Hello everyone:
Having read the whole novel, I wanted to write about my favorite part of the entire thing - the scene from page 39-41. This is the point in the book where V goes to the top of the old Bailey and is talking to the statue of Justice, and filling in both parts of the conversation. Here, he is speaking to her about how he used to love her from afar, but then she cheated on him with a uniformed man in jackboots [the new facist government], so he has found another: anarchy. He then proceeds to place the heart-shaped box at the feet of the statue, and walks away. The bomb then blows up and destroys the statue and the building.
The reason this resonates with me is partially the dark humor in the situation, but also the scary parallel to the real world of today. Specifically, I am thinking of post 9/11 America, one where the average citizen meekly submits to the various things the Federal government took as "necessary changes" after that fated day. For example, every time I go into an airport, I am forced to take off my shoes and all the metal out of my pockets. I then must make sure all of the fluids, gels, etc must be beneath a certain size and stored in a ziploc bag; if they aren't, I am required by law to throw them away. Then theres the odd dynamic of the TSA video they play on loop - the bit where once you begin the process, you must continue and by law are not allowed to leave. Thats really, REALLY scary - queuing up to use the private plane ticket we paid for, and then forced to submit to Federal security (that drains tax dollars substantially) because they have outlawed private security forces from working airports? This is not the same US government I have been taught about throughout the course of my education. I would argue that many people feel the same way that I do (listen to the grumbling in line next time you fly), but what confounds me is that people aren't motivated to fight for their freedoms, one of the things that IS worth fighting for in life.
Let me focus more narrowly on the topic at hand in the scene I presented: justice. The US has never been perfect; neither has any other country. I just find it very peculiar that the way our justice system works is changing the way it is. "Innocent until proven guilty" used to be a bastion of the American legal system: now it is "guilty until proven innocent if we think you might have thought the word 'terrorist' in your life, and we won't let you have legal counsel." I am not sure about anyone else in the course, but this REALLY CONCERNS ME. These sorts of reasonings are what were used in the novel, when the Leader convinces people that giving up freedoms in order to also be free from hunger and war is worthwhile. The problem with curtailing civil liberties in wartime (even though we aren't in a conventional war) is that they aren't so easily reclaimed from the Federal government after the fact.
The specifics of this War on Terror are what confound me - we are fighting against hungry, angry peoples who the US' foreign policy has not treated fairly or even consistently, yet we wonder why they hate us? Perhaps if we didn't supply both sides in almost every armed conflict since WWII, the issues at hand wouldn't be as bad. We supplied Iraq and Saddam against Iran. We trained bin Laden against the Soviets. We supply weapons to the Israelis, and money to the Palestinians, and then wonder why they don't get along and don't like us. Perhaps if we pursued an agenda of sustainable long term aid to all people, and stopped selling weapons as often as we can, maybe there would be less wars. This current schizophrenic series of foreign policy choices certainly isn't working. In fact, this exact sentiment was expressed (albeit in different words) by a certain diety in the American pantheon, a Mr. Washington: "The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without any thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations." What a great idea - too bad in this century of American policing of the world, we cannot quite fathom why this is a good idea. I want to defend myself from those who might call me isolationist - I love to travel, I enjoy other nations and cultures, and I am firmly in favor of free/fair trade (depending on the specific situation) - I just don't see why we need to get ourselves tangled into millenia-old conflicts. Thats pretty arrogant of us to assume that after the Arabs and Jews have been mutually of distrustful of each other (and sometimes outright hostile) for many, many years, that we could support both sides and then make peace.
I feel as though these quotes, plus the preceding quote from Washington, cover my feelings on this matter:
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
-Thomas Jefferson
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
-Thomas Paine
Our history has shown us that insecurity threatens liberty. Yet, if our liberties are curtailed, we lose the values that we are struggling to defend.
-9/11 Commission Report
"Justice is meaningless without Freedom"
-V, page 41
-Mike
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2 comments:
I like your point about our changing enemy and allies. The part about Bin Laden is totally true. It's even in a Bond film, one of Timothy Dalton's, where the Mujahadeen are our allies against the Russians. Interesting how times change.
Yea I agree, as I said in my post hypocrisy of people in power angers and scares me. As does narrow-mindedness...I remember ages ago when Bush was running for president the first time and I didn't know much about him and someone told that he was (like many others) openly anti-gay marriage...that right always was a flag for me that he may be a person I won't particularly like. Such narrow mindedness is shown in the book when they say that all the gays, lesbians, blacks and other minorities were taken to concentration camps under the pretense of "It’s us or them!!!" How many US politicians have practically claimed that legalizing gay marriage is a slippery slope to bestiality. The book shows what happens when narrow mindedness, hypocrisy, and power in the wrong hands are taken to an extreme level. You are right Mike, it is a scary thought. Because then you never know when you will find yourself on the wrong end. Or even how does one live knowing others are being unfairly prosecuted.
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