There are few figures who make the nation’s blood boil – either with sheer frustration or the spirit of revolution – quite like Russell Brand.However, the comedian turned activist has now earned the nod of approval from one of Britain’s most influential current affairs magazines, whose readers have voted him fourth in their annual table of the world’s top thinkers.
Prospect magazine’s table this year places Brand among figures such as the leading economist and bestselling author of Capital, Thomas Piketty, who tops the table, as well as Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who comes second. The Canadian economist and environmental activist Naomi Klein came in third.
Brand was selected from a shortlist of 50 names, initially compiled by the magazine’s editorial team. They were chosen on grounds of being leaders in their fields and engaging in original and profound ways with the central questions of the world. Readers then cast their votes in order to produce a final top 10.
Brand’s latest book, Revolution, published in 2014, calls for the eradication of the “nation state”, advocating a radical wealth redistribution and a social revolution wherein “corporate tyranny, ecological irresponsibility and economic inequality” are ended. It has received mixed reviews, with Brand praised in some quarters for “using his platform in the media to draw attention to the stories it ignores” while being accused in others of lacking substance.
Last year, fourth place in the influential Prospect table was occupied by Mao Yushi, the 85-year-old leading Chinese economist and outspoken critic of the Communist party’s brutal tactics, who was almost executed for his views.
Speaking about the results, Prospect’s editor, Bronwen Maddox, said: “This was voted for entirely by readers and does not represent Prospect’s views. Russell Brand has made an important contribution to conversation and ideas over the past year. We have an initial list of 50 people for readers to vote from and, given the platform Brand has been given on the BBC and the Guardian, we felt he should be included. It is a list that is very dependent on events over the past year, so it is not surprising, with the recent release of Revolution and all the conversation around it, that Brand appears on this list. But this was very much Thomas Piketty’s race – he was well beyond all the others in terms of votes.”
In the past, the magazine itself has not been altogether in favour of Brand’s personal revolution. In one review titled No, Russell Brand, You’re No Noam Chomsky, Brand is criticised for his “constant changes of tone from whimsical memoir to sombre pseudo-philosophic discourse”, with the book described as “unpleasantly jarring” and “gratingly predictable”.
Some of the profits from Brand’s book are now going to be funnelled into a cafe on the New Era estate in Hackney, where the activist successfully helped fight the planned eviction of the residents. Rather than a profit-making enterprise, the cafe – named the Trew Era Cafe – will go towards funding local community projects.
Prospect magazine’s top 10 world thinkers:
1. Thomas Piketty, French economist
2. Yanis Varoufakis, Greek finance minister
3. Naomi Klein, Canadian author
4. Russell Brand, UK comedian and campaigner
5. Paul Krugman, US economist
6. Arundhati Roy, Indian writer and activist
7. Jurgen Habermas, German philosopher
8. Daniel Kahneman, US-Israeli psychologist
9. John Gray, UK philosopher
10. Atul Gawande, US surgeon and writer
• This article was amended on 26 March 2015 because Naomi Klein is a Canadian author, and is not from the US as an earlier version said.
