Beneath the fear, doubt, and conditioning,
you know we can create a better world, don’t you?
This book is dedicated to you.
Acknowledgments
I suppose I should acknowledge some of the people without whom this book would have been impossible. I mean, I’d like to take all the credit ideally, but if this Revolution is going to have legs, I have to be a fair, upstanding, decent fella, not a gluttonous narcissist gobbling up other people’s credit like, I dunno, Wonga.
So Ben Dunn is the editor of the book who I argue with about whether or not the stuff I write conveys its intended meaning, which, let’s face it, he’s better qualified to comment on, because I’m me and I know what I mean already. I appreciate and am grateful for Ben’s enthusiasm and patience. Plus he’s West Ham and done my Booky Wook an’ all, so he’s got form.
Thanks to Nicola Schuller for feeding me, running with me, caffeinating me, and encouraging me, taking care of me, and forcing me to write.
Cheers vegan cannibal Nik Linnen for reading it and believing in me and helping me not to sound like an out-of-touch lunatic writing from Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Gareth Roy for keeping it light and funny and giving me football coaching. Thanks, Gal.
Thanks to Francesca Pathak at the publishers for saying I come across as a racist because I reference “brown people” even though the next two people I’m acknowledging are black.
Thank you, James, for keeping me on point with the fellowship and being there in the twisted moments of dark doubt (and for being black to shut Francesca up).
Thanks, Gee, for being on this journey and providing a sounding board and compadre who will forever go forward.
Marco, Jonathan, and Cecilia, thanks for feeding me and taking care of me when Nicola was away doing her other jobs.
Thanks, Alain De Botton, for being such a cherry-lipped clever clogs and nudging me toward the light and away from town square executions.
Johann Hari, you tireless, brilliant, adrenalized busybody, your research, passion, advice, and constant interfering and advancement of your own gay agenda has been thrilling and helpful and I know your book, Chasing the Scream, will be a hit.
John Rogers, you druid communist, thank you, thank you for keeping the red flag flying and never being afraid to hurt my feelings.
Andrew Antonio, without your warm hearted Cypriot accountancy and guidance, this book would be a pointless scribble in the abyss.
Mick. You are irreplaceable. Heart is more valuable than head, comfort more important than speed.
Tino, thank God you refuse to die no matter what cancer throws at your brain; your brain is invaluable to me.
Moira Bellas, you are elegant and kind, serene and wonderful, the anti-Thatcher.
Shepard Fairey, thank you for sharing the tussle between commerciality and communism with me, you monochrome Matisse of our time.
Eckhart Tolle, you are from another dimension and clearly don’t need thanks but one has to be polite; thank you, thank you for the clarity.
Adam Curtis, you are so important and influential, you propagandist for the righteous, I’d like to keep you forever in that straw hat, musing with staccato ingenuity.
Mum and Dad, well done for providing the genetic material required for my existence then sustaining me and teaching me to be compassionate and determined.
Gordon Bosworth, bone-bending Gandalf, thanks for smashing my spine into compliance with merriment.
Karl T for forever quibbling with my mashed-together theories and giving me better ones, for twenty years now.
Simon Amstell for your ayahuasca-drenched insights and new tenderness.
Matt Morgan for oscillating between lumpen cynicism and crackpot theories that would get us all killed but always making everything funnier.
Roberta for helping me to remain connected with limitless realms of unknowable positivity through stretching.
Sharon Smith for remaining young and powerfully mercurial.
Dean Chalkley for the delightful image on the cover.
Adam Venit for continuing to be a compassionate and wise voice.
Noreen Oliver for being the Boadicea of British abstinence-based recovery, for being a fearless leader of the trembling and the clucking.
Chip Somers for almost twelve years of twelve steps, thank you.
John Noel for dragging me out of the gutter and pinning me to the wall, thanks.
David Lynch, Bobby Roth, Deirdre, Lynn and John Hagelin for bringing transcendence to so many of my friends.
Meredith and Wainwright for using ancient China and modern Muswell Hill to elevate me with old pins and new powders.
Usama Hasan, Tariq Ramadan, Dave Boyle and Laurence Easeman for your unused but greatly appreciated contributions—it was only deadlines that stymied us.
And Dave Graeber, Daniel Pinchbeck, Dave DeGraw, Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, Matt Stoller, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Peter Tatchell, Edward Slingerland, and Thomas Piketty for making this book more than the intuitive rantings of a madman.
And Jemima, you incomparable editor of all reality, somewhere between a muse and a mandala. Thank you for all you did.
ALSO BY RUSSELL BRAND
Booky Wook 2
My Booky Wook
Articles of Faith
Irons in the Fire
About the Author
RUSSELL BRAND is a British comedian, actor, radio host, and author. He has had a number of major film roles including parts in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek. His most recent stand-up show was the critically acclaimed Messiah Complex, which included his views on Malcolm X, Jesus, Che Guevara, and Gandhi. He was selected by the Dalai Lama to host the Buddhist leader’s 2012 youth event in Manchester, England.
www.russellbrand.com
Facebook.com/RussellBrand
@RustyRockets
Revolution Page 32