V for Vendetta: When Art Tells The Story of Reality
V for Vendetta is a fictional story of a mysterious hero with superhuman strength and reflexes. This hero, V, is an anarchist, fighting against an oppressive and corrupt UK government whose leaders have perpetrated systematic fraud and committed human rights atrocities on a massive scale in order to usurp and secure complete power over the country.
While the original motion picture was based upon a comic book series of the same name, in reality, the sinister backdrop of V for Vendetta doesn’t seem too far fetched in our current period of national and global turmoil. In the story, it is during an atmosphere of fear and hopelessness that V delivers a most eloquent and stirring speech to his fellow countrymen. This speech was so utterly thought-provoking that I have taken the liberty of posting a video clip of it together with a transcript on this blog for anyone who may come by to peruse and digest. I recommend watching the entire show, as it is really pretty good IMHO, but here’s a clip of the speech I was talking about:
Good evening, London.
Allow me first to apologize, for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of everyday routine, the security, the familiar, the tranquility, repetition… I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, whereby those important events of the past, usually associated with someone’s death or the end of some awful, bloody struggle, are celebrated with a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is certainly 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 think that even now orders are been shouted into telephones and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because when the truncheon maybe used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who would listen, the enunciation of the truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there?
Cruelty and injustice, intolerence 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 surveillence coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission? How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly there are those who are 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 problems that 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 Suttler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient, consent.
Last night, I sought to end that silence. Last night, I destroyed the Old Bailey to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than 400 years ago, a great citizen wished to embed the 5th of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice and freedom are more than words, they are prespectives. So if you’ve seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you, then, I would suggest you allow the 5th of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me, one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliment, and together we shall give them a 5th of November that shall never, ever, be forgot.
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