anonymous : keeping the spurious alive

Whether the inspiration is the comic, the movie or the historical figure, the imagery — co-opted today by everyone from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to the hacker group Anonymous — carries stronger connotations than some of the Occupy protesters seem to understand.There is a certain ironical logic to the Guy Fawkes phenomenon that has become part of the culture jamming culture, some say commercial venture, and the aesthetic of dissent. Although executed in the infamous Gunpowder Plot, the truth remains that the entire Fawkes episode was a state sponsored political manipulation. Cointel circa 1605.

At  seven in the evening on October 26, 1605, William Parker, Baron of Monteagle was sitting down to supper in his mansion in Hoxton, eight kilometers from London. One of his footmen, whom he had sent out on an errand, then approached him with the news  that he had been met, ” by an unknown man of a reasonable tall personage who delivered him a letter, charging him to put it into my Lord his master’s hands.”

Monteagle broke the seal and began reading, though illegible hand and odd text about conspiracy perplexed him. He decided then to dutifully repair to his magesty’s palace at Whitehall and deliver it to Robert Cecil, His Majesty’s principal secretary. Cecil was not surprised. He had written it and expected it. The Catholic Monteagle was his tool in this, the most spectacular frame up in British history.

Monteagle’s letter was read by two men. Cecil, and “the wisest fool in Christendom,” – the cowardly, drunken, slobbering, gay James I. This letter was officially interpreted as evidence of a “gunpowder plot.” In consequence, the cellars under the House of Lords, where Parliament was to assemble, was searched, and a Yorkshire soldier of fortune, Guy Fawkes, was “discovered” red-handed in possession of barrels of gunpowder and duly arrested.

Monteagle was rewarded handsomely and became a party to state intrigue. So, much of the truth has been traced, and the theory linking the plot to Cecil is on solid ground. The problem facing Cecil, and his father before, was how to destroy Catholicism in England. In order to justify the increasingly cruel anti-Catholic legislation of Elizabeths reign, plots to assassinate the queen had to be continually discovered. All the plots were spurious. Precedent was with the Babington plot to get rid of Mary Queen of Scots.

How did the conspirators manage to rent the cellar, which was owned by a government official who conveniently died, apparently of a heart attack, on the morning of November 5th? Monteagle was the obvious stool pigeon….

We know what sort was reserved for the conspirators. Executed under penalty for high treason. They were hanged for a short time, cut down and castrated while still alive. Their hearts were plucked out, their entrails burned before their faces, their dead bodies quartered. Teach them to be a Catholic. William Cecil had made it treason to endeavour to convert anyone to the Catholic faith. To be present at mass meant imprisonment and fine, and fines and property confiscation for non-attendance at compulsory Anglican services. Informants were everywhere; fines, torture and imprisonment, “at the Queen’s pleasure.” Catholics were robbed and harried with impunity. Kidnappings. Bribes. It was apartheid. In discussing the blowing up of Parliament, one of the conspirators, Catesby said, ” The nature of the disease requires so sharp a remedy.”

…Digby was cut down immediately so he might suffer more. Francis Bacon, present at the executions, said that Digby was still alive when his heart war ripped out, and at the executioner’s cry of, “behold the heart of a traitor,” he said, “Thou Liest!” Fawkes was the last to die. Though Fawkes was so weak with torture that he could hardly climb rhe latter, even with the hangman’s help, he insisted on climbing as high as he could. It was the last instinct of his soldier

17;s training and it cheated the mob of their pleasure. His neck was broken in the fall.

ADDENDUM:

Call said over the next three centuries, people in England started using Fawkes’ image in different ways. Some used Fawkes as a symbol for putting limits on state power. Others held him up as a freedom fighter.

Then came the comic book, a nihilistic story set in a futuristic England. And the movie. People began thinking of him as a libertarian or even anarchist hero….

…”Gradually over the centuries, the meaning of Guy Fawkes has dramatically changed,” said Call. “The reputation of Guy Fawkes has been recuperated. Before he was originally seen as a terrorist trying to destroy England. Now he’s seen more as a freedom fighter, a fighter for individual liberty against an oppressive regime. The political meaning of that figure has transformed.”Read More:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g21HvAQXPXiKh4wExkMzdrjzG4FQ?docId=d6e32ff3cef74bc4b5229cb76e316969