I am truly and genuinely irked to see so many people wearing these goofy masks!  Not only because th

I am truly and genuinely irked to see so many people wearing these goofy masks!  Not only because they look ridiculous, but because the message of people who wear them is often very inconsistent with the legacy of Guy Fawkes, the man the mask is made to portray.  The mask has become most notable for use by anarchists, libertarians, the hackitvist group anonymous, and the Occupy Wall Street Movement.  When people wear these masks, its usually as a form of protest, symbolizing freedom and human rights as well as a challenge to authority. However, associating Guy Fawkes with freedom is a grave historical misconception, one that is born of 19th century English dime novels, and most notably the “V for Vendetta” comic book series and subsequent film adaptation, not historical reality.So who was Guy Fawkes, and why am I so passionate about his image and legacy?  Fawkes was born around 1570 to an upper class protestant family in York.  When his mother remarried a Catholic man the Fawkes family converted to Roman Catholicism.  After Guy’s education he made a life as a soldier, fighting with the Spanish for various Catholic causes throughout Europe. One thing that must be mentioned is that during the 16th and 17th century religion was much more of an influence than it is today.  Nations instituted an official state religion, a religion that all must worship by law.  Those who had different beliefs could face strict persecution, torture, imprisonment, and perhaps even death.  The world was stewed with intolerance and the idea of religious freedom was nonexistent.  With the Protestant Reformation and Protestant split from the Roman Catholic Church, many nations were plunged into warfare and turmoil.  England was no exception, and during the 16th and 17th century the kingdom was rife with political intrigue, war, and bloodshed, all over the determination of which religion the English should be forced to follow.In 1604 King James I was monarch of England and a staunch protestant.  As a loyal Catholic, Guy Fawkes wanted to assassinate King James and replace him with his daughter, Princess Elizabeth, who was a staunch Catholic.  Fawkes was recruited into a conspiracy of twelve other English Catholics, with a plan to blow up the Parliament building, killing the King and most of Parliament, so that a new Catholic government could be established.  The conspirators smuggled tons of gunpowder into the basement of the Parliament building, with Fawkes tasked to light the fuse at a given time.  Unfortunately for Fawkes the plot was revealed to Parliament by an anonymous message, and Fawkes was captured, tortured, and executed.  Bummer man.It is important to note that Fawkes was not fighting for freedom or religious tolerance, rather his goal was to replace one dictator with another in order to force his follow countrymen to worship his religion.   As a man of his time he would have had no concept of religious freedom or human rights.  As a gentleman of the upper class, he would be utterly baffled by common people using his image to challenge social, governmental, and economic authority.  He was not an Anarchist, he was not a freedom fighter. This was not just a belief of Guy Fawkes, King James, or 17th century Protestants/Catholics, but a prevailing attitude of the time.  It was a violent age when Quakers were whipped, witches were burned, Catholics were beheaded, Protestants were hung, Jews were lynched, Africans were abducted into slavery, homosexuals were forcibly castrated, women were beaten, and wanton brutality was an everyday matter of course.  There exist many places today where this is still the case.To seal the coffin of Guy Fawkes, let me give you all one more anecdote, this one specifically dealing with the Guy Fawkes mask.  Perhaps the masks most famous use was with the Occupy Protestors who stand against capitalism and corporate greed.  Since the 2006 film “V for Vendetta” Time Warner actually owns all the copyrights to the Guy Fawkes mask.  So for every mask that is bought and sold, a portion of the proceeds are paid to Time Warner in the form of a share of the profits. -- source link

More pics about