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John Lennon and the Nowhere Man
Russell Brand has chosen the red pill. Few, though, have imbibed more blue pills than Russell – celebrity sex, celebrity drugs, celebrity performances, celebrity morals, celebrity worship, celebrity hubris, celebrity wealth and celebrity marriage to Katy Perry. But the blissful ignorance of illusion is now behind him. The red pill has “awoken” him, and in his post-delirium state Brand is Neo, modern-day messiah on a mission to rescue humanity from the Matrix (or Late Capitalism).
The last celebrity with such an overweening messianic complex was John Lennon (1940-80). According to Pete Shotton and Nicholas Schaffner’s bio In My Life (1983), in the early hours of Saturday, May 18, 1968, a cross-legged, elegantly wasted Lennon experienced an epiphany. “I think I’m Jesus Christ. I’m…back again,” announced Lennon, waving both arms in the air and making slow, swirling actions with his outspread hands. Pete Shotton, boyhood friend and constant companion in the brief…
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