This week I watched the film “V for Vendetta” which is about a mysterious masked vigilante that starts a revolution against a totalitarian British government. I found this aspect of the film very interesting, because often when a totalitarian regime is portrayed in a movie, it is either set in the past (such as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union) or in the very distant future. However, “V for Vendetta” seems to take place in an otherwise a modern setting. I found this fascinating to think about how a political party could take complete and total control over a nation in modern times, and the consequences that this would have. While the director did a good job of depicting scenes that one would expect in a totalitarian society, such as restricting free speech and arresting government critics, I was most surprised about how normal life seemed in many of the scenes. People still went to work, bought groceries, watched TV, etc. This made me think about what a totalitarian society would look like now, and I realized that in many regards our lives are far more restricted that we may realize. Many people in the USA like to talk about how “free” we are, but I wonder what the actual extent of our freedom really is. Just because we do not have a curfew dictated to us by a high chancellor does not mean that we as free as we necessarily believe.