Russell Brand meets Yuval Noah Harari

According to Wikipedia: “Russell Edward Brand (born 4 June 1975) is an English comedian, actor, radio host and YouTuber. After beginning his career as a comedian and later becoming an MTV presenter, Brand first achieved renown in 2004 as the host of Big Brother’s Big Mouth, a Big Brother spin-off. In 2007, he had his first major film role in St Trinian’s, and the following year he landed a major role in the romantic comedy-drama Forgetting Sarah Marshall; the film led to him starring in a spin off, the rock comedy Get Him to the Greek, alongside Jonah Hill in 2010. He also worked as a voice actor in the animated films Despicable Me in 2010, Hop in 2011, and Despicable Me 2 in 2013, and played the title character of the 2011 remake of the romantic comedy Arthur. In 2013, he released the successful stand-up special Messiah Complex. Since guest-editing an edition of British political weekly New Statesman in 2013, Brand has become known as a public activist and campaigner, and has spoken on a wide range of political and cultural issues, including wealth inequality, addiction, corporate capitalism, climate change, and media bias.”

According to Wikipedia: “Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) is an Israeli public intellectual, historian and a professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2014), Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2016), and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018). His writings examine free will, consciousness, intelligence, happiness and suffering. Harari writes about the “cognitive revolution” occurring roughly 70,000 years ago when Homo sapiens supplanted the rival Neanderthals and other species of the genus Homo, developed language skills and structured societies, and ascended as apex predators, aided by the agricultural revolution and accelerated by the scientific revolution, which have allowed humans to approach near mastery over their environment. His books examine the possible consequences of a futuristic biotechnological world in which intelligent biological organisms are surpassed by their own creations; he said, “Homo sapiens as we know them will disappear in a century or so””.

Up to recently, I rather liked Russel Brand and found him to be a breath of fresh air who “gets it”. For example, I enjoyed listening to one show: “Populist Revolution – Will It Go Left Or Right? – Candace Owens & Russell Brand” where it seemed Candace (another of my heroes) was on the same wavelength as Russel and both came up with some good points. Russel’s style is engaging and while he seems to talk to people who seem more or less to agree with him, when they don’t, he gives them free reign to make their points and then engage in intelligent and respectful debate. Then, yesterday a friend posted the photo (see above) on his Telegram channel with the comment “Russel the Fabian will eventually reveal his agenda, just another wolf in sheep’s clothing, that the people flock to, they fall for it every time. Yuval Noah Harari, a top advisor to Klaus Schwab.” It got me thinking, especially as I have been thinking a lot of late regarding wolves in sheep’s clothing and only a couple of days prior to that I posted my article “Klaus Schwab and “The Fourth Industrial Revolution” and included in it a critique of some of the ideas of extraordinarily influential Yuval Noah Harari, who happens to be Klaus Schwab’s chief advisor. I came to the view that unlike with Brand, Harari is a bad guy for reasons given in “Clay Clark exposes the plans of the enemy in a way that will absolutely blow your mind!” and “INTEL HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT, 25 TRUTH BOMBS WITH AARON ANTIS, CLAY CLARK & CHARLIE WARD”.

I decided to check out some of the Brand and Harari exchanges, so I could come to a view, especially concerning Brand, by watching three YouTube videos: “Who Really Runs The World? – Russell Brand & Yuval Noah Harari” (2018), “Yuval Noah Harari & Russell Brand | Under The Skin #49” (2019) and “The Future of Education Yuval Noah Harari Russell Brand Penguin Talks” (2021). I confess, this was rather a quick go though, but I gleaned enough to make at least one important observation. Also, it should be noted that a lot has happened in the four years since the first of these videos, including some of Harari’s predictions coming to pass and his ideas gaining a lot wider acceptance. Also, fellow conspiracy theorists (check out my recent “Conspiracy theorists; how I became one and tips to pass on” for definitions) have gone from not knowing of him only a short time ago and now they do and are told he is dangerous.   

Watching the two operating in tandem, they reminded me of the Chuckle brothers and seemed to be kindred spirits, which will disappoint some who have hopes for Brand and see Harari as the Devil personified. Surprisingly, Harari came across as affable and well adept at responding to Brand’s irreverent poking. It struck me that Harari was able to provide meaningful insights into subjects that Brand cared about, like what to do with the “useless class” (who Brand is clearly sympathetic toward) and dealing with the three big (in Harari’s opinion) issues of our time: nuclear war, climate change, technological disruption with the backdrop of confusing, conflicting and fake news. In the earlier videos especially, Harari stated how he saw things rather than offer his more contentious ideas of what to do about it. But on closer inspection, these were dropped in, especially in the latest video, including for example his advocacy of globalism, acceptance of hacking into human beings and his unbiblical notions to the extent this is blasphemy.

My initial attraction to Brand was as a communicator who is able to combine intelligence and humour, and as one whose own life struggles I can identify with. My hope of him being an influence for good in our fractured society, especially given his ability to attract followers by hitting the nail on the head e.g. ref. the above quote, was not without foundation. While he might be given some leeway (I’ve seen worse among goody goody Christians) but, given he does not see the sinister side of Harari, the likes of Clay Clark has so effectively exposed and does not ask the searching questions needed, and even seeming to endorse a false prophet, I found disappointing.

When it comes to Yuval Noah Harari, my view that he is a major influence on the black hat brigade and the gullible public and elite who choose to align with them, is unchanged. As for Russel Brand, as I told my friend who got me thinking on the matter: “While trying to give Brand the benefit of the doubt, regrettably he is not asking the questions that needed. It may be my hopes in Brand as coming over the light / right side are misplaced but then our hopes must be in God alone, and God alone can fully decide where he stands, and that is true for any who venture a view on as to what is going on”.