Remember, Remember

You should go see this movie. Then tell me what you think. It's very much an action movie but it has a whole lot to say.

First and foremost, this is the movie that will show you what fascist government would look like in the UK. We can find German and Italian fascism in old history books, Serbian fascism in new history books and Belarussian fascism in today's headlines. But it's important to know what the UK or US version would look like. I'm not one of those who run around calling Bush a fascist, and I certainly don't go tossing that around when talking about Tony Blair, but you can see hints of totalitarianism in warrentless wiretapping and the eliminationist rhetoric of Ann Coulter.

The second theme of V for Vendetta is political violence. Blowing up buildings and killing lots of cops and police up close and personal with lots of knives. The anti-hero of the movie, known only as V is your classic terrorist/freedom fighter ink blot. Just depends on who's looking at him. V has no political program except destruction and chaos. He is firm is his conviction that the current government is profoundly wrong and must be destroyed. What he believes is correct, so what we must look at is his tactics. They are extreme and cruel and at one point, indistinguishable from the regime he is fighting.

The true test of non-violence is always fascism. At the end of every work about the Holocaust there is some message of "never again." The question is, do you really mean that? Because a protest march does not stop this kind of evil. True fascism destroys all democratic, peaceful means of change. At what point does violence become necessary?