V for Vendetta has hit silver screens the world over after having been postponed nearly half a year following the London tube attacks. The movie, which was adapted from a comic book, tells the tale of a post-war world in which a fascist regime has taken control in Great Britain—a regime which oppresses the freedoms of its citizens in the name of safety and security. The movie has raised the suspicions of some and the awareness of others.
I was personally left awestruck by the extraordinarily powerful similarities the movie allowed me to see between such innocuous phrases as “God Bless America” and the slogan of the fascist regime, “England Prevails.” It continued to move me still as it drew out connections between the attacks of September 11th and the fictitious St. Mary’s viral attack depicted in both comic and movie. In the dystopian future of Vendetta, the government uses handy slogans, which help lull the population into overlooking the obvious criminality of its existence such as “Strength through Unity, Unity through Faith.”
While sitting in the traditionally uncomfortable lounge seats of the airport in my beloved San Diego, I abruptly began to tremble as the PA played its own seemingly innocuous announcement, “Security is everyone’s responsibility.” As this line was played over and over again a realization finally came up and thumped me on the head: We have arrived in the horrifying future of Vendetta.
We now are faced with a government that has taken liberties which were never given to it by the people. We live in a world where citizens can be “black-bagged” and made to disappear to places like Gitmo without anything more than the mere accusation of terror activities.
We are now, without judicial warrant, searched by men in uniform who violate our personal belongings in airports. We are made to submit to yet further illegal searches to visit our nation’s most precious relics and forced to give up our rights to free speech to satisfy the loud and powerful few. The list of atrocities which this government has committed under the guise of security must not be allowed to continue. It is time for America and her citizens to rise up once again and remind our government that they work for us; they are hired and paid by us to do as we say.
I am not yet suggesting revolution but rather I am suggesting that we cease immediately our silent and complacent approval that has lead to the hijacking of our government. I am suggesting that we stand up and demand that the violation of our rights by these government thugs at the TSA end now, I am suggesting that we stand up and demand that the government return to its role of servitude and abandon its present role as “Big Brother.” It is time that the people of this country stand up and remind the government why they need us and of all of the reasons that we don’t need them to regulate the general functioning of our daily lives.
