World Thinkers 2015: Russell Brand

Brand is the spiritual leader of Britain’s disaffected anti-capitalist youth. In October he published Revolution, a manifesto for the radical redistribution of wealth and power. Dismissed by his opponents as a clownish opportunist, he is nevertheless the most charismatic figure on Britain’s populist left. Brand’s inclusion on Prospect’s list did not meet with universal approval—the Guardian, for instance, said that his “presence looks designed to be provocative.” But other commentators came to his—and our—defence, with one suggesting that many of the criticisms levelled at Brand simply remind us that the “incessant demand for criticism to be ‘constructive’ is another way of defending the status quo.”