Cauilan 1

Allea Cauilan
Professor Altman
English 115 #14334
15 October 2014
Toilet Paper
People sometimes do things even when they dont want to. Sometimes its because they
are being forced to but other times there is a more powerful force involved. Vendetta has the
government which controls everyone. Everyone follows even though many of them know its not
right. Once the government surveillance went down, riots began. People followed V once the
uproars began. Before that, why didnt anyone rebel? Some may think the government was
forcing them, but were they really? They could have easily left the place, to a place will less
government control. Why did so many people allow the government to do such thing. Some may
have stayed because of family members, jobs, money, etc. I think the reason so many people
followed a government they didnt like was because of the government hurting them, the fear of
being stigmatized by others, fear of the unknown, and because it has been what they have known
for most of their lives.
The government is a large entity that most people are afraid of. Governments that can see
and hear all are especially threatening. Like an omnipotent government, religion inflicts the same
type of fear. In religion, most gods are described to have great powers and can see all of our
activities. This is especially used to describe God in Christianity. When science began to emerge
during the enlightenment and other discovery periods it was heavily rejected by the church
because it went against most of the teachings. Throughout time science has been backed up y
more and more evidence and religions teachers are becoming weaker. Many people believe

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more in science and logically see that science is the more plausible explanation to many things,
but people still choose to stay with religion. Why? Why do people continue to follow something
even if they are having doubts about its credibility? The answer may be that people are afraid.
God can see all so people feel that if they think about secular ideas, that they will be punished.
People fear the unknown. God and government alike are also unknown. Usually only
those who are working with the government know what exactly is going on. Because of this
people are afraid of the extent of the power of the government. In Vendetta, the government hid
its true identity from the Public. Only those working with the government knew what was
happening but the government filtered information so the government was an unknown powerful
being. No one wanted to go against something without knowing the consequences so people
decided to conform.
Fitting in and being part of the crowd is also another reason for obeying. Conformity is a
powerful goal. Everyone naturally wants to be accepted so being odd one out is socially
degrading. In religion and government, those that defect are usually stigmatized. The power of
social stigmatizing almost always pulls people back into the group. Social norms are maintained
through collective actions that compel people to stay with the group. The public in Vendetta was
similar to this. Those that went against the government were usually kept in place by other
civilians excluding them or government officials maintaining control.
The government in Vendetta has been established for many generations. The civilians in
Vendetta have been living in that type of government their entire lives. Because of this, they
dont want to change their beliefs and views. After knowing something for so long, religious
advocates have a hard time believing something that goes against everything they thought they
knew. Even if the evidence is clear people still follow religions because it has been embedded in

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the culture. Most people are afraid of change. They are afraid to change their views on the world.
Something that has been historically and universally believed for many years is not easy to let go
of even if evidence proves it completely wrong. It is scary to realize that your beliefs have been
wrong this whole time. People in Vendetta are in denial as V reveals the true motives of the
government. Those that stayed faithful to the government could not believe that their beloved
government is wrong.
The government in V is like religion. Both control many aspects of peoples lives are a
part of the culture. They have been known for many years and are usually the norm for society
for several generations. Government and religion are both very power and both could see all that
the civilians were doing. People behave similarly to religion and government even if something
or someone exposes the flaws. V exposed the government and science exposed religion but
people still followed both.