Warning: major spoilers below
Every Nov. 5 for the past few years, I've sat back with a few friends to watch V for Vendetta. While ostensibly we did this to commemorate Guy Fawkes Day, which marks the anniversary of British revolutionary Guy Fawkes's attempt to blow up the Parliament in 1605, we really did it because everyone else was doing it, and we were bored.
But this Nov. 5, I expect I'll be a bit more alert when I watch V. Why? Because the movie's lessons are more important now than ever before.
Originally a graphic novel by Alan Moore, V for Vendetta is set in a dystopian England where a revolutionary wearing a Guy Fawkes mask sets out to destroy a fascist party called Norsefire by convincing citizens to stand up and rule themselves.
The most important lesson that the movie teaches, is distilled by this scene, where V talks about how irrational fear has resulted in the sacrificing of liberty for security:
Additionally, this quote is a reminder of recent events:
"Where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well, certainly there are those more responsible than others ... but ... truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now-High Chancellor ... He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent."Because of fear, Americans - like the English citizens in V - are trading our precious liberty in for a false sense of security. Sept. 11 happened, and it was horrible, but instead of reacting with resolve, we reacted with fear. We passed the so-called "Patriot" Act, which implied that anyone who disagreed with this utter trampling of the Bill of Rights was a traitor, or worse. We held people in prison without respecting habeas corpus. And so on.
Yet, in our rabid fear, in our race to the paternalistic government, in our herd impulse to trade in our most central rights for false security, we forgot one incredibly important fact: Liberty is much easier lost than recovered.
As V said, "Fear got the best of [us]." Amidst our panic, we turned to the CIA, the NSA, the FBI, and to secretive organizations that are well-intentioned but not accountable to the people because they are not visible. Those who oppose this trampling of our liberty are labeled "unpatriotic." In reality, they are the most patriotic people America has.
We are acting like a frightened herd of sheep - like sheeple in the truest sense of the term. It is time to end this madness. So, this Nov. 5, when you watch V for Vendetta, watch it with a critical eye, and remember: Usurping freedom by appealing to security concerns is the oldest trick in the book.
Michael is a student at Harvard Law and graduated summa cum laude from Duke with a degree in International Relations. Feel free to contact him at mshammas@alumni.duke.edu.
This just rolled into my "Inbox" and I rather re-did it to suit the day. The logic might not be perfect, nor the protocol without its faults but it's humorous nonetheless.
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Monkey See, Monkey Do, and Do, and Do, and Do.
Start with a cage containing five monkeys and inside the cage, hang a banana on a string down from the top; place a set of stairs under the banana.
Very shortly one of the cohort will go to the stairs and climb towards the banana.
As soon as he touches the stairs, blast the other four with cold water.
After a while another monkey will make an attempt; blast all the others again.
Step and repeat until any attempt up the stairs is met with resistance from the rest, who have quickly learned that stair climbing results in great discomfort.
Put the high pressure hose away.
Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one.
The new monkey will see the banana and attempt to climb the stairs. To his shock, all the other monkeys beat the crap out of him.
After another attempt and attack, he'll know, if he's at all perceptive, that if he tries to climb the stairs he'll be assaulted.
Remove another of the original five monkeys and replace with another new one.
Predictably, the newcomer will go to the stairs and predictably, will be attacked.
And not only, the previous newcomer will take part . . . with enthusiasm, because he is part of a "team" now acting in the name of induced self-interest
Replace the third original with a new one, followed by the fourth and finally, the fifth.
Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.
At this point none of the monkeys beating him up has any idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs. Neither do they know why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey; they are just part of the "team."
Finally, having replaced all of the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys will have ever been blast with high pressure cold water. Nevertheless, not one of them will try to climb the stairway for the banana.
Why, you might ask?
Because in their minds . . . that is the way it has always been!
And this my friends, is how Government operates.
and this is why, from time to time: ALL of the monkeys need to be REPLACED AT THE SAME TIME.
From this it would seem that Guy Fawkes had the right idea after all.