Anarchy at the D.C.

My old friend Todd Seavey surfaces leading a capitalist counterprotest to a gaggle of anarchists picketing the offices of D.C. comics, incensed that they and fellow megacorporation Warner Brothers had the temerity to "exploit" anarchism by making the blockbuster V for Vendetta, whose protagonist, the certifiably insane, homicidal, but nevertheless generally sympathetic Guy Fawkes–masked terrorist V, dreams of a vaguely-defined stateless society. You can't blame them for being a little miffed that a big-budget action movie has probably done more to pique folks' interest in anarchist ideas than a lifetime of passing out mimeographed pamphlets.

Comments

[Douglas Fletcher]

Yeah, I've always had that kind of feeling about the Archie comics, what with all that dumbing down representation of how smart your average student is. I mean, could Jughead really be that thick?

[fyodor]

Exploiting anarchy?? Is nothing sacred???

[Brian Doherty]

Jughead was a very clever and resourceful fellow, just monomaniacal regarding food (yet still, eternally, annoyingly svelte, not to say scrawny). Twas Big Moose who seemed dim; but perhaps his "duhh" was merely a verbal tic. At any rate, Midge's love always kept him coping with the troubles of high school, and anyway you just knew he'd be earning his bones in pro football eventually anyway.

[rob]

Sadly enough, you can put "libertarian" in place of "anarchist" in the last sentence and it makes exactly the same amount of sense.

"You can't blame them for being a little miffed that a big-budget action movie has probably done more to pique folks' interest in libertarian ideas than a lifetime of passing out mimeographed pamphlets."

[Dogzilla]

Anarchists don't strike me as the pamphlet-passing types. I've been give a fair amount of pamphlets (mostly in Europe, for some reason) and none of them were from groups advocating LESS government.

[The Real Bill]

V for Vendetta may have been exploitation, but I loved it. Watching Parliament explode was a beautiful thing.

V didn't really strike me as insane--just really pissed off. Then again, IIRC, according to Jung, we're all at least somewhat insane.

[Ruthless]

What Stevo Darkly said.
Most "anarchists" are just commie lurkers/groupies/fellow travelers/termites.

As a "true" anarchist, they incense me too, Stevo, yet I will tolerate them, though they will not tolerate me and us here on H&R.

[Ruthless]

Lowdog,
So you're telling us you struck out?

[MainstreamMan]

Lowdog

You can go here.
http://politicalcompass.jpagel.net/analysis2.php

She is claiming to be in the bottom left quadrant of this 2 dimensional political plane.

[crimethink]

Is it possible that the shadowy leaders of the worldwide anarchist movement ordered their subjects to protest V For Vendetta precisely to draw attention to that pro-anarchist flick?

😉

[chewy]

I had a slightly bloody split with a couple of Anarchist friends when I was 18 when I explained that I thought it was more to each by their ability, not to each by their need, from each by their ability. Granted, it turned out I had a bit more blood to share since there was two of them. But I did take the one's gf and hocked the other's Propaghandi CD, so it was win-win-win I suppose.

And yes, they did hand out pamphlets.

[Ruthless]

crimethink,
Could be.
And we should be thankful the "subjects" are all dumber than the shoe bomber.

[Jeff P]

Remember, t-shirts, jewelry, panties and wristbands, all sporting the official Anarchy(tm) logo, are available at Hot Topic. Buy two and get a ten percent off your next purchase of an Evanescence CD.

[Son of a!]

I only know one anarchist in real life. I shall now draw general conclusions on a sample of one and state that the one thing anarchists do best is make rules.

You have to be a vegan.
You're not allowed to hold down a day job.
You aren't allowed to patronize large corporations.
You have to take this seriously!
You have to use the "riot mode" cheat when you play GTA: San Andreas.

And so forth.

[Jacob]

Since the VFV movie piggybacks on the VFV novel (and cuts out political subjects), why shouldn't the AFA site and similar local outreach piggyback on the VFV novel and movie (and add some political commentary)?

Anyway, what's so upsetting about this 'protest' that requires another 'counterprotest'? It seems that some 'right-libertarians' will oppose anything any 'left-libertarians' do and vice-versa.

P.S. the address is of course http://www.aforanarchy.org/

[RZA]

anarchist punks > communists > straight-edgers

Also, rules of anarchist punkdom - obsession with the Spanish Civil War, but not the stuff that deals with it in any accuracy. I'm glad I discovered George Orwell before Crass and Flux of Pink Indians.

[Ventifact]

The Political Compass thing was, in my opinion, pretty darn badly done, especially considering how highly the authors seemed to think of the intellectual effort they put into it. More to the point of this thread, they do mention (indirectly and buried in their FAQ) that the terminology they use is European (and not contemporary either...).

[Ventifact]

You know when you're REALLY irellivant politically? When you spend your time protesting other groups' protests who are already impossibly on the fringe and so out of it that they don't even know what to properly call their own beliefs.

[Armed&Hammered]

Perhaps a gaggle of left-anarchists that can't stand the idea of anybody making a profit on anything?

[Ventifact]

Oh and Bill -- if V didn't strike you as insane then you must be also. Spoiler Alert: I mean, come on, no one not clinically anti-social could actually torture someone for their own good, much less someone they were in love with. There's just no way.

[Rick Barton]

A few weeks ago on the 16th St mall in Denver, I spotted a group of anarchists and started rapping to em about anarcho-capitalism and commenting that their apparel was charmingly evocative of old school punk and "Oh by the way did you guys know that Joey Ramone did a favorable song about the stock market?" Then I tell em that anarchists should never initiate force. I'm feeling some serious hostility as I walk over to snag a gyro salad. As I walk back and reinsert myself among them, a couple of em start regaling me with stories of how their spiked wrist bands can rip the flesh offa people's faces. I act as annoyingly unintimidated as I can and one of em spits on the ground next to me and informs me that what ever I do to my salad, their gonna do to me...So remembering Richard Pryor, I kiss my gyro salad!

[mediageek]

Rick, I would have paid good money to have watched that exchange.

[The Real Bill]

Oh and Bill -- if V didn't strike you as insane then you must be also. Spoiler Alert: I mean, come on, no one not clinically anti-social could actually torture someone for their own good, much less someone they were in love with. There's just no way.

Ventifact,

Have you actually observed what people who claim to love one another do to each other? I'd call it torture, and so would many others.

[bigbigslacker]

Go easy on 'em. Most of us have gone through weird phases in our lives. As for myself, I voted for Michael Dukakis in the first election I was old enough to vote in. At least now I'm "throwing my vote away" on something that makes some sort of sense...I think.

[The Wine Commonsewer]

So, Rick, was Richard Pryor a good kisser? I mean before the coke exploded and all.

[Deus ex Machina]

Funny thing about these left-anarchists. They always root for the leftist team to win, but once that happens, they usually turn out the be the first against the wall.

[DB]

There wasn't much indication in the movie version of V for Vendetta that V was an anarchist. He was pretty much just pro-democracy.

The comic version was definitely an anarchist, and also quite definitely insane.

[Guy]

[i]I mean, come on, no one not clinically anti-social could actually torture someone for their own good[/i]

O RLY?
[A[/A]

[Ventifact]

Bill -- well that's true, you have me there, people in love or claiming to be do "torture" each other in various ways. But I think we'd still have to end up looking at the specifics of V's actions and conclude that he was insane. For one thing, he had basically abolished his own personal identity, which is something even the most idealist normal people don't do. This helped him ignore his own feelings of compassion and behave as an entity driven by only rationality in acheiving his two-part goal of vengeance and liberation for England. In other words he did not behave as a human; this is what we see in his ability to systematically mislead and torture (in the most conventional sense of the word, not something to do with lovers' mindgames or domestic violence) Evey for weeks on end,* and this action without any grounding in humanity or human identity is very much sociopathic/antisocial, i.e. insane.

*I think. I don't remember how long she was held prisoner by V, but it seemed to be quite some time, in any event.

[Umbriel]

Brian Doherty -- Your comment regarding Moose's "Duh" as mere verbal tick reminds me of this exchange between Mr. Burns and the oafish "Ox" in the classic "Fighting Hellfish" episode of the Simpsons:
---
Burns: Then it's agreed. Of course, we can't sell the paintings now, we'd be caught. How many of you are familiar with the concept of a "tontine"?

[all stare at him, until Ox raises his hand]

Burns: All right, Ox. Why don't you take us through it?

Ox: Duh, essentially, we all enter into a contract whereby the last surviving participant becomes the sole possessor of all them purty pictures.

Burns: Well put, Oxford.

[James Anderson Merritt]

"You can't blame them for being a little miffed that a big-budget action movie has probably done more to pique folks' interest in anarchist ideas than a lifetime of passing out mimeographed pamphlets."

So where is the libertarian action movie that renders all previous LP activity redundant? That would be sweet!

[Netizien_J]

>So where is the libertarian action movie that renders all previous LP activity redundant? That would be sweet!>So where is the libertarian action movie that renders all previous LP activity redundant? That would be sweet!<<br />
Perhaps they should make 'Stranger in a Strange Land' into a movie.

Then again, maybe not....

N_J

[Lowdog]

The girl in question is attractive, but I didn't do anything with her becaues I'm currently involved with someone. (And boy, is that ever hard for me to do.)

But thanks for all the concern, people! 🙂

[Ruthless]

Lowdog,
I think you should cheat on your girlfriend, and tell only us here. Our lips are sealed.

[joshua corning]

what was that quote from...and what was that quote:

You can't beat the US becouse they will take your disaffection and your rebelion and package it in a DVD and sell it back to you for 19.95

or something or other...