1 post tagged “college hw”

I always believed that for a certain act to become moral, the circumstance, purpose, and act per se, must be moral too. However, upon watching this movie, I started to believe otherwise.

There is more to the movie, V for Vendetta, than its gory and violent presentation. It showcased one person’s passion and perseverance in trying to deviate from the flow of society’s norms for the betterment of his country. On the other hand, it presented how corrupt and evil one’s government can become if given enough power.

 V tried to change the current system because he knew how controlling the government has become over its people. It isn’t right to instill fear in people in order to gain power over them. Nor is it right to kill innocent lives in an attempt to scare people into the belief that the best decision is to keep the current government since it is capable of keeping them safe. That is deception.

This kind of deception—corruption—is evident in any existing government in the world. They only differ in the level of corruption the certain government has attained. It is quite depressing that the Philippines is victim of quite an alarming level of corruption among government officials. Though, it is a consolation that the kind of deception the Philippine government does is not the kind of deception presented in the movie… Or so we think? The most that the government does, to our knowledge, is keep public funds in their private pockets… That is to say, steal our money.

“People should not be afraid of their governments, government should be afraid of their people.” If only this kind of mentality exists in every human being living in the planet, there would not be any kind of suppression in any form. However, it is undeniably true when I say that Filipinos still, to some extent, believe in this. People Power revolutions and rallies are evidences that people in the Philippines are not afraid to voice out their opinions, even with the threat of being imprisoned or worse, killed.

But then again, the official paper of UP, known for being outspoken regardless of the odds, has reportedly kept quiet for some time. To say that people are not afraid of their governments now, would be some sort of a joke seeing as more and more people are beginning to submit themselves under governmental authority. And so I ask… Why?

“Violence can be used for good… Justice.” V may not have used peaceful means in accomplishing his plan, but one thing is for sure, he succeeded. He successfully persuaded people of his nation to revolt against their corrupt and controlling government. It is my personal belief that what he did is right, regardless of the means. True, it is morally wrong to sacrifice a few in order to benefit the many. But, would you really consider it a sacrifice to kill someone who oppressed and controlled you to such an extent that the consequences are many suffering innocent people? I call this, not a sacrifice, but a form of retribution—justice.

However, I still believe in the peaceful means. The only difference with the situation in the movie is that, their government has taken advantage of the power it has gained, to the extent of abuse. Usually, the just way in reforming immoral people is through the judicial system and the so-called due process. However, how do you reform immoral people if these are the same people implementing the rules and trying criminals in court? This is the case of the movie; people of that nation are helpless because they have become too submissive to the government.

Moreover, it would be nice to see a peaceful revolution to work. Such an example of this is the Edsa People Power I, which is known as a glorious and bloodless revolution. I would like to see that work in our corrupt government right now seeing as attempts of revolting seem to be useless. Even Rizal’s attempt in persuading people to revolt through his seditious novels failed, only leading to his demise. It took Filipinos a few decades before they were able to free the from the control of any colonial country. If only Edsa I would prove feasible in our country, which obviously is not, then there would not be any need for a violent means of revolution. 

 “I wish I believe that was possible. But every time I see this world change, it’s always for the worse.” The thing is with people is that they need to be pushed strongly before they start to act, or worse, before they realize that there must be something wrong with what is happening around them. Such is the case in this movie. If that child had not been shot, nobody would even bother to complain about the twisted government that heads their country.

Though I do admit that the killings V had to do in order to accomplish his plan were immoral, there existed, to my belief, no other feasible and peaceful means of doing it. Robin-hooding is wrong, but the case of V and his country’s government is not curable by mere seditious novels, especially when the Chancellor can have a person killed at any time, for any unjustified reason his twisted mind can come up with.

As for the case of the Philippines, I believe we do not have to resort to extreme measures. Many Filipinos still possess hope within themselves. Many of them still believe that there will be a better future for the Philippines… All we have to do is to act on immoral governmental actions, and wait for the (hopefully good) results.