A time to stir

I have always been interested in history and revolution. What should be the relationship between rebellion to reclaim liberty on the one hand, and order that preserves liberty's credit on the other? That is, what is the proper balance between autonomy and authority? I have yet to resolve this abiding contradiction. Resigned, then, to straddling this divide for the foreseeable future, I was delighted to watch "V for Vendetta" over the weekend. \nFor those who don't know (yet), the film tells the story of totalitarian England circa 2025. It begins by recounting the plot of Guy Fawkes to slay King James I by means of a gunpowder blast, foiled only by his arrest in the cellars below Parliament on Nov. 5, 1605. After this treacherous introduction, the scene shifts to England as if it was modeled on Orwell's "1984," rather than the other way around.\nThe protagonist, a freedom fighter known only as V, comes to the aid of the good-hearted Evey Hammond, who is manhandled by villains on the payroll of the secret police. Together they mark Nov. 5 as the day to inspire (in Trotskyist lingo) a revolution from below and to lead one from above. The choice of that date might befuddle those who look down upon England's most notorious traitor (or, depending on your perspective, the only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions), but the line between high treason and the most elevated patriotism can often \nbe very thin.\nHollywood has explored this theme before. In at least two superb films ("The Rock" and "National Treasure"), ostensible traitors conspire to remind us what patriotism is really about. Interestingly, both flicks conjure the example of the immortal men we now call our Founding Fathers who took up arms and were then summarily branded as traitors. \nA word is in order about the film's blatant anti-Americanism. One could be forgiven for thinking that America and Britain -- both bastions of ordered liberty -- have earned the right to be considered anti-totalitarian forces. Instead, these are precisely the nations singled out for ridicule. Boiled down, then, the night-watchman state, the power worship and, above all, the terror, are all too well-portrayed even to seem plausible in the Anglo societies. The screenwriters might have been studying their Orwell, in which case they humbly make no show of their own \nlearning. \nIn this subtle and revolutionary way, "V for Vendetta" argues against defenders of totalitarianism and exhorts us all to employ remorseless force against them; I must say I agree with what I'm sure the film didn't intend to impart. In pursuit of both a personal vendetta and revolutionary change in a dystopian state, V utters his fighting creed: "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." The irreducible Mr. Bush set the bar slightly higher in his latest National Security Strategy: "Though tyranny has few advocates, it needs more adversaries." \nAmericans are justly proud of their revolutionary tradition as oppositionists to tyranny. And if this ever be treason, as the patriot Patrick Henry once counseled, "Make the most of it"