I've just found myself re-reading V for Vendetta.

It's really an astonishing work. It leads me to conclude nothing else than Alan Moore is a genius.

http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/_images/misc/Danblog/V.jpg

But there's something that bothers me.

I've flip-flopped through a couple of different political persuasions. And
the one I arrived as anarchism.

You know anarchism. It's that non-political political ideal. The one we say
can never work.

I mean just look at me. It's not like I could ever decide anything for
myself.

Thank goodness there's a little cabal of people out there deciding things
for me.

Because, without them I'd just be wandering around mass-murdering, nicking like
a bandit, declaring war,and listening to Simply Red.

Well perhaps not listening to Simply Red.

That's would be silly. Just like anarchism.

And on re-reading V for Vendetta I suddenly realised Moore wasn't advocating
what I thought he was.

He‘s essentially saying, while anarchism says it's better, it's still a political force. And as a political force its biggest power, its only power is destruction.

In Moore’s work the character V says anarchism has two faces, the first destruction and the second creation. V represents the destructive power of anarchism. He breaks down the fascist ruling Government. He tells his protégé Evey she represents creation. And when she takes on the mask you expect that she’ll start creating a new and perfect society.

But we don't see her create anything.

She follows V. Like V she blows stuff up. She read his books. She listens to his music. She lives in his house, she wears his mask, and she waters his roses.

And in the destruction she does nothing to stop she completes the circle by
finding her own neophyte.

She doesn't create. She repeats an endless cycle of destruction.

In V's words she exists in the lands of Do As Thou Wilt not the world of Do
As You Please.

So what do we take from this. We know democracy doesn't work. It is the rule
of the majority after all, defining itself against a repressed minority. We know fascism doesn't work, because well, in short it has loads of sex appeal and no fun. And there's anarchism. Which, according to V, is two faced - and one of those faces
can't even be bothered to turn up.