But can the UBI give all that is promised? I no longer think so. Indeed, the model currently proposed has the potential to strengthen racist policies, increase exploitation of migrants, escalate the environmental impacts of our current economic system, and further wealth disparity both locally and globally.

When the representative link, in which ‘the people’ and their aggregate wills (supposedly mirrored in the parliamentary apparatus) breaks down, the terrain is ripe for populist insurgency. Indeed, the rise of Donald Trump et al might be defined as a populist backlash: the result of the lack of perceived or actual representation from elected leaders. It is not simply racism that drives support of Trump or Le Pen, but more that people are looking for representation, someone who appears to understand their problems.

Liberation theology was born out of the deep poverty in Latin America, and the poor’s relationship to Catholic teachings in their everyday struggles against unjust social structures. ‘Liberation’ here meant liberation from these social structures as much as liberation from sin. For adherents of liberation theology, the scripture provided the principles and inspiration to work toward releasing people from unjust social patterns. Getting to heaven was not as important as changing people's lives for the better. In this way, it was a cultural challenge to the traditional Catholic teachings.

There is wide agreement now that much of Western politics is so badly broken that it has reached crisis point. What is also clear is that yet another change of leadership will not, by itself, halt the downward spiral. It is simply not a problem of replacing the personnel from the incredibly shallow political pool. The problem is systematic. Brand is symptomatic of this.

Syriza's stunning victory in Greece's election has been a win for the left in Europe. Naturally, there has been plenty written on this but I would like to contribute some lessons Syriza can learn from recent history that are worth thinking about in their attempts to overcome the neo-liberal model.

Fashion is often regarded as only ephemeral. But consumer choices about clothing speak to wider issues about the nature of contemporary transnationalism and the commodification of cultural difference. Fashion discourses become a way in which consumers align themselves with certain cultural viewpoints, while resisting or subverting others.

So Micah White, the former editor of Adbusters and self proclaimed creator of the ‘Occupy’ meme, has formed his own boutique activist consultancy that apparently ‘is incubating a left-right coalition of post-cool, counter-culture and authentic parties’. His website borders on self-parody, with long hashtag lines about actions and events that have not occurred, and most likely never will.

Being a typical inner-city type, I went to the Wheeler Centre’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas (a wonderful echo chamber) in Melbourne to see the creator of The Wire, David Simon speak. The show is one of the finest critiques of modern capitalism that I have seen on a screen in sometime, so I was expecting some of those same incendiary notions to be raised by Simon himself. What we instead got was the typical, liberal response to the failures of capitalism.

Whenever anyone with even a modicum of celebrity decides to turn around and criticise the system that got them there, the opprobrium is usually immediate and often scathing. Imagine then, the ensuing political censure, when someone with the popularity of Russell Brand chooses to take on a target as large as global capitalism.

In his broadside against the global Left, Gregor Gall claims that the Left has lost all credibility. This is a common complaint in tune with criticism from the Right, a case of Stockholm Syndrome. The Left is not the force we would like it to be. I agree with some of Gall’s points, and I write this article to add to the conversation, to keep it going.