This week, we finished reading V for Vendetta by Alan Moore. I haven’t held a graphic novel in my hands since high school, and I’ve forgotten how difficult it could be to read one (How does one tell all the people in the government apart? They’re all middle aged men with receding hairlines). Combine it with complex political agendas and you get one confused reader who spontaneously feels paranoid about the American government. Despite the occasional what? and who’s that?, I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to everyone, especially in the current election cycle.

 

There were many philosophical lines that eloquently summed up negative feelings towards big government. One of the lines that stood out to me the most was the one that read:

“Authority, when first detecting chaos at its heels, will entertain the vilest schemes to save its orderly facade.”‘ -Moore

This reminded me of the P.D. James’s apocalyptic world of Children of Men, where people started committing suicide after accepting the end of humankind.  In response, the government began sponsoring the Quietus upon deeming it too messy and out of their control. This eventually morphed to forced suicide of people who were not ready to die, but the government campaigned it as something the people wanted. Even if this was its initial intent, it isn’t what it was when Theo saw it.

 

V for Vendetta may have been published in 1988, but its ideas are as relevant in the present.  Google has consistently told the public the number of times various governments has asked it to censor political speech, even in countries associated with free speech. By issuing court orders and other requests, these governments shut down rival political thoughts at the expense of their citizens’ rights, which is arguably governments’ number one priority.

 

 

Another quote that stood out to me was when V said,

“People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.” -Moore

With the primaries well under way, I’ve seen many Facebook posts and op-eds written about the future of America if a certain presidential candidate wins (ahem, Drumpf). These posts are meant to get people out to vote, but a common theme in them is the fear that people have about how far Mr. Trump has come. V’s idea that the people should be in control of the government is completely true– if we were in a true Democracy, the majority would be in charge of the country’s future, and would stop radical ideas. What I think this quote fails to consider is that there are people who support these governments, and these people allow the governments to do things like take away citizens’ rights. To me, these people are even scarier, for they have resources (such as money) or some other form of influence that are not always public. This makes it doubly important for other people to get out and vote this election, because we the citizens are responsible for the outcome, and we cannot create a country that is scared of its leaders.