V for Vendetta masks: Who’s behind them?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15359735
From New York, to London, to Sydney, to Cologne, to Bucharest, there has been a wave of protests against politicians, banks and financial institutions.
Anybody watching coverage of the demonstrations may have been struck by a repeated motif – a strangely stylised mask of Guy Fawkes with a moustache and pointy beard.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrived at the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest to make a speech wearing one of these masks. He took it off, reportedly at the insistence of the police.
They were thought to have been used first by the notorious hacker-activist group Anonymous in 2008 during a protest against Scientology, but have since spread throughout the global protest movement.
The masks are from the 2006 film V for Vendetta where one is worn by an enigmatic lone anarchist who, in the graphic novel on which it is based, uses Fawkes as a role model in his quest to end the rule of a fictional fascist party in the UK.
Early in the book V destroys the Houses of Parliament by blowing it up, something Fawkes had planned and failed to do in 1605.
British graphic novel artist David Lloyd is the man who created the original image of the mask for a comic strip written by Alan Moore. Lloyd compares its use by protesters to the way Alberto Korda’s famous photograph of Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara became a fashionable symbol for young people across the world.
“The Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient placard to use in protest against tyranny – and I’m happy with people using it, it seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way,” he says.
A curious Lloyd visited the Occupy Wall Street protest in Zuccotti Park, New York, to have a look at some of the people wearing his mask.
“My feeling is the Anonymous group needed an all-purpose image to hide their identity and also symbolise that they stand for individualism – V for Vendetta is a story about one person against the system.”
The film of V for Vendetta ends with an image of a crowd of Londoners all wearing Guy Fawkes masks, unarmed and marching on parliament.
It is that image of collective identification and simultaneous anonymity that is appealing to Anonymous and other groups, says Rich Johnston, a commentator on the world of comics.
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if you havent..you should watch V for Vendetta..see if you can find symbols in it..its not hard..
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“if you havent..you should watch V for Vendetta”…watch where, on what, I have’nt seen it on the movie guide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_(film)
I don’t know how I missed this one, but I did, Think it will go into reruns on the tube like on TV? Or has it run its course with the Politburo of the United States of the world?
still very relevant dan..
Just watched it again today on cable G4 channel. Put me in a horrible mood, as I am sure it was meant to.
There is much truth in the movie, yet, I felt like it was made to serve a purpose, perhaps for today. The whole ‘Bishop’ scene, very true in light of all the pedophile crimes that have been exposed in the church. Obviously Fascist nazis, in powerful positions. Also, very believable, considering so many were brought to the states and other countries by the church and governments.
Interesting too was the hatred of gays. There is something about this movie, when watching it again today, knowing what I know now of how the world works, that puts it all in such a different light.
The elite want nothing more than to have the ‘people of the world’ out in the street to protest.. but for what purpose?
Is this their best opportunity for their New World/One World Government, or will this end with pretend ‘heroes’ too, once they are finished plundering the other side of the world?
the people divided can never be united..
imho ‘they’ want the m asses to revolt i don’t know it be to put in practice 1 all the “call and call”c onspiracies about c amps and more or
just simple because ‘they’ don’t know and other way for ‘they’ is at repeat and ‘they’ want to repeat history, booth are possible , bet on the 2 one and ‘they’ have it ready with the 1 one
was on G4 tday cool
I also love that movie… have watched it several times. But the only revolution that will truly work is to educate the masses. Protests and demonstrations are too easy for the elites to co-op.
your spot on..and heres another interesting point..how many revolutions have produced true democracies?