V for Voluntary

Today is November fifth, two thousand and twelve Ano Domini. Happy fifth! V for Vendetta came out in 2005, and I have remembered the gun powder, the treason and plot ever since. The film is full to the brim with scenes that are memorable, but my favorite was the audience's introduction to V. He saves the distressed damsel and delves into a deepening chasm of poetry. Alternating rhythm, unforgivingly elitist verbosity abetted by a British accent and an assiduous alliteration schema make this my favorite scene of any movie. Here it is.

"V for Vendetta's" theme is so manifestly antiauthoritarian, and popular, that I deem it unfruitful to do a line by line analysis on the subject. The fifth of November draws my attention, every year, to the largess of Leviathan, and my tolerance thereof. This is my way of tracking my intellectual development. This year marks a change not only in degree, but in kind.

I grew up in a Bill Clinton supporting centrist household. In fifth grade we had a timely mock presidential election. I voted for Al Gore and he won. History turned out a little differently. Fast forward to high school where I knew that those in authority were doing something wrong. I had been listening to Immortal Technique and reading through the propaganda of the 4th branch. I was antiwar and pro-civil liberties. At the time I identified as a Democrat, because of the monstrous bigotry and warmongering that I saw in the Republican Party. During the 2007 presidential debates I was exposed to the hushing of antiwar voices. Rep. Dennis Kucinich was the only Democrat that was antiwar, the others merely payed lip service to peace.

My cerebellum received a shock when I listened to the arguments of one Dr. Ronald Paul. It was the first time in my life I found myself agreeing with the political arguments of an elderly white man. It was what I needed to shake stereotypes out of me. Dr. Paul espoused antiwar and pro-civil liberties positions. The other Republicans were atrocious in comparison, but what surprised me was that I liked what Dr. Paul had to say more than any party's proposed candidates. Another confusion arose in me when I realized that my friends and family did not feel the same. They had attachments to the welfare state, the regulatory state, the military industrial complex and the pharmaceutical industrial complex. I was indifferent to welfare and regulations, because their proponents did not ground their arguments in natural rights. The potency of natural rights is what had drawn me to antiwar ideas and the body politick itself.

My college years involved following Dr. Paul's career and flipping through suggested readings from him. I became active in the college libertarian group and joined the university's debate team. The exchange of ideas I participated in drove me farther and farther from the State. The impotency of Statist arguments did not satisfy my desire for a consistent philosophy.

Over the past year I have been dangling on the thin line between minarchy and anarchy. Now I am resolutely a voluntarist/voluntaryist. No governing structure is just unless one can opt in or out voluntarily, without the threat or instantiation of aggression.

But I digress. Here is my ode to the movie.

View "V for Vendetta" through this vent that vividly venerates voluntary association, victimizes villains & Leviathan's ventriloquists and vociferously portrays sublime scenes of vengeance as vivaciously as a venomous volcano erupting on Venetian villages. Here