The Media
“My
father was a writer… he used to say, ‘artists used lies to tell the truth while
politicians used them [lies] to cover the truth up.” – Evey Hammond in V for Vendetta (Bittner-Rosser, 2005)
Adapted
from a comic book series, V for Vendetta is
a literary piece portraying political thought not just through print but also in
film. Fictional as it may be; with a
fictional hero, and set in a fictional England, the gems of truth embedded
within are useful four dimensional representations of political science
concepts.
In this article, I for one will
highlight the following political phenomena as can be gleaned from the film’s
plot: a) state-society relations, b) political institutions, and c) political
culture. For these are all embedded
within the story behind a masked vigilante, along with the violence of armed
civil conflict, the horrors of political incarceration and torture, plus the
intrigue of a complex plan to topple the government.
The Review
State-Society Relations and the
Strong State
In the film “V”, the masked vigilante tells Evey Hammond
that, “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people (Bittner-Rosser, 2005) .” It succinctly expresses a theme within the
story that has been continually emphasized in various scenes. In the dichotomy of state-society relations
comes the question how strong should the state become? A strong state as defined by Rotberg (2003) as having 1) full dominion over all its’ territory and 2) it provides both high
quantity and high quality political goods to every citizen within its dominion.
For someone who has not read the graphic novel, the film
portrays its fictional English government as one which satisfies the first part
of the definition. However, the second
part is somewhat suspect. Mindful that
suspect and lacking are two different situations. It is suspect since the film displays a
social environment that seems to flourish, but observing deeper, one notices
certain scars on society’s seemingly healthy exterior. There are strict curfews at night, abusive
government “goons”, “black-baggers” who make enemies of the state “disappear”,
and there were also surveillance of private communications even within the
homes of citizens. Moreover, a scene
worth noting is the conversation between “V” and Evey over breakfast. Evey tastes real butter in her toast. A small thing, but their conversation leads
to the knowledge that Evey hasn’t tasted real butter since she was a little
girl. For at that present time, “V” had
to steal such a small economic good from a supply train meant only for the Chief
Executive of their land – High Chancellor Sutler. This implies the government enjoying high quality
goods over their people. Thus was that
fictional England really strong? or is it in truth fragile?
Misuse of Political Institutions
This paper’s opening quote
differentiated the artist from the politician.
In the Ivory Tower of academia, Political Science’s goal is not to train
politicians, for the very essence of Political Science is to study state and
government – thus to build the state.
The practice of politics however, is not just to wield power; rather it
is to wield power in a limited manner.
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Movie Still 1 - A crowd of citizens mobilized against one of
the misused institutions in the form of "Fingermen" (From the
movie “V for Vendetta”, 2005)
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In the film, the fictional
government used its’ institutions as a means of abusive power over it’s’
citizens. These include the media (which
has reports the lies concocted by the government), a variety of uses of force
(police, fingermen, “black-baggers”, the military), and even the medical
institutions which were used to create biological weapons (to be used not just
against foreign enemies but also over the citizens).
A Sleeping Political Culture
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Movie Still 2 - Citizens take up mask and costume of "V" in a mimick of people power (from the movie “V for
vendetta”, 2005)
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When
they first met, “V” answers Evey’s query of who “V” was by quite a long
alliteration of self-descriptions which include “a vestige of the vox populi
[trans. From latin ‘voice of the people’.”
For the people’s voices have already been stilled either out of fear of
the government or of simple acceptance of their current situations – that they
cannot fight nor change the government anymore.
This is an example of one of the political cultures studied by Almond
and Verba (1989) . Both political scientists studied five
nations and discovered three basic political cultures – subject, parochial, and
civic. Whereas civic cultures have
knowledge of their government and believe that they can influence it; the
subject culture on the other hand have little knowledge of their government and
simply consent to be herded by it. The
parochial culture interacts only with their immediate local government and
seldom has knowledge of and interactions with the national government.
Conclusions
Using the fiction of literature
and film, V for Vendetta was able to
help exemplify that strength isn’t true strength in a fragile state. It is a structure with the potential for tension,
and eventual entropy from within. More
so, using a values approach, one observes that sources of tension can come from
abuses by the government, and that at times, a corrupt government can retain
power with the appropriate set of corrupt institutions. The solution to this, I caution though, is
not simply violence. For insight points
out that such a situation can easily be solved, if the people shifts from a
parochial or subject culture into a civic culture – which interacts bravely
with their state in order to champion rights, justice and freedom.
Works
Cited
Almond, G., & Verba, S. (1989). The
Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. London:
Sage Publications.
Bittner-Rosser, M. (Director). (2005). V
for Vendetta [Motion Picture].
Rotberg, R. I. (2003). Nation-State
Failure¨A Recurring Phenomenon? Montgomery, Alabama: United States Air
Force, Air University.