You might know Russell Brand as a standup comedian, an actor or Katy Perry’s ex-husband. You might know him by his eccentric haircut, his effervescent and loquacious demeanor, or even as that guy who looks like Jesus — I think he does it on purpose. There are a million reasons why the man is famous and most of them are controversial. Most recently, his series of YouTube videos The Trews, in which he denounces the agenda of multi-national corporations and news organizations, brought him renewed attention from the media. Notably, this started a feud between Brand and some prominent news outlets such as the Daily Mail and Fox News.

The infamous misbehaviour of Brand’s past are used at every turn to undermine his credibility as an activist. Perhaps his new book Revolution was just the right way to let the public see his side of the story. If you’ve read his previous work, My Booky Wook and My Booky Wook 2, you may already understand the endearing characteristic to Brand’s point of view. You are also probably wondering how on earth he’d be qualified to organize a revolution. Well, he isn’t. What he has is a talent for change. As he says, “Whilst it’s clear that on an individual, communal, and global level that radical change is necessary, I feel a powerful, transcendent optimism. I know change is possible, I know there is an alternative, because I live a completely different life from the one I was born with.”

What is it that needs to be changed, you might ask? So did Brand. The book is really a collection of ideas, gathered from the people who dedicate their daily life to working toward enacting such change. These ideas and concepts are supported by their comparison to the failures of our current institutions. It seems redundant to explain the massive wealth gap our population is plagued by, or that political leaders have interests in creating market climates favourable to the corporations who funded their elections. Somehow we’ve not yet convinced people that our economic and political systems do not serve the masses but rather a select few.

Occupy movement member Dave DeGraw, who’s extensively quoted by Brand in his book, says, “The first step toward evolution and freedom is to get a conscious understanding of the mental prison we are all bread into. Our consciousness is conditioned from cradle to grave. As the ghost of Goethe whispers in the wind… ‘None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.’” The idea is that we simply have to stop accepting the current order, as it is deceitful and it exploits us. “Capitalism isn’t irreducible and absolute, but the depletion of earth’s resources due to the free market is,” explains Brand.

What would we replace our current systems with, would probably be the next cynical question. Once the hierarchy of our institutions is overthrown, Brand proposes a vision of a revolution composed of the ideas contributed by activists, professors and scientists, “What would this revolution look like? It is defined and achieved by a sustained, mass-supported attack on the hegemony of corporations and regulations that allow them to dominate us. It is the radical decentralization of power, whether private or state. It is the return of power to us, the people, as the level of community. It is the assertion of spirituality, of whatever form, to the heart of our social culture. We do eat food, so we need a reassessment of global trade agreements to make them favourable to localized organic farming, not reckless profiteering.”

The world is in a state of turmoil. We often act as if we live in an era free of human suffering and injustice, satisfied to be living in western societies pioneering the advancement of civilization and progress. In the face of a tragedy such as the attacks on Charlie Hebdo’s headquarters in Paris Wednesday, January 7, will we be started out of our complacent state of self-congratulation? Brand writes, “So courage is necessary. Courage to change yourself, the one thing you can change. Your attitude and actions. Neither the serenity nor the courage are available to you on your own; if they were, you would’ve found them by now — you’ve been pretty fastidious in your research.” Granted, the shooting was followed by a weekend of demonstrations all over France, which echoed all the way to Montreal, among other cities internationally, where citizen also walked the streets to show support. “We are not afraid,” is the message they were trying to share.

But I don’t buy that. We are afraid. Sadly, not without reason. “Through the 20/20 vision of my retrospeculars, we can now see that the primary beneficiaries of the most recent Middle-Eastern conflict that Western nations got properly stuck into were not ordinary people in England, America, or Iraq but big global companies that are above such quaint notions as ‘nations’,” explains Brand. Even more unfortunately, that fear might be why we, the ordinary people, are taking so long to realize that terrorists, whoever they may be, are just as clueless as we are. All of us terrified that we are unhappy with the way things are on so many levels that we can’t even begin to imagine how to change them. Luckily, the revolution proposed by Brand doesn’t have to be achieved on one’s own. It requires in fact the contribution of the global population. This contribution starts in every person’s empowerment, and their commitment to use this power responsibly, for the greater good of their community as well as their own.

Occupy movement member David Graeber, affectionately nicknamed the anarchist by Brand, believes that, “people should be entrusted and empowered, that given the opportunity, released from the chains of authority and the spell of a corrupting media, we will form fair and functioning systems; they may not be perfect, but remember, we’re not competing with perfection, we’re competing with corruption, inequality, and destruction.”

I’d like to believe, much like this book reiterates, that the only impediment to the revolution is our fear of the unknown. We should instead fear walls and obstacles we keep building between each other, and the hatred which is blooming in all forms across the social sphere. Brand quotes astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, “You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles and say, ‘look at that, you son of a bitch.’” So let’s turn the light on. It doesn’t mean we won’t make mistakes, but let’s not be petrified by a fear of failure. Anything is better than just standing in the line of fire; and if you still need convincing or you don’t see a point in fighting, give Mr Brand’s book a try because our systems is collapsing, whether you take action or not. “We are nearing the apex,” he writes. “Global change requires social changes, and social change requires personal change.” We need to seize control of the outcome of our condition. The Revolution is coming. What are you going to do about it?