Brian Rose read American psycho and saw it as a ‘training manual’. His words, not mine.

If that doesn’t scare you, what will?

His word choice is peppered with militant imagery.

In his countdowns to the election he refers to the election as a ‘war’.

His promo bus is a ‘battle bus’.

The adoring volunteers running around London singing his praises make up his ‘London Real Army’.

He’s recently released a flashy manifesto.

Brian claims politicians have privately told him it’s the best manifesto they have ever seen.

Odd, since he just makes promises like any other politician before him.

He will build houses. He will put more cops on the street. He will give extra cash to community centers to bring knife crime. He will run London like a business.

It’s not hard to see that these are rather superficial policies.

With houses he means modular houses that are probably not going to be around for very long if they ever get built.

More cops? How’s he going to pay for that? And how is that going to make the city better?

The UK, London included, has seen its society decline due to austerity measures, a widening gap between the rich and the poor and the breaking of the once proud identity of the working class. By creating a society where everyone is strictly responsible for his or her own success everyone who does not somehow finds a way to fame, money, status and the material objects to prove it, is a loser. This breeds a lot of pent up anger and discontent. These are neoliberal trends we can see in most of the western world.

On one level Brian seems to understand that, but on another level he is exactly the product of that highly competitive, even predatory economic system we now have. He thinks the poison is the cure. Entrepreneurs are going to save the world.

We can’t all be entrepreneurs and it takes a complicated cocktail of all sorts of assets and characteristics plus a good deal of luck as well to become a truly successful entrepreneur.

Brian managed to build up an audience with a odd mix of guests and lots of softball style interviews. But then he started to sell snake oil. His company sells the idea that we can all be like Brian.

No, we cannot.

Does London want a mayor who thinks selling virtually meaningless courses to his followers is a good business model?

The viewers of his show are more and more behaving like a cult. This impression is reinforced because Brian systematically weeds out all critical feedback he gets. So the comments under his YouTube videos read like the product of enamored groupies. Especially his male devotees fawn over Brian and everything he does.

As though he has somehow become a father figure to thousands of hopeless young men. A pattern we have seen before with a certain tough talking psychologist.

Apart from some meaningful interviews here and there with deep thoughts on humanity’s needs, past and future, London Real has always been a rather needy looking peddler of testosterone.

But in a rather homo-erotic way.

How many muscled guys has Brian interviewed so far?

How many women has he had on his show compared to how many men?

What’s with the martial arts videos?

The limited definition of success. Over at London Real success means: making a lot of money. Preferably fast and practically out of thin air.

He’s said that when he was younger he watched the movie Wall Street on repeat. The movie with the infamous line:

‘Greed is good.’

Brian says he is a recovering addict. There has never been a time where saying you are an addict will get you more brownie points. I also have no problem saying am an addict. There is nothing risky about it. Brian pretends it is risky to be open about this, but it isn’t.

In our society everyone is addicted to something. It’s what keeps us functioning in a society that does not meet our spiritual and emotional needs AND fuels artificial needs in us that cannot be met by the vast majority of us. We also have a culture that is destined to neglect the emotional needs of children. Enter addiction.

Brian has just smelled that the time is ripe to admit to being an addict. He’s actually a bit late to the game. Over in Europe we have been able to talk about addictions for at least ten years.

To his credit Brian has never used sexually provocative imagery to lure viewers to his show. It’s just the muscle dudes. He’s interviewed some womanizers, but then again, he interviews just about anybody that can be seen as having achieved success in any way.

It’s more like Brian is just not interested in women.

Based on what he says he has proven to be a good step-father to his step-daughter. His sons seem to be doing fine. His Bulgarian wife may have a lot to do with that. (I think children often, not always, are emotionally better off in Eastern Europe than in Western Europe or the US).

I don’t like his style. His vain attempts at grandeur. I am put off by his trying too hard to be cool. His shout outs to rappers, his breakdance videos, the loud and way too long intros to his videos.

I do not think he would make a good Mayor. Yet I do not think he would do a much worse job than most politicians.

Some of the problems he would run into would be:

  • Lack of funds for his project
  • A focus on the kind of people who watch his show rather than a focus on all London’s citizens
  • I think Brian would use his position as Mayor not so much to attend to the responsibilities of being a Mayor, but more like a tool to grow his YouTube channel and his own website. Brian lives for the cameras.
  • ADHD style programmes. Brian likes attention so much that every other day he would launch some new catchy idea without seeing it through. Just like nothing came of his Freedom Platform
  • Legal issues. Brian has no clue as to what a Mayor can do and what he can’t do
  • Brian wants to focus on what he himself likes. So issues that are not his cup of tea would definitely get neglected. For example, I think women as a demographic would rather be ignored under Mayor Brian. With his adonis complex he is always looking for the applause of what he thinks are alpha males.
  • He would have to cooperate with equals. Brian doesn’t do that. Brian has mentors, he has employees and volunteers and he has fans who practically deify him. He does not seem to have even one horizontal relationship. Quite like the main characters of the movie Wall Street.
  • Brian plays a role in his own movie. Brian is so in need of external validation that everything he does is like a superhero in a Hollywood production. That’s how he has fabricated himself. If he admits to a weakness it’s because it makes for a better story in his mind.
  • With Brian as Mayor, London will become one big extension of his YouTube show. A city where being muscled, male and monetarily successful will be the only goals that really matter.