V for Vendetta Essay

V for Vendetta

As an American growing up in a time in which a fear of Terrorism is engrained in the every day culture, I have a strong personal belief that violence cannot be justified, except in a few select situations. Many would argue that violence could be justified if it is for a noble cause, or in response to a wrong that has been committed. I have a serious problem with this argument. In order to justify a cause as noble you must first determine what a noble cause is, and that in it’s self is relative. I am sure that Bin Laden believed his cause to be very noble, as did the Christians when they crusaded through the Middle East, and the South when they fought for succession. Just as true, Al-Qaeda can be thought of as a response to American imperial activity in the Middle East, but this still does not give them permission to kill innocent people. I would like to believe that the world has evolved since the days of Hammurabi’s code, and that justice can be found through other means, not violence. I believe in all of this very strongly, but I do believe that when a people are being oppressed they have the right to defend themselves. In the case of V, violence is justified but not because of the validity or invalidity of his ideas. V’s violence is justified because it is in the defense of an oppressed population. If V’s ambitions were strictly based off his thirst for revenge, than I would argue otherwise. I believe that V’s main goal was to liberate a population that was actively being oppressed and murdered by its government; that is self-defense. His tactics do not fully coincide with those of a terrorist; most notably he does not target civilians. His mission is to overthrow the government, there for V is a revolutionary and has waged war on the government. We can see this in the beginning of the book when V blows up the Parliamentary building, and at the end of the movie (Pg. 14). Although V does seek revenge (which is not necessarily justified), that is only a part of his scheme. By destroying the “Eyes, Ears, and Mouth of the State” (Used throughout book), V is preventing the state from carrying on with its violent oppression. In the book, V seeks to create a land of “Do as you please”. This land that he wishes to initiate is an anarchic society, where individuals essentially govern themselves. In the movie V is still an anarchist, but emphasis freedom. Anarchy and freedom are not the same thing. Anarchy advocates an absence of government. This means that Civil Liberties may or may not be enforced based on what individuals decide. The purpose of a Democratic-Government is to

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