Go out and blow something up!!!

Happy Guy Fawkes Day

Devil Boy needs to respond to this one.

Actually, it was yesterday. Well, at least here in New Zealand where we live in THE FUTURE!

There was a big ol' fireworks display in the harbor last night; not sure if there was a burning effigy as part of the official ceremonies. The sentiment and history behind the whole thing is, uh, interesting.

Not that we don't have some questionable holidays in the states...

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jJ

also, my birthday. turned thirty today. my mom wrote "happy guy fox day!" on the card.

hahaha...happy birthday uberbearboy!!

Happy B-day Uber!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Fawker!

...groan....

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mF

Whoa you live in Auckland?? didnt think there were any kiwis in the midst.. hey bro

im across the ditch for another 6 months but ill be back home in march haha

Happy birthday uber!

I wish Guy Fawkes Day was at least slightly recognized/celebrated here, but I'm just looking for an excuse to burn stuff and blow shit up. Fireworks and such, not the House of Parliament or anything like that.

I'm in Wellington, but I don't think I qualify as a Kiwi. I'm from the states over here for work.

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jJ

Some would say that may be the best course of action these days . . . surprised this is even recognised internationally!

I suppose V for Vendetta helped a bit.

i don't think it generally is in the good ol' us of a...you are dealing with a special kind of anorak in these parts...

i had no idea what it was until after the queen granted me citizenship with her magic wand (joking,,sort of)

I still can't believe we let you in . . . our standards must be slipping!

my jedi mind tricks worked a charm

Happy B'day Uberboy

My memory is scarred with grotesque TV images of burn victims from the 70's c/- fireworks safety advertising blitzes.
Grew up with Guy Fawkes night. Launching rockets out of milk bottles on the front drive was great fun.
Twisters on the back fence were even better.

Celebrating a Failure....how very British Still he was the last man to walk into Parliament with any sort of honourable intention

I never really knew who Guy Fawkes was until a couple of years ago when I was at work. We were playing a game and had to look for the Fawkes device to blow up a rift.

I researched it a bit years ago because of V for Vendetta, yet never read the comic (but know I need to). Never bothered with the movie, but that is definitely where the majority of people here would know Fawkes from. Side note, I met the non-transgender Wachowski brother around the time the movie came out and didn't even know it was him until about an hour later (he was just hanging out at Wizard World Chicago with Geof Darrow). Nice guy, though.

i have been aware of it since childhood despite being in the states; we were not taught about guy fawkes in school. but since it was one of the few historical things on my birth date (besides presidential elections), i've always been a fan. the anarchist sentiment inherent to the bombing attempt was also appealing when i was younger. i did not know about the V for Vendetta thing until a couple of years ago.

the wachowski brothers. don't get me started. their movies would be better with less budget.

There was no anarchist sentiment for Guy Fawkes, it was in opposition to anti catholic actions by the monarchy and standing government.
People were bombing things way before the anarchists started in the 1880s.
And Anarchism as a term applied to a political thought process didn't happen until the mid 1800s with Proudhon.

...just saying...
You know, not that Moore did anything wrong, he just took an easily accessible folk hero and recreated him in an alternative reality/time line and applied his own political leanings to it.
Which is fine.
I like V and Moore.

i would say that a suppressed people attempting to destroy the building that represents the system that oppresses them has some amount of sympathy with the european anarchist movement and bombings that occurred in the time period you mention. anarchism as a philosophy has very little to do with bombing anything, but anarchist "acts" have an acquired meaning separate from that strict philosophy. i'm not just blowing smoke

Guy Fawkes was acting in an effort to reinstate a previous catholic government and take down a repressive protestant one.
By strict or loose definitions that will never fall under Anarchist action.
As G-Force said, the only reason anyone would ever equate him to Anarchism is because "he was the last person to walk into parliment with any good intent" but that is totally tongue in cheek.

As for the "European Anarchist Movement" of the 1880's I was actually referring to the Haymarket Anarchists who were located in Chicago and were effectively the fathers of the labour movement. The commonly held belief is that the anarchists threw the bomb though that has never been (and likely will never be) proved.

To say that any defiant act against a governing/oppressive body can be labelled as anarchist, big a, little A (bouncing b) is not correct either, because you can then imply that the US's action in Iraq were anarchist... which I'm sure plenty of people would disagree with.
"Anarchy" does indeed have a different sense of definition than Anarchism, as would anarchic. But bombing of a the government building does not in anyway make the action an anarchist act, the IRA were never Anarchists, they may have caused anarchy, but they never operated under that banner or were really perceived to.
I would liken Guy Fawkes to the IRA or any other separatist pro government movement before I would liken it to a libertarian movement, philosophy aside.