No More Mr. Nice Guy!

What a Guy!

I saw V for Vendetta last night. It's a very intense, powerful thriller. The Wachowski brothers have more than made amends for the Matrix sequels.

The central figure, played by Hugo Weaving, takes on the persona of Guy Fawkes to fight a totalitarian British government which rose to power by fearmongering and pandering to bigotry and homophobia. Hmmm, where have we seen that before? Anyway, Guy Fawkes is probably an unfamiliar figure to most US moviegoers, so a brief history lesson may be in order.

For several centuries following Henry VIII's split with Rome, England was convulsed with religious tension and warfare. Successive monarchs alternated between Catholic and Protestant, and demanded that their subjects give allegiance to the ruler's religion. The Protestants happened to be in power in 1605, when Guy Fawkes, an English soldier and a Catholic, supposedly plotted with some fellow Catholics to dig a tunnel under the Thames and into the basement of the Houses of Parliament, fill it with gunpowder and blow it up. Fawkes is said to have been "the only man to ever enter parliament with honest intentions."

The plot was discovered in the nick of time, Fawkes and his friends were tortured and executed, and the authorities seized on the pretext to introduce the Penal Laws, brutally oppressive anti-Catholic laws which were enforced with particular cruelty in Ireland until 1829. The legacy of hatred between Catholics and Protestants continues to this day in British-ruled Northern Ireland.

Some have speculated that, given the technology of the year 1605 and the nature of the soil under the Houses of Parliament, the idea that anyone could have tunneled in is implausible. Also, it seems that forged evidence was presented against Fawkes. Was the Gunpowder Plot the first Reichstag Fire? And the Penal Laws the first Patriot Act?

To this day, Guy Fawkes is a bogeyman in England. Instead of Halloween, British children celebrate Guy Fawkes night on November 5 by burning him in effigy and setting off fireworks. Which makes it a little unrealistic to imagine, as the movie and graphic novel did, that the British public would rally behind someone claiming the mantle of Fawkes. Robin Hood, maybe. And, sadly, Oliver Cromwell who is a national hero to the British although he was more like Hitler to the Irish. (In the movie, I saw John Hurt's character, Sutler, as a modern-day Cromwell.)

Alan Moore wrote "V for Vendetta" during the 80's as a response to Thatcherism, but it's scary how well it reflects Bushism today. But then, one of the themes is that there is no such thing as coincidence. Every tyranny gains power by pandering to people's lower natures - bigotry, hatred, fear and intolerance of others, a desire for simplistic soundbites and black/white dichotomy instead of having to deal with the real world in all its messiness and nuance. That's why democracy is hard work, and eternal vigilance - meaning, the obligation to keep yourself educated and informed - is the price of liberty.

Anyway, November 5 is still a few months away, but let's get this party started!