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V for vendetta marxist medai theory analysis

Mehtap Malumbo
Mehtap Malumbo

The document provides a Marxist analysis of the film V for Vendetta. It analyzes how the film portrays several key Marxist concepts such as class conflict, hegemony, ideology, and false consciousness. Several scenes from the movie are discussed in relation to these concepts. For example, one scene shows how the mass media is used to spread the dominant ideology and create false consciousness among the public. Overall, the document argues that the film serves as a reflection of how the ruling class uses tools like the government and media to manipulate the proletariat and maintain the status quo of capitalism.

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The Gunpowder Plot: The Light at the End of Tunnel By Mehtap Malumbo For MMC220 Theories of Mass Communication Faculty of Communication, Izmir University of Economics (Fall 2009)
Abstract This paper analyses the Matrixs series producers V for Vendetta film. The paper attempts to relate Marxist media concepts such as hegemony, false consciousness, ideology, with focus on capitalism and class struggle. The film serves as a mirror to project the Marxism concepts onto our thoughts. Lack of sufficient English resources to support this work motivated the use of materials translated to Turkish from originals of different languages. The analysis starts with true origin of the films and moves on to portray the Marxists concepts with help of various scenes. The last paragraph concludes by putting forward personal opinion about the film with respect to Marxism media concepts. Key Words: Class Conflict, Hegemony, Ideology, Class struggle, mass media, legitimizing government acts, dominant class, false consciousness 2
The Gunpowder Plot: The Light at the End of Tunnel Introduction The Gunpowder Plot named after the conspiracy to blow up the Houses of Parliament on 5 November 1605. The detonation was to take place on State Opening day, when the King, Lords and Commons would all be present in the Lords Chamber. Fawkes, remembered wrongly as the principal conspirator, was a minor cog in the wheel. The plot was discovered through an anonymous letter. On the 4th of November search was made of Parliament and Fawkes was found with the gunpowder and arrested. He was tried and sentenced to death by hanging. Fawkes was executed on 31st January. Ever since, The 5 th November is variously called 'Firework Night', 'Bonfire Night' or 'Guy Fawkes Day'. It is custom for Britain on, or around, 5th November to let off fireworks and children to make effigies of Fawkes. A dedicated web site is at UK Parliament (10th, January, 2010). V for vendetta is the film based on this episode that depicts the future of capitalism. V For Vendetta : Looking At The Media Throgh Marxist Window The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles (Collin 2008: 201). The history of societies is actually the history of conflicting classes, the oppressor and the oppressed; both sides have stood in constant opposition to one another. This conflict occurs openly or behind the scenes, and is bound to end through revolution or with the extinction of one of the conflicting classes. Each class is defined by its influence to the economy (also known as power). Each class protects its interest within the economy. Capitalists interest is to protect the governing power and increase profit. The so called 3
class conflict includes all the conflicting interests and the struggle between the capitalists and proletariat. The capitalists, who own the economic power, create hegemony over the governing institution and its subordinates thus affecting the attitude, values, personality types and culture of a given society. They shape the society to their needs (Ollman, 2006). They impose their own values and ideas. They construct the social existence. The Societys social existence determines the consciousness. As Marx puts it, as Capitalism conflicts become profound and intensifies thus can not be concealed, the proletariats become conscious of their interest, this forms the class consciousness. In such circumstances, neither class nor ideology hinders the proletariats true consciousness to act according to their interests. This situation leads to the so called revolution (Ollman, 2006). Dominant class spreads of its own ideologies through the mass media. Ideology means serving power. Ideologies are the wrong ideas legitimizing the ruling political class (Eagleton, 1991: 18). Societys ideology is determined by the social existence. Thus those who own the process manipulate societys ideology. Those who do not have their own ideology internalize that of the dominant class. The ruling class imposes their ideas to create hegemony, is a way of getting approval. Contract concept is derived from mutual approval between the capitalist and the proletariat. In democratic societies ruling class can not dictate their ideology hence use hegemony. Therefore people are focused to what the ruling classes wants. As a result, single minded ideologies are formed (Ollman, 2006). According to Marx, Ruling class members strugle against the process according to their understanding of that process using their ideology. Thus concealing the conflicts or the resolutions (Lefebvre, 2009). Mass media serves to camouflage the class differences and defend the rulling class from protelariat. The unique goal is to avoid class conflict and maintain political order. 4
Marxism not only interpretes the chaos today but suggests the way out of this chaos through class struggle (Ollman, 2006). Henri LeFebvre says, A French Marxist has taken the concept of class conflict and manipulation and developed it into the notion that people living in capitalist societies are living in a state of terror. First, any society with radical class differences, with a small privileged class at the top and a mass of people living in poverty, has to be maintained by compulsion and persuasion. Second, these class stratified socienties become over- repressive and develop sophisticated ways of masking repression and making unsuspecting individuals the instruments of their own repression and the repression of others. (Reading Brick 2009: 40) Engels establishes that governments are born from the society but stay at the top of society and is gradually alienated from society. Although governments result from the need to control the class conflicts and maintain order, it realizes these functions through fulfilling the interests of the ruling class (Aksoy, 1999). A Capitalist government legitimizes itself when delivering its functionalities by concealing the inequality and the privileged class. The goverments deviates the truth to disguise class struggles. The governments function to respresent the nation is exaggerated to camouflage its relationship to the ruling class and present it differently. Marx notes, There is an obvious relationship between a government and a dominant class, by definition, a government is a society's dominant institution (Collin, 2008). Analizing The Film V For Vendetta Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the British Parliament building on 5 November 1605 but he did not succeed. 400 years later V initiated an individual struggle against the authoritarian regime and his individual struggle becomes a nation struggle. Guy Fawkes wants to accomplish this ideology in the England of 2020. Hegemony , Ideology 5
My first step will be to consider the scene where, V and inspector meet. The Inspector, despite and order to drop the investigation goes ahead to search for the truth. V tells that the Goal is to make a profit from virus antidot. To serve the purpose hundreds of people die due to a virus. After the election virus antidot appears. This scene focuses on the relationship between government and dominant class. Mass media creates panic and chaos and alligns the societies ideology to that of the dominant class. Towards the end of the film, policemen shoot at V but he is still alive. The commander asks in a surprise why he does not die. V answers by saying: I am an ideology and ideologies never die. this emphasises that the ideologies are too strong, and never die by killing one person. Dominant class, define thoughts patterns. Adorno, Negative Dialectics says: the definitions which make the object concrete are merely imposed upon it this rule applies only where the faith in the primacy of subjectivity remains unshaken (Wayne, 2003: 155). False Consciousness In another scene, V goes to state TV channel, BTN, to call for revolution. V is hatched by police and Evey helps him. When V was fighting the police, Evey passes out. She wakes up at Vs house in fear and cries: God, what have I done? I maced that detective. Why did I do that? I shouldnt have done that. V says You did what you thought was right. Is that what you really think or what theyd want you to think? This scene orients us to Marx False Consciousness concept. Mass media spreads the dominant ideology creating false consciousnesses. Marx states: Our idea is not our own idea. An ideology that does not protect the interests of the society, one that does not belong to the society but the society accepting this ideology as its own shows false consciousness. Mass Media 6
In another scene the chancellor gives orders to have different statements made about Vs progress. The TV channel delivers what the government wants. The dialogue between the media employees portrays the power of the mass media. The scene shows that mass media are not impartial and they support dominant class and media ownership. You think people will buy this? Why not. This is BTN. Our job is to report the news, not fabricate it. That is the governments job. The media further conceals the truth from the society by delivering false news. A psychotic terrorist V, attacked the control booth with high-powered explosives and weapons that he used against unarmed civilians in order to broadcast a message of hate. It is believed that during this heroic raid the terrorist was shot and killed. False massages are broadcasted to suppress possible chaos or revolution. Mass media continuously publishes news which includes fear and chaos; War in the United States is moving to England, the Ministry plans to increase the prices of water coupons, and a new type of virus caused the death of 27 people. Fear and panic fuelled by the media, spreads quickly within the society. This fractured and divides the country hence the society elects a chancellor selected by the dominant class. Political and economic actors use mass media to influence public opinion. Class Conflict and Government Acts In another scene the camera zooms to the Chancellor when he aggressively addresses his audience: We stand on the edge of oblivision. I want everyone man, woman, child to understand how close we are to chaos. I want them to remember why they need us! A Government reverts to a we identity to hide the economic exploitation that roots the inequality resulted from social structure that divides the society into two opposing classes. To form such an identity internal personal differences are suppressed. On the outside, external differences are made prominent to maintain the suppress (Aksoy, 1999). This 7
statement implies we notion. This notion eliminates personal differences between people, individuality is removed. V and his advocates become others. "We" and "others" are sharply defined. Marx says, With Communism, nations, religions, geographic sectors, classes, professions, races and families will disappear. There will no longer be gender patterns and dominant class can no longer treat all as of the same gender pattern. Society is formed of individuals (Ollman, 2006). Conclusion It was the objective of this paper to shed some light to the societies past and the future by establishing the relationship between what is delivered in a film and what is targeted. My argument has been that the dominant class endeavours to manipulate the proletariat in the aim to increase their economic power thus maintaining their status quo. The dominant class uses the mass media and the government as the tools to spread their ideology hence creating hegemony. Additionally to suppress possible revolutions, and class conflicts the dominant shape the social structure through communality or individualisation. Society believes in ideologies that do not belong to them or do not serve their interests. It internalizes the dominant class ideology spread through mass media or government. This legitimizes the dominant class status quo. 8
List of References 1. Aksoy, H. (1999) Marksizmin Temel Kavramlar脹. Istanbul: Tohum. 2. Collin, D. (2008) Marx脹 Anlamak. In Erg端den, I. (Trans). Istanbul: Versus Kitap. 201 3. Eagleton, T. (1991) Ideology an Introduction. In zcan ,M. (Ed) Ideoloji. Istanbul: Ayr脹nt脹 yay脹nlar脹 :18 4. Lefebvre, H. (2009) Sosyalist D端nya G旦r端端 Marksizm. In G旦rsev, D. (Trans). Istanbul: Yordam Kitap. 5. MMC220 Theories Of Mass Communication Reading Brick. 2009. 6. Ollman, B. (2006) Marxsizme S脹ra D脹脹 Bir Giri. In Kars, A. (Trans). Istanbul: Yordam Kitap. 7. Wayne, M. (2003) Marxism and Media Studies. USA: Pluto Press. 155 8. http://www.parliament.uk/gunpowderplot/ (10th, January, 2010) 9

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V for vendetta marxist medai theory analysis

  • 1. The Gunpowder Plot: The Light at the End of Tunnel By Mehtap Malumbo For MMC220 Theories of Mass Communication Faculty of Communication, Izmir University of Economics (Fall 2009)
  • 2. Abstract This paper analyses the Matrixs series producers V for Vendetta film. The paper attempts to relate Marxist media concepts such as hegemony, false consciousness, ideology, with focus on capitalism and class struggle. The film serves as a mirror to project the Marxism concepts onto our thoughts. Lack of sufficient English resources to support this work motivated the use of materials translated to Turkish from originals of different languages. The analysis starts with true origin of the films and moves on to portray the Marxists concepts with help of various scenes. The last paragraph concludes by putting forward personal opinion about the film with respect to Marxism media concepts. Key Words: Class Conflict, Hegemony, Ideology, Class struggle, mass media, legitimizing government acts, dominant class, false consciousness 2
  • 3. The Gunpowder Plot: The Light at the End of Tunnel Introduction The Gunpowder Plot named after the conspiracy to blow up the Houses of Parliament on 5 November 1605. The detonation was to take place on State Opening day, when the King, Lords and Commons would all be present in the Lords Chamber. Fawkes, remembered wrongly as the principal conspirator, was a minor cog in the wheel. The plot was discovered through an anonymous letter. On the 4th of November search was made of Parliament and Fawkes was found with the gunpowder and arrested. He was tried and sentenced to death by hanging. Fawkes was executed on 31st January. Ever since, The 5 th November is variously called 'Firework Night', 'Bonfire Night' or 'Guy Fawkes Day'. It is custom for Britain on, or around, 5th November to let off fireworks and children to make effigies of Fawkes. A dedicated web site is at UK Parliament (10th, January, 2010). V for vendetta is the film based on this episode that depicts the future of capitalism. V For Vendetta : Looking At The Media Throgh Marxist Window The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles (Collin 2008: 201). The history of societies is actually the history of conflicting classes, the oppressor and the oppressed; both sides have stood in constant opposition to one another. This conflict occurs openly or behind the scenes, and is bound to end through revolution or with the extinction of one of the conflicting classes. Each class is defined by its influence to the economy (also known as power). Each class protects its interest within the economy. Capitalists interest is to protect the governing power and increase profit. The so called 3
  • 4. class conflict includes all the conflicting interests and the struggle between the capitalists and proletariat. The capitalists, who own the economic power, create hegemony over the governing institution and its subordinates thus affecting the attitude, values, personality types and culture of a given society. They shape the society to their needs (Ollman, 2006). They impose their own values and ideas. They construct the social existence. The Societys social existence determines the consciousness. As Marx puts it, as Capitalism conflicts become profound and intensifies thus can not be concealed, the proletariats become conscious of their interest, this forms the class consciousness. In such circumstances, neither class nor ideology hinders the proletariats true consciousness to act according to their interests. This situation leads to the so called revolution (Ollman, 2006). Dominant class spreads of its own ideologies through the mass media. Ideology means serving power. Ideologies are the wrong ideas legitimizing the ruling political class (Eagleton, 1991: 18). Societys ideology is determined by the social existence. Thus those who own the process manipulate societys ideology. Those who do not have their own ideology internalize that of the dominant class. The ruling class imposes their ideas to create hegemony, is a way of getting approval. Contract concept is derived from mutual approval between the capitalist and the proletariat. In democratic societies ruling class can not dictate their ideology hence use hegemony. Therefore people are focused to what the ruling classes wants. As a result, single minded ideologies are formed (Ollman, 2006). According to Marx, Ruling class members strugle against the process according to their understanding of that process using their ideology. Thus concealing the conflicts or the resolutions (Lefebvre, 2009). Mass media serves to camouflage the class differences and defend the rulling class from protelariat. The unique goal is to avoid class conflict and maintain political order. 4
  • 5. Marxism not only interpretes the chaos today but suggests the way out of this chaos through class struggle (Ollman, 2006). Henri LeFebvre says, A French Marxist has taken the concept of class conflict and manipulation and developed it into the notion that people living in capitalist societies are living in a state of terror. First, any society with radical class differences, with a small privileged class at the top and a mass of people living in poverty, has to be maintained by compulsion and persuasion. Second, these class stratified socienties become over- repressive and develop sophisticated ways of masking repression and making unsuspecting individuals the instruments of their own repression and the repression of others. (Reading Brick 2009: 40) Engels establishes that governments are born from the society but stay at the top of society and is gradually alienated from society. Although governments result from the need to control the class conflicts and maintain order, it realizes these functions through fulfilling the interests of the ruling class (Aksoy, 1999). A Capitalist government legitimizes itself when delivering its functionalities by concealing the inequality and the privileged class. The goverments deviates the truth to disguise class struggles. The governments function to respresent the nation is exaggerated to camouflage its relationship to the ruling class and present it differently. Marx notes, There is an obvious relationship between a government and a dominant class, by definition, a government is a society's dominant institution (Collin, 2008). Analizing The Film V For Vendetta Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the British Parliament building on 5 November 1605 but he did not succeed. 400 years later V initiated an individual struggle against the authoritarian regime and his individual struggle becomes a nation struggle. Guy Fawkes wants to accomplish this ideology in the England of 2020. Hegemony , Ideology 5
  • 6. My first step will be to consider the scene where, V and inspector meet. The Inspector, despite and order to drop the investigation goes ahead to search for the truth. V tells that the Goal is to make a profit from virus antidot. To serve the purpose hundreds of people die due to a virus. After the election virus antidot appears. This scene focuses on the relationship between government and dominant class. Mass media creates panic and chaos and alligns the societies ideology to that of the dominant class. Towards the end of the film, policemen shoot at V but he is still alive. The commander asks in a surprise why he does not die. V answers by saying: I am an ideology and ideologies never die. this emphasises that the ideologies are too strong, and never die by killing one person. Dominant class, define thoughts patterns. Adorno, Negative Dialectics says: the definitions which make the object concrete are merely imposed upon it this rule applies only where the faith in the primacy of subjectivity remains unshaken (Wayne, 2003: 155). False Consciousness In another scene, V goes to state TV channel, BTN, to call for revolution. V is hatched by police and Evey helps him. When V was fighting the police, Evey passes out. She wakes up at Vs house in fear and cries: God, what have I done? I maced that detective. Why did I do that? I shouldnt have done that. V says You did what you thought was right. Is that what you really think or what theyd want you to think? This scene orients us to Marx False Consciousness concept. Mass media spreads the dominant ideology creating false consciousnesses. Marx states: Our idea is not our own idea. An ideology that does not protect the interests of the society, one that does not belong to the society but the society accepting this ideology as its own shows false consciousness. Mass Media 6
  • 7. In another scene the chancellor gives orders to have different statements made about Vs progress. The TV channel delivers what the government wants. The dialogue between the media employees portrays the power of the mass media. The scene shows that mass media are not impartial and they support dominant class and media ownership. You think people will buy this? Why not. This is BTN. Our job is to report the news, not fabricate it. That is the governments job. The media further conceals the truth from the society by delivering false news. A psychotic terrorist V, attacked the control booth with high-powered explosives and weapons that he used against unarmed civilians in order to broadcast a message of hate. It is believed that during this heroic raid the terrorist was shot and killed. False massages are broadcasted to suppress possible chaos or revolution. Mass media continuously publishes news which includes fear and chaos; War in the United States is moving to England, the Ministry plans to increase the prices of water coupons, and a new type of virus caused the death of 27 people. Fear and panic fuelled by the media, spreads quickly within the society. This fractured and divides the country hence the society elects a chancellor selected by the dominant class. Political and economic actors use mass media to influence public opinion. Class Conflict and Government Acts In another scene the camera zooms to the Chancellor when he aggressively addresses his audience: We stand on the edge of oblivision. I want everyone man, woman, child to understand how close we are to chaos. I want them to remember why they need us! A Government reverts to a we identity to hide the economic exploitation that roots the inequality resulted from social structure that divides the society into two opposing classes. To form such an identity internal personal differences are suppressed. On the outside, external differences are made prominent to maintain the suppress (Aksoy, 1999). This 7
  • 8. statement implies we notion. This notion eliminates personal differences between people, individuality is removed. V and his advocates become others. "We" and "others" are sharply defined. Marx says, With Communism, nations, religions, geographic sectors, classes, professions, races and families will disappear. There will no longer be gender patterns and dominant class can no longer treat all as of the same gender pattern. Society is formed of individuals (Ollman, 2006). Conclusion It was the objective of this paper to shed some light to the societies past and the future by establishing the relationship between what is delivered in a film and what is targeted. My argument has been that the dominant class endeavours to manipulate the proletariat in the aim to increase their economic power thus maintaining their status quo. The dominant class uses the mass media and the government as the tools to spread their ideology hence creating hegemony. Additionally to suppress possible revolutions, and class conflicts the dominant shape the social structure through communality or individualisation. Society believes in ideologies that do not belong to them or do not serve their interests. It internalizes the dominant class ideology spread through mass media or government. This legitimizes the dominant class status quo. 8
  • 9. List of References 1. Aksoy, H. (1999) Marksizmin Temel Kavramlar脹. Istanbul: Tohum. 2. Collin, D. (2008) Marx脹 Anlamak. In Erg端den, I. (Trans). Istanbul: Versus Kitap. 201 3. Eagleton, T. (1991) Ideology an Introduction. In zcan ,M. (Ed) Ideoloji. Istanbul: Ayr脹nt脹 yay脹nlar脹 :18 4. Lefebvre, H. (2009) Sosyalist D端nya G旦r端端 Marksizm. In G旦rsev, D. (Trans). Istanbul: Yordam Kitap. 5. MMC220 Theories Of Mass Communication Reading Brick. 2009. 6. Ollman, B. (2006) Marxsizme S脹ra D脹脹 Bir Giri. In Kars, A. (Trans). Istanbul: Yordam Kitap. 7. Wayne, M. (2003) Marxism and Media Studies. USA: Pluto Press. 155 8. http://www.parliament.uk/gunpowderplot/ (10th, January, 2010) 9