V for Vendetta Philosophy Blog post

     The graphic novel V for Vendetta by Alan Moore is filled with big philosophical questions. The story is about a man by who goes by an alias of V. It's also about a woman by the name of Evey who V takes in and helps her understand the world they live in. In the novel V goes around spreading his own justice and basically giving people hope by publicly fighting for freedom. This is where the philosophical questions come from.
     One philosophical question was is vigilantism okay? V is a straight on vigilante. He serves own justice on people who did bad things to him in the past. For example he murdered a priest. Right before he murdered the priest, the priest was about to rape a young girl. The priest later after his death was found in possession of child pornography. Luckily V saved the girl. Was this right? That was the big question. V without hesitating brought his own form of justice by killing the priest. That proves V is a vigilante. I personally believe that vigilantism is okay to a certain extent. I believe if your a vigilante that you should set your rules about your own justice. I don't agree with V's actions on always killing the bad people. I believe a vigilante should bring someone to justice without stooping to their level of "badness". For example, this might sound childish, but Spiderman is the perfect example. This fictional superhero fights crime and isn't apart of the police. He is a vigilante and he choses not to kill people. Instead he exposes crime and brings them to prison where he thinks they should be in. He doesn't want to stoop down to their level which is why I believe that vigilantism is okay as long as your justice isn't out of revenge, and as long as we set rules for our own form of justice.
     Another question in this book was whether we should act upon revenge. I believe that most of V's actions that he made and that the reason he became a vigilante was because he wanted revenge. Revenge is a powerful thing that can ruin even the most sweetest of people. All the deaths that V caused, I believe were out of revenge for what they did to his mind and what they made him suffer. V is a prime example on why we shouldn't act upon getting revenge. Revenge is bad. getting back at a person makes you the same jerk that your mad at. if V didn't revenge maybe his actions would have been different. He certainly wouldn't have killed all those people. He might have even become a greater "hero" by not acting like a villain. Revenge blinds us, and as a result our actions aren't clear. We end up regretting what we did later.
     In conclusion, vigilantism is okay and we should never act upon revenge or to get revenge. Vigilantism should be controlled to a certain extent so that your justice is ethical. Also revenge is a horrible things that blurs your morals and what you believe in.