Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition! The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.
[laughs] Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honour to meet you and you may call me "V".- Codename: V
November 5th is my favorite holiday. I know, I'm odd. But it's a reason to celebrate that is (for an American like me) outside the norm. And who doesn't like to burn stuff? More significantly for a history buff like myself, it's a time to gather among friends and tell the tale of Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder plot.
We celebrate Guy Fawkes Night every November 5th, and watch V for Vendetta, which has given Fawkes' reputation a shiny new look as of late - not to mention that it's inspired the more revolutionary-minded to turn Fawkes' visage into a symbol of rebellion against tyrrany and oppression. Whether Guy Fawkes was truly the devil tharted in his terrorist's attempt to kill the King, or a heroic freedom fighter in his bold attempt to destroy Parliament, is up for debate. A tertium quid exists as well: perhaps there is no hero in the story of the Gunpowder Plot. Perhaps both parties were fueled by religious zealotry and bigotry, and one evil was used to stop another evil. Regardless, we see in the story of the Gunpowder Plot the influences of religion. Unfortunately, such influences exist still today.
This November 5th has an added significance, with Occupy Wall Street still going strong. The smiling face of Guy Fawkes has been rather ubiquitous lately, well before any November 5th celebrations started. OWS was born from the inescapable feeling that, as Codename: V said, "something is terribly wrong with this country." In the spirit of world changers like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, non-violent protest has broken out in the name of positive change.
Our nation has survived because the influence of pure Adam Smithian capitalism and Marxian socialism have teeter-tottered back and forth when needed throughout our nation's history. Capitalism is fine, but runs the risk of making people forget that no person is an island. We are all dependent upon each other, and even those people who claim they "pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and made something of their lives all on their own" still needed other people in order to become successful. We're all interconnected. If anyone is going to become successful, it's because that person has either a product or a service that people want or need. The business person needs those people. She needs them to want her product or require her service. To make money, she needs other people to give her money. Necessarily, then, her success is not merely dependent upon herself. Each person is intrinsically bound to the other members of her society. Capitalism carries with it the danger that people will forget our solidarity. In such a scenario, people become a means to an end, and if someone has to get screwed in order to achieve success, well... you can't win a game of Chess without sacrificing a few pawns, right?
The people are occupying Wall Street (and other places) because the 1% have so much wealth that they are hoarding for themselves. Our economy works when money is flowing. People who have millions of dollars locked away doing nothing aren't helping the economy - or the rest of society - at all. The financial disproportion is hurting us. That so few have so much while the majority of us are struggling to make ends meet is not only unhealthy, but disheartening.
"But I earned that money!" some will argue. Sure, but once again our capitalist mindset has caused us to forget that we're not independent. We are a group, a collective, a society intrinsically bound to each other. We are necessarily contingent beings. Sure Mr. 1%, maybe you did "earn that money." But how many millions of dollars do you need? How many hungry people do you walk by each day as you make your way to the office? Like it or not, we're all in this together. Don't get pissy if we need to tax your excess amount of income. Think about it: it's your excess. You have so much more than you need, and more than you'll ever use. I'm hoping I don't need hospitalized time soon (i.e., in the next 10-15 years or so) because I'm broke as it is from the medical bills I have currently, and anything more serious would break me completely.
And there are people worse off than me - a lot of people much worse off. The bottom line is, if one person is living in excess while others are suffering and dying because they lack basic needs, them the system is broken. What's the answer? We take the power away from those who have abused it. While Congress wastes time giving religion a hand job while ignoring the important issues, noble people are speaking out, trying to do what most of our politicians refuse to do: actually fix our problems. Now is the time to vow "to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition!" Make this a Fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot.
