Russell Brand on Anarchy

Russell Brand is out with a new book, Revolution. I haven't read the book yet and I am not sure I will, but I have downloaded it to my Kindle and did glance at one chapter, I Am An Anarchist-a.

The mild way to put this is that Brand is not really a Rothbardian anarcho-capitalist. In fact, it turns out he is a pro-cop, pro-military anarchist. Aside from the contradiction about anarchy and cop loving, he also reveals a basic confusion about facts in general. But enough of my talk. Here is Brand:

I don't know that much about anarchism. I only know about anarchy from graffiti, the Sex Pistols and as a kind of slur or reprimand from my mum: "Is that what you want? It'd be anarchy."

Here's Brand on the financial crisis:

Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, and Lehman Brothers were all lent in excess of a trillion dollars to get them through the crisis... 

This is an interesting comment since any money lent to these banksters was outrageous, but Lehman Brothers was not part of the crony group that was protected. No money was lent to it and it filed for bankruptcy in 2008. One wonders if Brand's fact-checker was on the same drugs that Brand was on. This is an easy factual error to pick up.

Here's Brand on cops and the army:

I am fortunate that I have a very positive feeling towards the police and army.

Note: He does say that at an institutional level "police become frightening." But, cops that arrested him for drug offenses apparently do not fall into the "frightening" category:

The police that have arrested me have usually had a point. I happen to think that all drugs should be legal, and when I was a drug user I paid no heed to prohibitions, but I understand the position of the officers arresting me. 

In the chapter, he also neglects to explain why he has a "very positive feeling" towards the army. Which is probably a good thing. I am not sure if I am up to reading why he has the warm and fuzzies for government trained killers.

-RW