The Patriot Act (And final blog!)

I remember the first time I seriously researched the Patriot Act. It was for my government class during my senior year of high school. I remember that I had a crazy conservative Republican teacher who I constantly argued with. We had to write a position paper on the Patriot Act. I wrote that I supported it because I was scared of terrorism. I still am scared of terrorism, but my viewpoints have changed slightly. 

I don't support the Bush Administration. I think it's been a complete failure. However, I really don't see what my fellow Democrats are making such a big deal out of. I want to feel safe when I travel, when my friends and family travel and when I'm in large cities or other "terrorism prone areas." Isn't it the job of the government to protect its citizens from hard? 

I really don't think that an obscenely large number of my civil liberties are being compromised. The way that I think of it is this: Do I have anything to hide? No. My record is clean so I really don't care who traces my phone calls or listens to my voicemail. At best, they'll find a voicemail from my mother reminding me to do my homework and get some sleep. 

It makes me think that the people who are so concerned about this DO have something to hide.

However, I'm a white, middle class girl from rural New York. I don't have to worry about be racially profiled. I think that if that were the case, I would probably completely change my position. I guess it's a little hypocritical on my part.  

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

After reading Brave New World, the chapters that stick out most in my mind are the final two, in which John Savage and Mustapha Mond have a philosophical argument. 

Mond quotes the French philosopher Maine di Biran. The quote says that religion is in response to the threat of loss, old age, and death. I agree with this statement. Mond points out that in this  World State society, there is no old age, loss or death. Therefore, there is no need for religion. John believes that if the people of the World State found religion, they would give up their pleasurable vices and become chaste and moral. 

John claims that God is the reason for "everything noble and fine and heroic." I agreed with John's views until he expressed this viewpoint. I consider myself agnostic, yet I am definitely a moral person. In fact, I practice a lot of the values that Christianity preaches, I just don't use God to justify my beliefs. They're more personal. 

Mond responds with his belief that, "Christianity without tears-that's what soma is." I think that this is one of the most important quotes of the novel. People in the society are obsessed with soma, to the point that many religious people today are obsessed with their religion. With the amount of radical religious people in the world (Radical Evangelicals in the South and Radical Muslims come to mind automatically), it made me wonder if soma is an acceptable replacement for organized religion. With the amount of damage that humans have inflicted on each other in the name of religion (9/11, the Crusades, to name a few), maybe the whole soma idea isn't a bad one after-all. 

V for Vendetta

I was really excited to learn that we would be watching V for Vendetta in class. I have only seen it once before, and it was during a sleepover where gossip was more important than actually watching the movie. It was nice to be able to see it again when I could actually pay attention and understand what was going on. I loved it.  

One of the quotes that I found to be significant was- 

"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." 

-V

To me, V's vendetta proves that people who are wronged in horrific ways by their government will seek vengeance. I think that considering the state of the world at the moment, a similar, but less well meaning threat is also possible.

V wanted to blow up Parliament and wreck havoc in order to free London's citizens from the fear of living under Adam Sutler's oppressive government. However, that is not always the motivation behind acts of terrorism, which is how Sutler's government defined V's actions. While I agree with V's actions because his overall intent was good (I guess in this particular situation the end does justify the means), I think that his obsessive mindset can be immensely dangerous when people with the wrong intentions start thinking that way. 

The plot of this movie is so involved that I would be interested in seeing it a view more times so that I could better grasp all of the minute details of the intent, viewpoints and beliefs of the characters.