Dredd And V III

One advantage of blogging is that second or third thoughts can be added ad infinitum or, if you prefer, ad nauseam.

At the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, we had an embarrassment of riches:

a short film about Judge Minty;

a feature film about Judges Dredd and Anderson;

Judges Lemmy and Bane patrolling the Festival;

Dredd creators, Wagner and Ezquerra, present and approachable;

V for Vendetta on sale, screen and stage (something for everyone here - I had bought the comic and seen the film but had not yet seen the play).

In the feature film, two Judges would not have been so distracted by a couple of armed kids that they would let their prisoner jump one of them. Anderson was inexperienced but not Dredd.

A Judge's gun explodes in the hand of a bearer with the wrong ID. That makes sense.

Back to Dredd's opposite number: Codename V. In the play, V tells Evey, "'Anarchy' means 'without leaders,' not 'without order.'" I think he is wrong. I kidded a couple of people that, after a talk, I would stand up and make a political speech instead of asking a question. But a political argument is certainly appropriate after reading or seeing V For Vendetta. That is what the text invites us to do. So:

"monarchy" means "one ruler";
 "patriarchy" means "male rulers";
"matriarchy" would mean "female rulers";
"anarchy" means "no rulers."

A ruler is able to enforce his will whereas a leader gives a lead which we are free to follow or not; it's our decision. V is certainly a leader and, equally certainly, not a ruler. No society is without leaders. Each of us gives a lead, which may or may not be followed, every time we say, "I think we should...," "Why not...?" or "Let's..."