Monty Python and the Holy Commune

In this satirical film clip we see the Monty Python crew tackling a very serious subject; Arthurian Monarchy vs. anarcho-syndicalism. The people in the clip have no idea they are under a repressive dictatorship. They believe they are in a government that by Marxist standards distributes power, work, and goods evenly. The only problem with the Marxist point of view is that there is no state to determine the distribution. The peasants talk about this by saying,"We're living in a dictatorship. A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes--" (Monty).The old woman states, "Oh there you go, bringing class into it again"(Monty)."I told you." Dennis retorts, "We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune". "We take turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week". "But all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting" (Monty). Dennis' explains all this to King Arthur who no way wants to hear it.

We see in satire where Dennis feels he is being repressed by King Arthur, "Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! HELP! HELP! I'm being repressed" (Monty)! During the Bush-Cheney administration we saw much Arthurian repression of civil rights without being allowed to challenge that repression. With a Republican Congress and Republican administration such items as The Patriot Act, Free Speech Zones, and unwarranted wiretapping / surveillance were allowed to go on without fear of reprise (Lyons). It was considered a constitutional right to racially profile anyone the government felt was threatening to this New America(Lyons). Karl Marx and Frederich Engels wanted a better way of not only distribution of goods, but also distribution of political power. But again they wanted it run by state.

In The Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels want to take all small communes and governments such as this and combine them across nationalities to overcome the bourgeois and monarchies. Although this clip is from a time long before Karl Marx and The Communist Manifesto, it is a perfect example of the oppression of monarchy and the bourgeois. The ideology of Marxism is wonderful, but we see in this clip there will always be someone to take the power from them.



Works Cited

Rivkin, Julie and Ryan, Michael.Literary Theory: An Anthology. Eds. 2nd Ed.
Blackwell Publishing: 1998.

“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” Monty Python Enterprises By Terry Gilliam
Performer “John Cleese, Terry Gilliam” BBC Televison Film,

Lyons, Matthew N. Is the Bush Administration Fascist?.New Politics. William Patterson University of New Jersey.http://www.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue42/Lyons42.htm