Russell Brand on Woolwich (This guy is not only smart and insightful, he can really write)

[cali]

The news cycle moves so quickly now that often we learn of an event through other people's reaction to it. So it was when I arrived in Los Angeles to find my Twitter feed contorted with posts of fear and confusion.

I caught up with the sad malice in Woolwich and felt compelled to Tweet in casual defense of the Muslim community who was being haphazardly condemned by a few people on my time line. Perhaps a bit glibly (but what isn't glib in 140 characters) I put "That bloke is a nut. A nut who happens to be Muslim. Blaming Muslims for this is like blaming Hitler's moustache for the Holocaust."

As an analogy it is imperfect but I was frightened by how negative and incendiary the mood felt and I rushed. I'm not proposing we sit around trying to summon up cute analogies when Lee Rigby has lost his life in horrific circumstances. I simply feel that it is important that our reaction is measured. Something about the arbitrary brutality, the humdrum high-street setting, the cool rhetoric of the blood stained murderer evoke a powerful and inherently irrational response. When I first heard the word "beheading," I felt the atavistic grumble that we all feel. This is inhumane, taboo, not a result of passion but of malice, ritualistic. "If this is happening to guiltless men on our streets it could happen to me," I thought.

<snip>

After my Hitler Tweet I got involved in a bit of back and forth with a few people who said stuff like "the murderer said himself he did it for Islam." Although I wouldn't dismiss what he's saying entirely, I think he forfeited the right to have his views received unthinkingly when he murdered a stranger in the street. Someone else regarding my tweet said, "Hitler's moustache didn't invent an ideology that sanctions murder." That is thankfully true but Islam when practiced by normal people does not advocate violence. "People all over the world are killing in the name of Islam," someone added. This is the most tricky bit to understand. What I think is that all over our country - all over our planet - there are huge numbers of people who feel alienated and sometimes victimized by the privileged and the powerful, whether that's rich people, powerful corporations or occupying nations. They feel that their interests are not being represented and, in many cases, know that their friends and families are being murdered by foreign soldiers. I suppose people like that may look to their indigenous theology for validation and to sanctify their, to some degree understandable, feelings of rage.

<snip>

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/russell-brand/woolwich_b_3347964.html

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Very very

Emotionally intelligent human being,

[madrchsod]

2. recommend....!

[OneGrassRoot]

3. I adore him. I think he is brilliant. K&R n/t

[cali]

5. I agree. I think he's one of the finest commentators writing today

[Bluenorthwest]

8. Russell Brand is one of the finest comic minds currently snapping synapes on earth

His show from the UK 'Russell Brand's Got Issues' is one of the best TV shows anywhere, ever. Crazy and topical and I highly recommend hunting down and consuming the entire series. Here is a clip from the episode titled:
''Is our obsession with beauty making us ugly?'

[WinkyDink]

4. I have always loved Russell and also think he is brilliant! "...murdered by foreign soldiers." Take

heed, America.

[cali]

6. Recent Terry Gross interview with Brand

[Are_grits_groceries]

7. I have always thought there was more to him than meets the eye.

Only listening to TMZ and the like will give you one small facet.

[abelenkpe]

9. ...

"What I think is that all over our country - all over our planet - there are huge numbers of people who feel alienated and sometimes victimized by the privileged and the powerful, whether that's rich people, powerful corporations or occupying nations. They feel that their interests are not being represented and, in many cases, know that their friends and families are being murdered by foreign soldiers. I suppose people like that may look to their indigenous theology for validation and to sanctify their, to some degree understandable, feelings of rage. "


Wow. If only politicians were as thoughtful and articulate.