I’ve Been Warned Not To Talk About This

war is complicated and all of us should be focused on ukrainian people and how to help them unless of course we can make some money out of it then we should probably do some more mongering hello there you 5.1 million awakening wonders the conversation continues while you may feel afraid while you may feel doubtful because you live in a complicated world at complicated times know that here at least we can have an open discourse an open dialogue i mean admittedly you have to just use the comments and i get to use my mouth but together at least we can try and reach some different conclusions some different outcomes and even if we don't reach conclusions we can certainly make a commitment to grow together put aside prejudice and bigotry and get moving in the right direction you know i'm appearing live all over the uk if you want to come see me in hull newcastle scarbrush sheffield bristol glasgow there's a link in the description to come and see me in all these places it's a fantastic live show it's an atmosphere of freedom conviviality humor laughter little bit of chaos and even sometimes some meditation i urge you to come and join this fantastic experience come see me as a link in the description right there now we're still talking about obviously what's happening to ukrainian people the horror of war we're talking about the complexity that it brings up with some people just seeing putin as a villain which the you what do you think people say he's terrifying he's the new hitler other people saying well there are complex economic and historical reasons that have led to this but even so none of that diminishes the rights of ukrainian people to live lives free from horror and terror and incendiary devices and really if you're looking for something simple to feel here then a simple thing we can feel is sympathy and compassion and love for those that are directly affected by this suffering and we can together look for ways in which we as people let's face it who have very limited power it's difficult even to elect a government in your own country let alone stop a war in another one so we're going to look at what kind of conditions and circumstances lead to this conflict of course you'll be aware of the adage history doesn't repeat itself but it rhymes we have been in comparable situations before certainly not with the same protagonists but certainly many of the same principles here is condoleezza rice appearing on fox news condoleezza rice was of course high up in the american government during the iraq war period and the war against terror well and i have argued that when you invade a sovereign nation that is a war crime i mean i think we're at just a rule condoleezza rice just nodding ahead there trying not to betray that somewhere inside you must be thinking we did sort of invade iraq who were not really connected to the 911 attacks we know that now but at the time we said they were basic point there well it is certainly against every principle of international law and international order and that's why throwing the book at them now how can you throw that book you've only just rewritten it uh cross out that bit where it says you can't evade iraq right now throw the book at him in terms of economic sanctions and punishments is also a part of it and i think the world is there uh certainly nato is there he's he's managed to unite nato in ways that i didn't think i would ever see again after the end of the cold war ryan little joke there about international politics and of course condoleezza rice has clearly achieved some incredible things in her life but when it comes to the matter of protecting the sovereignty of an independent nation there is an obvious hypocrisy at play none of that mitigates the suffering of ukrainian people but what it does do unfortunately is undermine the legitimacy of western criticism in her roles as national security advisor and secretary of state condoleezza rice along with the rest of the bush administration created an imaginary scenario that iraq and saddam hussein were responsible for the attacks on the world trade center in new york city on september 11 2001 leading the us into the illegal invasion of iraq killing millions of innocent iraqis along with 4 000 us soldiers she was responsible for one of the most radically dishonest statements ever made to the american people when she warned that unless iraq were attacked saddam hussein might very well launch a nuclear war against the united states leaving a mushroom cloud in some unspecified american city now of course what i want you to be aware of is that i am sensitive to the complexity of the current situation russia have invaded ukraine that's wrong america invaded iraq that was wrong at the time of the american invasion of iraq a discourse was created to legitimize the invasion of iraq still people didn't want it millions of people protested as a result millions of people unnecessarily died here there is a different situation russia have already invaded ukraine people are dying people are suffering what i suppose we have to be aware of and what's important i believe to keep in our mind is that the media that we consume and the figures that are on it are not reliable voices when it comes to us reaching our own conclusions now i don't know enough about russian history or russian foreign policy or russian expansionism to offer you a clear opinion on whether or not there should be a war between america and russia my sense is that of the many unpleasant unfortunate unnecessary awful outcomes available to us that is one of the worst ones also i don't agree with appeasement i suppose these are times when we have to recognize the limitations of what we can achieve unless we become an organized and ordered people ourselves with a meaningful voice when it comes to disputes of this scale rice approved and apologized for numerous war crimes on behalf of the bush administration she also allowed torture to displace diplomacy as the hallmark of the u.s foreign policy employing circuitous logic about nixonian explanations rice recently explained away our misunderstandings about torture and international obligations by definition if it was authorized by the president it did not violate our obligations in the convention against torture wow that is incredible because nixon famously said it's not illegal when the president does it and i know that's an idiom many of you are familiar with it's okay when we do it and one of the great challenges about the russian invasion of ukraine is our inability to stay with a straight face it's wrong to invade ukraine stop it we are going to prevent you from a peaceful non-biased non-profitable perspective without making a penny from weapons without drawing a veil over our own hypocrisy we are going to do what is best for ukrainian people we're going to do everything in our power to stop this war that's what everybody wants that at least is simple but not available due to history 19 years ago in march 2002 it was the us invading iraq today it's russia invading ukraine here we are 19 years later and russia does not care about the international outrage of their invasion of ukraine just as the united states did not care about millions of people all over the world walking marching and protesting against the u.s war on iraq the fact that these two things are comparable does not make what russia are doing right obviously the american military establishment and our domestic war culture must always have a villain a cause a war great sums of money must be spent weapons quickly deployed people killed cities raised now ukraine is the pawn america has bombed a sovereign country every day for the last 20 years in iraq afghanistan somalia and yemen yet that is never part of the story we tell ourselves our long history of assimilating other lands into our own of meddling in foreign elections of overthrowing governments invading other countries of torture leaves us with little room to speak when others breach international law but it does not seem to prevent our government our news media our own selves from repeating the war myth of americans as the good guys and everyone else is evil it's become our bedtime story one that seeds a nightmare it's clear there is an appetite on both sides of this conflict to create a simple and easy to follow narrative on one side u.s corruption means that there is no moral legitimacy to us actions and the knowledge that american companies will profit from weapons sales nullifies any moral stance they may take i find that argument somewhat appealing myself although i acknowledge that that leaves ukrainian people faced with an immeasurable and terrifying threat the other argument is that putin is somehow unique that this invasion is different from invasions that are supported by the west but we have an obligation to step in to find ways of preventing it ways that will likely lead to military expenditure and the loss of military lives don't you feel that an issue of this scale and complexity comparable in a way to the pandemic except for the immediacy and gore of its consequences demands of us personal reflection and an acknowledgement that the changes we require as a society as a planet are so radical that when it comes to crisis we're ill-equipped to deal with it we can't turn to a set of principles and values and say oh no something terrible is happening who are we what is it that we do when we're confronted with this again we can't turn to a collective grandmother or grandfather and say what did you do when it was the nazis because it's not the nazis anymore that's why the language revolves around those kind of reductive tropes obviously i russell brand the bloke out for getting sarah marshall and big brother's big mouth do not have an easy set of suggestions for how to resolve a geopolitical conflict which includes issues as diverse as a gas pipeline american military-industrial complex needs russian expansionism the history of left versus right post-cold war trauma post-pandemic inertia among ordinary citizens what it makes me recognize is that we are ill-equipped spiritually and psychologically for the times we find ourselves living in that this is an invitation for us as individuals and a society to awaken and to address what we want from each other and what we want from the world what our shared and collective priorities are what our individual priorities are because once there is war between ukraine and russia it's too late there is no good outcome now however there's a version where people amplify the need for war in order to sell weapons or there's a version where people don't offer sufficient support to ukrainian people so more people suffer on the ground not to mention the obvious subsequent economic and refugee crisis that's doubtless coming we've allowed ourselves to get into this situation if this was a crisis between individuals you'd say you have to listen to all points of view and come to a conclusion you have to be willing to admit you might be wrong if this was an individual health crisis you'd say why don't we make sure there are regular health checkups rather than waiting until there's an emergency this should be a wake-up call this should help us to recognize that we don't trust our governments anymore we don't trust our media anymore we don't have a shared set of values anymore of course ukrainian people are what's at the core of this now any measures that are available to be of assistance to them to be supportive of any measures any ideas that are anti-war these are the thoughts and notions that should be promoted to the forefront of our collective mind and we should remember as part of our own domestic political discourse that we want leaders and governments that are responsible that have values and principles that are a reflection of the people that we truly are then you won't find yourself invading iraq then you won't find yourself strangely stymied when an aggressive act occurs against ukrainian people military aggression should be stopped international lawlessness condemned territorial boundaries respected human rights violations prosecuted that's nice isn't it there's something that we can hang our hat on something simple that we can observe to do that we must model the behavior we claim to esteem that makes sense doesn't it right okay we're getting somewhere let's create societies that give us a moral platform upon which to speak do it in a way that becomes learned in each of us and the rest of the world only then will transgressors be few and truly isolated unable to function in the international arena we don't have any principles or integrity as nations or communities anymore i'm not talking about you i'm talking about the systems of governance i'm not even talking about the individuals within them i'm talking about the unconscious ideals we have allowed to dominate our culture for much too long this along with a pandemic is a call for awakening this is a wake-up call for the ukrainian people it's already a hideous disaster the same way as in the countries that we're in right now homelessness disease death despair suicide are the immediate effects of a foreboding and forthcoming disaster it serves as a reminder that we need to re-evaluate the way we structure our societies the principles that we deploy when creating financial economic sociological systems war is not genetically set in our bones and these problems are not divinely created we made them and the myths surrounding them and we can unmake them we must believe this if we are to survive our reality is created through the decisions we make and through the beliefs that we hold that may seem too ethereal to those of you who are very focused on the suffering of ukrainian people in this moment and i can understand why it would but when you consider how we got here these are the kind of ideas that are fundamental if we are to create a different world perhaps the systems of nationhood the systems of globalism the systems of commerce the systems of resource mining our whole weltensong has to be re-examined if we're to prevent something as fundamental and as tragic as war but that is just what i think and god knows i only fleetingly think it because this is a complicated situation that requires continual dialogue that requires constant updating where no one can claim to know everything about it and the voices obviously that are most important are the voices of ukrainian people and part of the tragedy is we won't hear those voices until it's too late if at all let me know in the comments below what you think about this situation let me know what media sources you trust what decisions we will be making let me know how spirituality and fundamental issues about the way you regard reality affect something that's this geopolitically complex if you enjoyed this video have a look at this one or this one remember i'm live all over the uk glasgow bristol blackpool loads of places there's a link in the description come see me and as best as you can through whatever means you deem necessary for yourself and those that you love stay free

Channel: Russell Brand

Views: 2,494,190

Keywords: Russell Brand, Brand Russell, BrandThe, Russell Brand video, Russell Brand news, Russell Brand politics, News, Brand, politics, Russell, USA, UK, Russel, Russel Brand, Russia, Ukraine, War, WW3, World War 3, Putin, WWIII, Vladimir Putin, military, invasions, NATO, antiwar, military industrial complex, world war, russia ukraine war, cold war, the cold war, ukraine russia war, ukraine crisis, news, latest news, biden, russian army, Condoleezza Rice, Iraq, Saddam Hussein

Id: QnevpbkFrPE

Length: 14min 38sec (878 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 02 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/FIELDSLAVE]

I bet they threatened Kyle Kulinsky too. He has jumped on the swamp train like never before. Jimmy hasn't. He will get his SS check no matter what so he doesn't care if they deplatform him.