V for Vendetta - Philosophical Break Down

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Knowing that Finch need’s to observe Kant’s public and private reasoning he resorts to using a device that interrupts recordings or secret listening’s of conversations. Seen twice in the film he uses the device to talk to Dominic about his mistrust in his own government and what his own opinion is on what is going on in his country. Privately Finch is needed to follow the Chancellor’s direction and his job is to find V before November the 5th, but he is more interested in discovering the motives behind V’s attacks and why V is wanting parliament destroyed. All this is confirmed in the last scene where Finch is seen lowering his gun and allowing Evey to pull the lever giving V his Viking funeral and the destruction of the parliament building.

Marcuse claims the bourgeois, or the middle class, keeps the masses ignorant and uneducated so they are easier to control. V hit’s the nail right on the head in his speech claiming that we do this because we like to be comfortable. We want to be controlled. Who could blame them? They were in the middle of a plague, the U.S. was in disarray and the government was failing at the time. The people allowed themselves to be controlled. When V first shows up on the television people are questioning what is going on. V says “I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke,” and later in the same speech says “And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.” V here is arguing that the London citizens are to blame that the government was able to get so much power. Yes, at one point they were afraid of a biological weapon that was killing people across the board, but now that they are in “the comforts of every day routine” they refuse to question the government. In fact they just take what they tell us over the television as truth. A man who was born in the pocket of the Norsefire party, “the voice of London” died and the government needed (and did) cover it up thus not to cause a disturbance from the death of a beloved figure who gave them a lot of fabricated scripts.

There are many reasons to keep a watchful eye on our own government. I think V said it best in the film when he said “the people should not be afraid of their government but as the government should be afraid of its people.” V calls for people to be proactive in their government and how it goes about its business. Knowing that there are times where even when your private reasoning will force you to go about your job but you must not quiet your public reasoning. And lastly to not allow yourself to be controlled by government powers from your own fear. V for Vendetta brings a commentary on not just a dystopian society but a call to all man to become more of a critical thinker rather than a complacent aesthete.