Russell Brand is sometimes quite funny. “I say profit is a filthy word”, said a man with $15 million net worth. Sounds like a joke, doesn’t it? However, in a recent interview on “Newsnight” with the fabulously-bearded Jeremy Paxman, that’s exactly what he said.

I propose a drinking game of logical fallacies and inconsistencies while watching this.

Now I’m not arguing against his anarchist-inspired antipathy towards the current political system or the fact he doesn’t vote. Voting only encourages the bastards, goes the quip. Most will agree that modern politics is a quagmire of self-serving vampires. What I do have a problem with is people’s, and in this particular case, Russell Brand’s, complete cluelessness about how the world works and what incentives are, perhaps as much as his apparent lack of self-awareness. The bloke profits from people who find him funny and yet doesn’t know what profit actually means! But then that’s probably a requirement if you want to guest-edit the New Statesman.

The excellent quote by Murray Rothbard really sums up this issue: “It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.”

If profit is a dirty word, why don’t self-righteous Hollywood types just start from the grassroots and redistribute their ridiculous incomes to the needy? But no, we must have a “revolution”! Little do clowns like Russell Brand know, in every single past revolution, people like him were the first to get the chop.