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V for Vendetta: Remember Remember the Fifth of November · Divine Dialogue

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, listeners, to the Divine Dialogue Podcast, where we dig deeper into the trove of wisdom and guidance stories have to offer.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever watched a movie and felt moved?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Felt called to make a change or reflect more deeply on your own life?
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: If so, this podcast has a lot to offer you.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we are on the 5th of November, and for those of you who are V for Vendetta fans, you will realize that this is the monumental day of the movie.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: We have this line uttered a few times in V for Vendetta.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: It is, remember, remember the 5th of November.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: The gunpowder treason and plot.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm recording this just after the midterms.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: It is close to sunset on the 4th for me, so I'm a little bit late recording this.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: I usually like to be a little bit ahead in my episodes, but I've been a little bit busy getting readjusted back to work.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: I was on leave for a little while.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm kind of just getting back into the flow of my routine here.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it kind of does scare me how on point this movie is for the times we're in now.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've never been nervous for an election like I was last night, and I was really happy to see the results of it where the Democrats took large control.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I'm not a party person per se, but I definitely align more with the Democrats, and I think the Republicans are absolutely batshit crazy at this point.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I was glad to see that um the Democrats, you know, won pretty resoundingly in the House and Senate.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't really do too much political commentary on this channel.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's, you know, because I just go over movies and shows, but Beaver Vendetta is a political movie, so it's on point to discuss it a little bit here.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And because it is the 5th of November and the midterms were on the 3rd of November, it's timely.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I just wanted to throw that out here.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: But if you are new here, we will be continuing the theme of the beautiful house and screaming basement that we touched on in my two-part Halloween special for the 2026 film Obsession.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Please check that out.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: There are many other series to enjoy on the Divine Dialogue podcast as well.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I will also be releasing a more traditional episode tomorrow.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: I do release episodes every Friday with the occasional special like today.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: But for this 5th of November, I wanted to have more of a current events type discussion about the trap of the beautiful house existing over the screaming basement.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Cause when we think about V for Vendetta, or at least when I think about V for Vendetta, which is one of my favorite movies ever, the main premise behind it is the power of ideas.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: How ideas never die, the men and women who carry them do, but ideas themselves are eternal.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: The ideas of freedom, justice, and fairness, three that V mentions in his monologue when he takes over the news station, had been replaced by fear, submission, and denial.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: V for Vendetta reminds us how much we choose to forget, what we choose to believe, and just how grand a beautiful house can be built over the screaming basement.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: In our obsession special, we looked at this on a very micro scale, mostly encompassing one man's life, one man's unhealed screaming basement that then became a short-lived beautiful house with a woman he violated.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Ver Vendetta shows us this on a country wide scale, how one man, namely Mr.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Creedy, who conjured up the idea to weaponize technologies, media, and fear against an entire country to build the beautiful articles of allegiance house over the screaming basement of their victims used as scapegoats and excuses for massive government overreach and fascistic takeover.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: V refers to Settler as a member of the Conservative Party, after all, or modern day Republicans.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: We can look at the United States as an example of this, and I think it's exceptionally timely to discuss this now.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't believe I mentioned this on this show, but I was a political science major, class of 2012, go Sun Devils.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't choose this because I had a love of ancient government systems, modernized civilization, or an aspiration to enter government or law school.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: I chose it because it was the easiest major with minimal math.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: True story.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: I changed my major probably five times in college, pretty much centered around math and my lack of ability in it.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Most of my intelligence went into words, hence why I do a podcast.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sending rockets into space because once math becomes more letters than numbers, I am truly fucked.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I did find the study of governments fascinating.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: I particularly loved my class on political philosophies that spanned from Machiavellianism to John Locke's ideas that ultimately influenced the birth of the U.S.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: form of government.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the United States is a perfect example of a country that has built one hell of a beautiful house over the screaming basement.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: The foundations of this country hold the screams of indigenous people, slaves, Chinese immigrants, Japanese American citizens, essentially all non-white people, and we try like hell to ignore the screams.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: We romanticize the old days, hence the make America great again that was not unique to Trump, but copied from Reagan and Clinton variations.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Why this obsession with ignoring the screaming basement?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's uncomfortable for one.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm energetically divorced from most of my family because they insist on ignoring the screaming basement, regaling of the good old days of the 50s and 60s when America was family first, had great values, and families could survive on one income.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: These were also the days of brutal violence against black people, gay people were closeted, and women had no real financial power.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, the screaming basement was forgotten.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we continue to forget.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: So on this November the 5th, I invite you to remember as V would.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: I was glad to see that many Americans remembered to vote and break up this fascistic takeover of the country that seems to rival the Millennium Falcon's light speed.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, we'll get to Star Wars at some point for you nerds.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's on my list.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: However, I fear, unlike the citizens of a f of a fictitious UK, that Americans will largely forget or want to remain in forgetfulness.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: How many of MAGA regret their votes in 2024 for the wrong reasons?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: How many of them simply wanted the economic beautiful house and didn't care about the screaming basement of the victims on Epstein's Island, the mass corruption of self-enrichment of Trump, the illegal war that has disrupted the entire globe, the brutality of ICE among American citizens, among many other atrocities.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: If gas and eggs were cheap, would most MAGA voters of 2024 even care about the screams of the basement?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sad to say I do not think so.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are in MAGA, you probably wouldn't be listening to this show.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: But if you are MAGA or ex MAGA, I will never forget what you did to this country.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now I think it had to happen.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think we'll ever really go back to the way things were, but I also recognize the blatantly selfish intentions that went into the vote.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And if you peered into a mirror and looked at your dear leader, you're just like him.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Self-enrichment, albeit on a smaller scale, but still cutting away all of your countrymen for your own self-interest.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: It makes sense why you worship the golden calf.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the orange calf.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: But V says very clearly, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think what's ultimately plaguing America and making them not want to look into the mirror is white fear.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Really the fear that America is becoming less white, more culturally diverse than ever, and there is a great deal of investment into that image.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: White is almost as analogous to what America means as apple pie and baseball is.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: I also think there's this deep-seated fear of if other races get power, what will they do to us?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it makes sense because what you do or ignore is done to others.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just get offset to the other.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: It plants a seed of fear in you too that grows over time.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: We see this sentiment echoed very clearly in V for Vendetta at the very beginning when we see the voice of London calling out many groups of people, Muslims, immigrants, homosexuals.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is what happens, and this is very much on parallel, on par with the MAGA movement of America being white, wanting to preserve whiteness, not wanting other groups to grow in number.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to honor Vendetta and its message of remembrance by inviting you to excavate your own screaming basement, because if we all do that, we can really build a beautiful house based on truth, justice, and fairness, rather than just pretending we do.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I love America's ideals, but I love even more to see us truly live up to them.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Only a few have truly gotten to enjoy those ideals, but not even the true spirit of them, the egoic version of them, the I get to have this because you don't version.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the fictitious UK envy for Vendetta is built on as well.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: The acceptable people got to live, got to enjoy a docile existence, doused in fear, while their fellow countrymen were used, exploited, tested, and thrown away in group graves at Lark Hill detention facility.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: But it's okay because we can enjoy the comedy of Gordon until he goes too far.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: America has no shortage of distractions.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: And this might be the divine dialogue question of how do we actually remember?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it starts with you.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: It starts with you in silence.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Deliberately remove yourself from distractions just for a little while.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Start with five or ten minutes of purposeful silence.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Turn off the TV, turn off your phone, turn off the computer, and just sit.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Notice what you hear, what you see, what you feel.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let what has been buried in the screaming basement surface.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Ask a question born from curiosity and see what the answer is.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Write it down.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Try this a few times this week, and then sit in silence longer and longer and longer.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a particularly dense ego, this will be uncomfortable, but eventually you'll feel the larger presence of you come back into the field.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is how we remember.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: In the silence we can hear the screams, we can pinpoint them, we can heal them, and we can actually build beautiful houses rather than something like the Epstein ballroom.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, truth be told for the movie, I wouldn't even classify V as a divine hero.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not really.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: He is still at war with the system.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: He takes in a great deal of hatred, completely justified by the way, in his fight, to the point that he ends up in the same place as Edmund Dontis.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: He ultimately chooses revenge over Evie.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: He even says, For twenty years, I sought only this day.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing else existed until I saw you.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Then everything changed.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: He fell in love with Evie, but hatred and vengeance had a grip on him far tighter than love did.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: This will be one theme we touch on in coming episodes.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: V's commitment to right fighting.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: He's one hell of a right fighter, and he is right.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: He is correct about everything he says.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: But it's very important to note that part of what Evie said was true.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: They created a monster.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because V lost a great deal of his identity and staunch defiance of a system.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: His home is even called the Shadow Gallery, where he grabs possessions of the system and takes them underground with him.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he lives in the screaming basement where all he can hear are the screams.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he does have a commitment to tearing down the systemic beautiful house.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: But did he ever actually excavate his own screaming basement?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Even if he was correct about the external screaming basement, which he was, he seemed to be pretty tormented.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Calm, cool, collected, but tormented all the same.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: I would rather liken him to a dark masculine hero without much feminine stillness, because he was very action-based and very good wanting to right the wrongs.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: But he had a lot of anger, resentment, hatred, and rage that drew him.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: He even references this in one scene that we will definitely go over, where he puts Evie in that fake prison.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: He says hate taught him everything how to eat, how to drink, how to breathe.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So he was very tormented.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he had no friends, no companionship, no love, except for Evie, when he was already very deep into his mission, too deep to abandon it.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: He had become too much of his identity.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: And don't get me wrong, I absolutely love V as a character, but I wonder if he remembered himself outside of the system, or if he became so identified with how corrupt and evil the system was, that it left an unshakable mark on his own soul and shaped him by its own energy.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Could he have sat with himself in silence, or did he continuously listen to the screams of the basement as much as the system tried to drown them out?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's important to listen to them, but not so much that they're all you can hear.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that as we venture into tomorrow's more traditional episode.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And with that, I know it's a little bit short, but I will go ahead and leave it there, divine listeners.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for tuning in for this 5th of November episode.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: I really just wanted to give V for Vendetta an extra slot this week on the 5th of November specifically because I like to create episodes on anniversaries.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's a nice little energetic touch.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: It just feels like it fits well.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I was excited to go ahead and bring you this shorter episode here.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I will be back tomorrow with a more standard episode.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: We will begin breaking down scenes from V for Vendetta, and I look forward to seeing you there.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you are new, please like, share, subscribe, comment.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: My email is in the show notes if you'd like to have longer discussions or if you have content suggestions.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: I am open to them.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: I have plenty of room on my calendar to drop extra episodes, so please definitely don't feel shy about sending them my way, and I will gladly engage in dialogue with you.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to have long form discussions with my audience about any movie or any story that has really shaped your thinking and reached you in a deep way.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: So please don't hesitate to reach out.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I will be back tomorrow with the more traditional episode leading into V for V for Vendetta.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you tomorrow.