tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1725411122663433189.post6088514569389894105..comments2024-01-04T19:27:02.335-08:00Comments on Zenpolitics: Defending old formulas - the establishment-left keeping real radicalism in its boxJohn Hilleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072819649049077782noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1725411122663433189.post-68652372803088846032014-11-19T01:30:14.404-08:002014-11-19T01:30:14.404-08:00Reply to DE (at ML board):
Thanks, David. Yes, th...Reply to DE (at ML board):<br /><br />Thanks, David. Yes, this aspect of Brand's 'positioning' is really fascinating. <br /><br />It's intriguing to speculate on why Brand appears not to be acknowledging your fine review, particularly as it deals with the core issues of spirituality/compassionate politics, as well as the media backlash. <br /><br />Many possibilities occur. Perhaps he's still unaware of your output - unlikely. Maybe he wishes to avoid endorsing particular commentators, even highly approving ones. Or perhaps, as you suggest, he may, with some nods from the 'left-liberal buffer class', be more keen to keep a certain favour with the liberal cabal media. <br /><br />I wonder, if the latter, whether Brand still really sees a lot of these issues through a conditioned liberal media lens rather than the more radical Media Lens? <br /><br />He's made general criticisms of his treatment, as in this tweet: <br /><br />"It's weird how highly paid, privately educated journalists who work for the corporate media attack my book Revolution." https://twitter.com/rustyrockets/status/529336627735560192 <br /><br />But he seems to be holding fire on the Guardian et al. <br /><br />Interestingly, he's just tweeted his approval https://twitter.com/rustyrockets/status/534417427313209344 of this piece by media analyst Justin Schlosberg at Huff Post, which includes this comment: <br /><br />"On that note, Brand knows full well that his celebrity status and comic intellectualism quenches the 'serious' news media's thirst for ratings, and gives them an alibi against charges of elitism. But he exploits that loop hole just as much as they exploit him, in order to give airtime to ideas and causes that would otherwise never see the light of day. What's more he articulates the plight of the New Era Estate or the Fire Brigades Union not as "piecemeal causes" but as part and parcel of a new politics of the left that is centred on "creative direct action"". <br />http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/justin-schlosberg/russell-brand_b_6171514.html<br /><br />So, he may simply be seeing his involvement here as a tactical quid pro quo, tempering his criticism in order to get exposure. <br /><br />The real test, I suspect, will come when the Guardian - as we're now seeing - really ratchet-up the Assange treatment. <br /><br />But, I agree, he's still some way-off from turning his attention on the Guardian, Independent, New Statesman etc as major impediments to radical change. <br /><br />John <br /><br />-----<br /><br />Media Lens (two-part) review of Russell Brand's Revolution:<br /><br />http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2014/780-russell-brand-s-revolution.html<br />and<br />http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2014/781-russell-brand-s-revolution-part-2-the-backlash.html <br />John Hilleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10072819649049077782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1725411122663433189.post-32401456545918794822014-11-19T01:17:48.279-08:002014-11-19T01:17:48.279-08:00Comment from Media Lens Editor David Edwards (at M...Comment from Media Lens Editor David Edwards (at ML message board 17/11/14):<br /><br />Thanks for a really excellent piece, John. You write: <br /><br />'But isn't Brand himself favourably courted by an establishment-left, from Owen Jones, Johann Hari and Mehdi Hasan, to the New Statesman and Huffington Post? Yes, but to what effect? Much of that "approval" comes as both sympathetic flirtation with Brand the figure and as an exercise in "sensible-left correction"; a kind of indulgent policing and tempering of his ideas. <br /><br />'Stay within the accepted frames of thought, we're still coerced and urged.' <br /><br />Very well said. And does this perhaps explain why Brand has ignored our alert - otherwise very well-received - reviewing his book and the media reaction to it, even though it's one of very few reviews to engage with, understand and defend both his politics and spirituality? This may well be down to the influence of the 'left-liberal "buffer class"' you mention. <br /><br />Has Brand arrived at a position where he's calling for the overthrow of the Establishment while viewing our kind of rational criticism of the Establishment's all-important liberal propaganda arm as untouchable? Is it really more 'strategic' to keep quiet and take media attacks on the chin? Or could he try to expose the structural logic and pattern of these attacks to raise public awareness of the role of the media in thought control? <br /><br />As I noted in the alert, it's easy to forget the extent to which Assange was initially a respected and admired figure. It's not at all hard to imagine the corporate propaganda system undermining Brand's reputation in a similar way. But it would be incredibly difficult for him to turn his fire now on the Guardian, Independent and New Statesman when so many of his advisors and friends have major interests there. Also, given the ferocity of media attacks, and with the Guardian still hosting his work and supporting him to some extent, he may, like Greenwald, feel that he needs all the friends he can get. And that's the problem - take on the corporate media system as a whole and you're out on your own.<br /> <br />DE John Hilleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10072819649049077782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1725411122663433189.post-54416140028809397622014-11-18T12:18:55.739-08:002014-11-18T12:18:55.739-08:00Thanks, all.
David, Owen Jones rightly praises th...Thanks, all.<br /><br />David, Owen Jones rightly praises the rise of Podemos. But while, as he says, there's different political situations in Spain and UK, he still can't see beyond the prevailing party system, and his ultimate faith in a rejuvenated Labourism. It's the same old formula. <br /><br />Also, Jones enthuses over Podemos, but where was the same effusive praise and, more importantly, active support for the great people-driven Yes movement? John Hilleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10072819649049077782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1725411122663433189.post-76148817692009580812014-11-18T10:24:44.835-08:002014-11-18T10:24:44.835-08:00This paragraph in particular incisive.That exactly...This paragraph in particular incisive.That exactly right , they can demand that from Brand but don't feel any obligation to offer an alternative themselves.He has to provide the answer but they don't.I think he ins tapping into current that will grow stronger, its a current they completely out of touch with, as it grows I could see them getting more and more perturbed and probably more and more nasty. <br /><br />"Brand is routinely castigated for having no other formula: what's your alternative, what do you propose instead, they demand? But the question can be more usefully turned around: actually, what do you propose? Look at the myriad crises and untold misery capitalism has caused: are you saying that this system is remotely acceptable? What's your alternative? "Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14544529595313744674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1725411122663433189.post-19043855800145306032014-11-18T09:43:51.934-08:002014-11-18T09:43:51.934-08:00Excellent article John , right on the money.Excellent article John , right on the money.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14544529595313744674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1725411122663433189.post-17961084633227524372014-11-18T07:26:54.296-08:002014-11-18T07:26:54.296-08:00Subscribed and bookmarked!Subscribed and bookmarked!Clankonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1725411122663433189.post-11143241970990061632014-11-18T04:27:12.747-08:002014-11-18T04:27:12.747-08:00Hi John.
Wondered if you'd read Owen Jones ta...Hi John.<br /><br />Wondered if you'd read Owen Jones take on Podemos here in Spain in the Guardian? Not sure what he says about the UK but his take on Podemos seems doesn't seem to be "re-packaged party policies and finding puppet-head replacements".<br /><br />He writes: "But Podemos has undoubtedly thrived only because it has shredded the old left rulebook...it’s clear that Podemos is now surging because it eschews standard leftwing terminology. “In order to do politics differently, we need to do language differently,” Podemos’s Eduardo Maura tells me. “When you do politics, one of the things you have to ask yourselves is – what are you aiming at? You could aim at people who already have a political identity, who are an already signed-up leftist. We are trying to talk to people who don’t necessarily have this kind of identity.”David Sketchleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00838032163864170821noreply@blogger.com