Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder, treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot

I’m embarrassed to admit it, but in the hum and buzz of my regular life, I forgot the fifth of November. But that’s no reason not to give it some much-deserved love on the sixth.

In case you don’t know who Guy Fawkes is, he led a Catholic plot in 1605 to blow up the houses of Parliament at Westminster to bring down the Protestant monarchy. Legend has it that he was caught in the act, then taken to the Tower of London where he was tortured before being executed (actually, he broke his own neck jumping from the scaffolding where he was to be hanged). As Scott Horton at Harper’s writes in an excellent essay:

For centuries, Guy Fawkes Day marked the event. Englishmen were taught of the need to be vigilant in the defense of the realm, and particularly to remember the threat from within, from the disloyal Catholics. But mostly they enjoyed the privilege of lighting bonfires and engaging in pranks on a chilly autumn evening.

But today Britons have a take on Guy Fawkes that is much at odds with the historical one. Once Fawkes was a symbol of the traitor within. The people were called to be on guard against his like. No longer. Today Guy Fawkes is increasingly viewed as the heroic figure prepared to stand against an unjust and oppressive state, as a martyr and a victim of torture.

Horton goes on to explain what he thinks are the three true lessons to be learned from Guy Fawkes and how they relate to today’s misguided “war on terror” and the oppressive, unconstitutional counterterrorism methods it has caused us to inflict on ourselves and others:

   1)    Torture Never Works and is Always Wrong
   2)    Beware the Government that Rules by Fear
   3)    A Government that Stereotypes is Unjust

But the most important rule — and this is absolutely key:

It is not the People who should fear the Government, but rather the Government which should fear the People.