Both the struggle and the enlightenment he dramatized continue in our time.Īs I read Russell Brand and Naomi Klein, it occurred to me that they were really channeling John Steinbeck, even when quoting Joseph Campbell or James Lovelock, the British biologist whose 1960s Gaia theory (Earth as a single organism comprised of interconnected systems) reflects advanced thinking about ecology expressed by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts in Sea of Cortez. ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ was the result of John Steinbeck’s personal epiphany. Russell Brand and Naomi Klein project Steinbeck’s local vision on a global screen, exposing the noxious roots of global income inequality, climate change, and predatory capitalism-problems that are worse today than when John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath. Both the struggle and the enlightenment he dramatized continue in our time.

The Grapes of Wrath was the result of John Steinbeck’s personal epiphany. Not long after meeting Joseph Campbell-quoted by Brand and Klein in their writing about human belief and behavior-Steinbeck encountered first hand the evidence of destructive income inequality and environmental degradation in the Midwestern Dust Bowl and California labor camps of the Great Depression.

Though he’d probably be puzzled by the media employed, John Steinbeck would likely agree with the call for a revolution in how we think and organize ourselves as a survival-species. I encourage you to read Russell’s Brand’s Revolution and Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything, both published in 2014, if like me, The Grapes of Wrath captivated your imagination and outraged your sense of justice. Though he’d probably be puzzled by the media contemporary counter-cultural critics like Russell Brand and Naomi Klein employ to communicate the human cost of mounting income inequality, predatory capitalism, and pending climate crisis-YouTube, podcasts, personal websites-John Steinbeck would likely agree with their call for a revolution in how we think and organize ourselves as a survival-species.

Russell brand this changes everything