Disproving V for Vendetta.

“Writers tell lies to uncover the truth.” Evey Hammond the female lead of the movie says her father said this to her growing up. This is of course the point of all fiction, to uncover truth about our society, our religion, our government, and most importantly ourselves. She follows it up by saying, “politicians use lies to hide it.”

The story of V is, presumably, meant to be a fiction meant to uncover truth. Unfortunately it is the opposite. While it does uncover many “truths” throughout the tale it furthers the great myth, the great myth of violence and a violent revolution.

It is not hard to see why anti-authoritarians flock to the show. It is fundamentally a story of the lowest of low, a guy who lives in the shadows and is the ultimate outcast rising up and starting a movement that throws down the overly-authoritarian structure above him. It is the ultimate underdog story. The story of how the lowest rose to be the highest, and how all the evil people at the top were not only stopped, but killed. It is a story of ultimate vengeance.

Anyone who has ever felt cheated or tricked or oppressed by an authoritarian structure is bound to start cheering for this man. And who hasn't at one time been hurt by authority? Whether it was a parent falsely accusing you of something your sibling did, or a teacher who went out of their way to make your life miserable. In some way, in some often extremely painful and personal ways, we have all been cheated by “the man” and deep down have some urge to get back.

The character who plays the high chancellor and spews constant anger and irrational hate makes everyone hate him. Everyone watching wants him punished in some way to bring justice. When I learned about Hitler, Stalin, and Ne Win in history the temptation is to think, oh if someone just would have killed them then imagine how many lives would have been saved! Imagine how much better the world would be. It is as if the dictator is the one wholly and completely responsible for the mess. This is of course a lie.

The dictator is just a symbol, a symbol of the character of the people. No one rises to power, except on the backs of other people. If at any moment the Russian people as a whole were like, nope, I am not going to do anything this person says, then Stalin would have been on the streets in a week. V talks about this in his “revolutionary speech.” One of the truly great pieces of writing from modern movies:

And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And 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, and they will be held accountable, but again 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, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.”

It isn't always “their fault.” Of course those that rise to power are more guilty than we, but if we are singing their victory, praising their name, voting for them or in anyway acknowledging their legitimacy to rule, then we are part of their rise to power, we are to blame.

Government is a creation of language. It only exists in our minds, and only exists because we allow it to. V points out this power of language in his revolutionary speech:

I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there?

Just as language is the tool to build government, language is the tool that can destroy it. Notice how he talks about talking. “taking some time out of our daily lives to have a little chat.” “Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth.”

Words are used to create meaning, but only to those who are willing to listen do they offer truth. Only those willing to go through rigorous debate, those willing to be challenged, will ever know truth, but whether we are willing to listen to not, words do create meaning.

It is simple to see how this happens in real life. I say something like “I am the king, you must serve me.” This is of course a completely false statement. However, if I get everyone to repeat it, and if I can somehow enforce punishment if anyone says otherwise, then it becomes a maxim. A “truth” that is accepted without any thought. Particularly when it becomes so accepted that if anyone dares to question it they are laughed at and ridiculed and viewed as “crazy” “extreme” “fringe” or a “conspiracy theorist.”

In the relentless repeating of the lie, the lie becomes truth and anyone who doesn't believe it is insane. However deep down we know it to be a lie because it is obvious. How am I fundamentally any different than any one else? What would make me a king on a different moral level? Even to ask these questions is to expose the myth. In an “Emperor's new clothes” fashion, the whole thing crumbles.

Wherever you see this sort of Fight Club oppression you know there is an accepted “truth” that is a lie. The first rule of fight club is you cannot talk about fight club. The first rule of an abusive relationship is you cannot talk about that abusive relationship. The first rule of the family club is you do not talk about the family club. An abusive husband knows he is being an abusive. An abused wife knows she is being abused. To talk about it, is to end it. No abusive husband wants his wife going around the neighborhood saying, “my husband beats me.”

The movie is startling accurate in its portrayal of many aspects of the world, though significantly different than our own. In the movie a member of the media team says, “It is our job to report the news, not to fabricate it, that is the government's job.” How incredibly accurate a description of the mainstream media's relationship to the government. The media simply churns out whatever the most recent press release is from the government and puts some analysis and spin on it and calls it good.

However despite the fact that I love the movie and shows much truth, its ultimate "truth" is indeed a lie.

It propagates the biggest lie of all: that violence is useful. That somehow we can make up for the sins of violence with more violence. That somehow killing those bad guys in power is a great good. “Violence can be used for good.” Is the claim that V makes to Evey.

We want violence to be used of good. We want the bad guys to die, the bad guys to pay for their crimes and for the good guys to win. It jives with our sense of justice. Our sense of right and wrong. But guess what, it doesn't work.

 

Every violent revolution in history from the French to the Russian to the Chinese has inevitelby led to the removal of the bad guys and the replacement with a worse guy. The Russians removed the oppressive Tsar to be replaced with the most murderous man in history, Stalin. The French took down the king and replaced him with Robespierre who killed more than the king ever did. Violent revolutions always fail because it takes an even more violent person to remove a violent one. Violence can not beat violence because it does not take down the lie of the ruler, it enforces it.

As stated already, the government's power does not come from guns, it comes from language. It comes from saying that it is right, from saying that violence is the answer. The way to destroy that is not with violence. If you try to conquer it with violence it is not tearing down the lie, it is enforcing it. It is saying that violence is indeed the way to solve problems. But the way to defeat the government is not to enforce the lie, but to question it.

You want to change the world? A violent uprising is not the way to do it as you will become the beast you are trying to destroy. The revolution happens in your mind. It happens here, right now and then it spreads from one mind to the next. Simply think of statements that we accept as unilaterally, unequivocally true.

Democracy is good. Public schools are good and necessary. Taxation is the foundation of civilization. Anarchy is chaos. Respect for authority is good. Obedience is a virtue.

Are these things really true? Or do we just assume they are because we have said them a million times and it is generally accepted as true? If examined it is not hard to realize the above statements hold about as much water as “I am the king and you should do what I say.”

What truisms do we say, but never live? For example Honesty is a virtue. Yet if a child is honest about his school class and says “My teacher is boring” is he praised or punished? Do we really value honesty? Or do we value obedience? Because you can't have both.

At one moment the police chief is beginning to question the government. He is beginning to realize that maybe he is working for the wrong team. He says to the liutennet: "If our own government was responsible for the deaths of over a hundred thousand people... would you really want to know?" That is the question everyone must ask themselves. To be honest the answer for most people is "no" which is why things continue as they do. Whether we want to know or not, the truth is that since WWII the u.s. military has killed over ten million people. Ten million. That is one hundred thousand... times a hundred. And the body count is much higher. But you can just ignore that. You can go back to your entertainment television and be happy. Or you can begin to ask some hard questions. You can begin to have some conversations that people are desperate for you not to have.

Despite its flaws the movie contains this great line, “Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.”