Political Irony

It isn’t that Raj Patel’s life hasn’t been interesting. Naomi Klein called his first book “dazzling” and his latest book is a fascinating analysis of our recent financial meltdown. And appearing on The Colbert Report to promote his new book is ironic all by itself, but that’s when things got really weird.

Apparently, a little-known religious group has decided that Patel is the messiah who will save the world. But Patel is a reluctant savior, and wants nothing to do with it. He even put a statement on his website categorically stating that he is not their prophesized messiah. But like in the Monty Python movie “The Life of Brian”, his followers claim that his denial was also part of the prophesy.

But the best part is that his family thinks the whole thing is hilarious. They recently gave him a t-shirt with the words “he’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy”.