November 5, 2011

Guy Fawkes Day in a Guy Fawkes mask.

So it's Guy Fawkes Day today. What are you going to do in your Guy Fawkes mask?
Now -- more than four hundred years after the gruesome death of the man who plotted to blow up the Houses of Parliament with barrels of gunpowder -- members of the Occupy and Anonymous movements are hoping to provide their own reason to remember Guy Fawkes Night.

On Saturday, November 5, hundreds of protesters wearing the sinister black and white Guy Fawkes masks plan to march on Parliament in central London.

"It will be a night our government never forgets," Malcolm, a member of hacker group Anonymous, said with a smile. "Our government should be expecting us."...
So... people wearing the masks are threatening violence?
"They're very meaningful masks," said Alexandra Ricciardelli, who was rolling cigarettes on a table outside her tent in New York's Zuccotti Park two days before the anniversary of Fawkes' failed bombing attempt.

"It's not about bombing anything; it's about being anonymous – and peaceful."

To the 20-year-old from Keyport, New Jersey, the Fawkes mask "is about being against The Man – the power that keeps you down."....
Uh... that sounds really stupid. Maybe call up a professor and find out what he says:
"You can seize hold of it for any political purpose you want," [said Lewis Call, an assistant history professor at California Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo.] "That's the real power of it."...

"Gradually over the centuries, the meaning of Guy Fawkes has dramatically changed... The reputation of Guy Fawkes has been recuperated. Before he was originally seen as a terrorist trying to destroy England. Now he's seen more as a freedom fighter, a fighter for individual liberty against an oppressive regime. The political meaning of that figure has transformed."
Fawkes is Fawkes, but don't forget: A mask is a mask:
"People hide behind the masks, put the masks on and their identity is hidden. Therefore they can do a lot more than they would if they didn't have the masks," [said a 33-year-old man at Occupy London who didn't want to be named] after emerging sleepy-eyed from his tent.

42 comments:

Sydney said...

I always thought Guy Fawkes Day was an excuse for Englishmen to burn Catholics in effigy once a year.

David said...

Better than burning actual Catholics.

Anonymous said...

I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.

Toad Trend said...

Self-identification is something leftists are very good at.

No exception here.

caplight said...

That professor sounds like Ben Stein talking to Jim Carey in the Mask. Profound.

DADvocate said...

"is about being against The Man – the power that keeps you down."....

It is really stupid. There is no "The Man." The person who keeps you down more than anyone else is yourself. The world isn't fair, never was, never will be. Get over it.

Set goals and strive to meet them. Studies have shown those who set goals and work on meeting them do much better on average than others.

It's emblematic of the #ows movement that they don't have any clear goals or defined purpose. It displays the mental attitude that got these people into the bottom 1% to begin with.

Peter V. Bella said...

In the immortal words of former Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley- "It's just silly, it's silly, just silly."

DerTakhsit said...

I figured the mask came to OWS via V for Vendetta, graphic novel and movie. Recuperated there as symbol of resistance to authoritarian regime.

ricpic said...

A penny for the old Guy. What's this then, a farthing? Cheesy bastard!

Sam vfm #111 said...

It is just the standard leftist fear of having to take responsibly for their own actions.

Todd G. said...

I'm planning on burning 'Guy' with a bunch of retired British army officers. Heaps of fun, really.

Psychedelic George said...

I asked my 17-old-daughter just two days ago if she knew who Fawkes was.

No idea.

Probably same with Che. (Which is why Colbert went to the Occupy thing dressed as Che.) And Mao. And other such cool people.

SGT Ted said...

Yes, lets identify with a mad bomber targetting his own govenrment, then claim we're "peaceful" and "non-violent".

PaulV said...

Guy Fawkes was a papist theocrat. Why do the occupiers embrace him?

Scott M said...

With the unfocused mess known as OWS., you can probably expect unfocused and ineffective shinanigans.

PaulV said...

The mask has much in common with the KKK hood. Liberal Fascists have much in common with those democrat party fascists.

Jim said...

I think I'll give a mask to each of my teen age sons and then tell them I'll draw and quarter them if they don't clean their rooms.

edutcher said...

"Gradually over the centuries, the meaning of Guy Fawkes has dramatically changed... The reputation of Guy Fawkes has been recuperated."

Those centuries have really only been about 10 years. And, yes, this is about glorifying terrorism.

The Commies' favorite weapon.

sydney said...

I always thought Guy Fawkes Day was an excuse for Englishmen to burn Catholics in effigy once a year.

They've never needed an excuse for that.

PS What DADvocate said.

In spades.

Tim said...

DADvocate said...

"It is really stupid. There is no "The Man." The person who keeps you down more than anyone else is yourself. The world isn't fair, never was, never will be. Get over it."

Indeed so. But if we didn't have people who slough off their failings on the rest of society, we wouldn't have alienated, angry liberals looking to public power to steal goodies for them they didn't earn.

Notwithstanding children and adolescents, imagine a world in which everyone took personal responsibility for their own happiness.

Yeah, I can't see it either...some people are hardwired to blame others for their problems.

TosaGuy said...

From "Mars Attacks"

"We come in peace......"

Tyrone Slothrop said...

When these kids are old and fat and conservative, with their tattoos hanging down around their ankles, they'll have a good, nostalgic laugh about the old days, maybe dust off the old Guy Fawkes mask, and ponder what fools they once were. This is as certain as the sun rising in the east.

Unknown said...

The sooner we get to the violence phase of this theater piece, the sooner we can end it.

new york said...

well, my skin is drooping and i do think about the old days when we protested in college, but I don't feel foolish about it at all, I am proud for the sacrifices I made and the risks I took to make my point of view heard, and I am proud that we bought an end to the Viet Nam war.

Tim said...

"...and I am proud that we bought an end to the Viet Nam war."

That's funny.

I wonder what myths I'll tell myself when I'm in my dotage?

Anonymous said...

'new york said...
well, my skin is drooping and i do think about the old days when we protested in college, but I don't feel foolish about it at all, I am proud for the sacrifices I made and the risks I took to make my point of view heard, and I am proud that we bought an end to the Viet Nam war.
_____________________

Yes, you were very brave (cough).

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

It's just V for Vendetta.

cassandra lite said...

Poll question: What percentage of OWSers know (a) what century he lived in, and (b) that he wanted to restore the authority of the papacy over England?

My guess is that the answer would require a decimal point on the left.

Palladian said...

Huh...

I didn't remember...

the fifth...

of November!

BOOM

J said...

The sockpup. derailing via mumbling as usual


Guy Fawkes was not exactly a ..bomb-throwing anarchist. He was a catholic-royalist (pro-Stuart, IIRC--and ally with the french) opposed to the Hanoverians and (and Cromwell's thugs). Perhaps ..the IRA (or OWS) might consider him an ancient ally, but not really marxist.

Carol said...

"has been recuperated"?

I think he means "rehabilitated." Or "resurrected," or what?

J said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Christopher said...

Regarding Vietnam,

The US military successfully brought an end to the Vietnam War by destroying the ability of the VC to destabilize and overthrow the Southern Govt.

With the VC destroyed the US began withdrawing military forces, while promising intervention should the communists violated the treaty. However Congress refused to allow this, and barred it with Case-Church. This, coupled with an economic downturn, weakened the South and allowed the VC to regain strength.

Congress later decreased aid to Southern Vietnam at about the same time the North Vietnamese military formally invaded. The South begged for help but Congress refused, and thus Saigon fell.

So basically we were victorious and then pissed it all away (depending on who you ask we may be doing the same thing in Iraq right now).

J said...

Guido Fawkes also hated King James,that syphilitic-ridden calvinist-pig. Probably knew..one Bill Shakespeare (tho' WS did at times bless the Tudorians/protestants--probably because he might have lost his bloody head otherwise)

jeff said...

"I am proud that we bought an end to the Viet Nam draft and could stay in college smoking dope and banging hippie chicks." Fixed it for you. Since that's what killed all the protests.

traditionalguy said...

Fawkes was a secret Traitor working for the Pope who wanted to free England from Henry VIII's whore's daughter, called Queen Elizabeth. A Papal Bull gave a death warrant to Queen Elizabeth and promises of wealth and rule to who ever in England would commit treason and kill her. That was like a Christian Fatwah.

But the days of Rome's Papal power over the Kings in Europe is actually right on point again today as the shadow UN World Government acts on the roll of overlord deciding which kings/Presidents survive and which are assassinated.

Astro said...

OWS = Guy Faux.

sorepaw said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
David said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
David said...

I wouldn't trust US history profs on Guy Fawkes too much. Prof. Thomas Laqueur, in a UC Berkeley podcast, tells his students that in the UK children sell effigies of Guy on the street - they don't, they make effigies and then ask for money from passers by as a reward for their efforts: it's a mild, socially-sanctioned form of begging. The Guy is later burnt on a bonfire.

I heard the same mistake on the podcast 'Stuff You Missed in History Class'. Perhaps the presenters went to Berkeley.

showbiz111 said...

Didn't the libmedia decry Glenn Beck for his November 8 project (which I believe was an election day project, claiming he was a terrorist because the day happened to coincide with Guy Fawkes Day? That was unintentional but the media latched onto it to try to drum the DoJ into investigating tea partiers as "terrorists". Yet here we have intentional (well as intentional as these brain dead thugs can muster) identification with terrorist actions, and because it is socialism/communism that the libmedia sees as the beneficiary of the actions, they commend it as "idealism" (conservatives can never be idealists, because only communists and socialist have worthy ideals, it seems). What rot.

Fen said...

I am proud that we bought an end to the Viet Nam war.

3 million people were executed because of your pride. Do you see their faces at night?

Google Cambodian Genocide.

When you're done, look up "Little Eichmanns"

*spits*

Duncan said...

It's nice to know that the Catholic Church has gained so many allies in its struggles against the scourge of Protestantism...

Who'd a thunk it?