Russel Brand writes an article published on the Guardian’s website in 2011 and it is about the riot in London, 2011. I London there was a violent crowd of young people, who looted stores destroyed cars, had huge fights with the police, and vandalized buildings.
Brand starts in the text with the fact he doesn’t live in Great Britain anymore, but he still has the national feeling of an Englishman. “I feel proud to be English, proud to be a Londoner (all right, an Essex boy), never more so than since being in exile, and I naturally began wonder what would make young people destroy their communities” by that he feels that it is okay to talk about the riots in his home country even though he doesn’t live there anymore. He also thinks it is okay to talk about it, because he had lived in the areas which have been offers to the riots. When he was young and lived in London, he was one of those youth who demonstrated and had the feeling of being ignored by the government.
The politicians are criticized by Brand, because they do not give enough attention to the youth, but instead they are “sleeping” with the big companies. “A lack of direction, a sense that I was not invested in the dominant culture, that government existed not to look after the interests of the people it was elected to represent but the big businesses that they were in bed with.”
Russel Brand views the media as a part of the blame, because they covered the riots with an attitude like when Brand was in “Big Brother”, a kind of reality cover of the riots.
We know that Brand is a comedian, and in this article we do find different jokes and sarcasm in the text to persuade the reader. “Then dopey ol’ Boris came cycling back into the London clutter with his spun gold hair and his spun shit logic as it became apparent that the holiday was over.” Here he uses his humor and his rhetorical persuasion to both entertain the reader, but also show his frustration over the major of London.
But even though he uses comedy as a way to keep the reader reading, there is still a serious reason why he wants you to read, the riot and the big question; why could it happen?
The articles title Big Brother isn’t watching you is borrowed from George Orwell’s book 1984, “Big Brother is watching you”, but here he isn’t. The reason “Big Brother” isn’t watching here, you have to interpret it as the authorities that now have stopped caring about the youth. Big Brother isn’t paying any attention to them, its attention is toward huge companies and the people who can vote.
Brand’s commentary on the riot can be considered as an unrepresentative point of view, because it is only his opinion that’s represented. With his past were he also was protesting against the government gives him strongly sympathy towards the rebellious youth now.
He supports the protesters, but takes distance to the violent riots. It seems that he favors the half criminals more than the politicians, because he actually thinks they are at least as criminal as the mob when they “sleep” with the large corporations.
Brand has a very one-sided view of the work the politicians have done for London, and with this constantly negative aggression his rhetorical reliability suffers and his objective judgment towards what is reasonably and healthy for the people in London.
We have to hope that the politicians do their job as good as possible, and that the society do benefit from the steps there are made to help the youth and stop the violence. Also the citizen can benefit from the fact that some politicians interact and work with the large corporation, because they are the ones who are providing jobs, and money to the state, which can be used to help the frustrated youth with better environments.
Russel Brand comes with his opinion on the riots in London, as a funny, charming, intelligent, but also a serious man. He argues with a strong criticism to the British society, government, and also expresses a natural understanding for why the rioters did what they did.
In his expression the violent youth are not entirely to blame, the politicians inefficiency, the economic conditions and the environments were they live are all factors that started the riots. But we can’t avoid that Brand’s opinion is very colored by his own past, and with this past his arguments starts to crack.