talking about stuff that’s getting me talking to you.

Are you a Russell Brand fan?
Ben: I like him—I think he’s great. But I don’t see him as a politician or [think] he should get into politics.

Surely it’s not a bad thing that he’s got people talking about the political system?
Well, he’s telling people not to vote. Is that a good thing? Ask a lot of people and they say they fought for the vote. Having said that, I’m not sure who I’d vote for now. As a comedian, as a West Ham fan and as a man who uses long words, I like him.

Do you think celebrities have a responsibility to speak about politics?
Yeah, possibly. In the same way that Eddie Izzard is running for mayor. They’re entitled to their opinion, and if it starts a dialogue then it’s probably a good thing.

But it can be dodgy territory…
There’s that whole thing with "celebrities." Why should anyone listen to Russell Brand? Because he’s a celebrity? Then again, maybe politics needs to find more people like him. They say politics is showbiz for ugly people.

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What do you think about what Russell Brand said on Newsnight?
Jay: I’m a true believer in power to the people because we’re the ones that are running the big machine and turning the cogs. Not to vote is probably not the best way to go about things because you’d end up having a revolution and a people’s republic and you’d have to vote somebody into power and the people would overthrow them because they’re not happy with something, it would be anarchy. You have to have some ground rules in place and some sort of law and order to keep things running. We have to do things together, if the whole nation said they weren’t going to pay a TV license, there’d be adverts on BBC tomorrow. We live in a false democracy, a false economy, we have a false sense of freedom, we’re led to believe a lot of lies from birth. Anyone who wakes up to that, I have a lot of respect for. Do you think people in Russell’s position should voice their political opinions?
Yes because you’ve got more access to the public response. I think Russell is highly intelligent but I think his mind gets in the way of his heart sometimes so he kinda really says what he truly means. All 18- to 25-year-olds should vote the conservatives out, they’re robbing from the poor, they’re making it hard for people who already haven’t got much. I’m just one person, a speck of dust on a planet hurtling around the solar system at thousands of miles an hour that belongs to nobody, and belongs to everybody. My thing is, why are we paying for water? Whose water? It belongs to us. Whose land? It belongs to us. What would you like to happen?
What I’d like to see is a casting of an entire world vote, with a hundred open-ended questions about humanity. That’s when you’ll get your true democracy. You won’t get it from boxes one to five. Administration in this country is terrible, they must hate me because every form I fill in I add boxes of my own in there. I give a real opinion. Which ethnicity? I’m a homosapien. Viking, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, maybe a bit of African who knows. I belong to the earth and so do we all. We’re born from the heart of stars, scientifically speaking. And neither Richard Dawkins or the Dalai Lama can prove god does or doesn’t exist so don’t even go into that argument: 100 percent I only believe in love. That’s my one golden rule. Above all the rules and everything else, love.

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Follow Jak on Twitter: @JAK_TH

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