Today we had to write about the tensions leading up to the American Revolution, which involved a lot of reference to the "consent of the people to be governed."
The founding fathers firmly believed in the innate right of the people to consent to authority's power to rule them, and that if that power is abused, then it is the people's right to change or destroy that government. This idea, laid out in the Declaration of Independence, contrasted greatly with Great Britain, who believed that the government knew better than the people how to do its job, and those darn upstart colonies should heed to their betters.
This line of thinking led me to contemplating other instances of revolution throughout history, such as those that occurred in France, South America, and Africa. Then I started thinking about V for Vendetta, and how that movie would present all this ideology in a more palatable format than having to write from the point of view of a 1770s citizen of the colonies. Then I started trying to recite that alliterative speech Hugo Weaving makes (in my head, lecture was still happening), and, realizing where my thoughts had gone, had to check myself for levels of literary geekery. Seeing how many allusionary buttons I own that make literature jokes, I can only conclude that yes, I have unusually high amounts of lit nerd. Now I'm wondering how V would teach British history...
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