V for Vendetta, the most popular movie in America as I write, raises incendiary questions about terrorism as a tool against tyranny--in this case, a Christian fascism that has turned Britain into a police state. Though the critics were less than kind, this is the dude-flick of the moment, which is quite a feat. A few years ago, young men were lapping up films about combat troops and pumped-up paladins; now they're being entertained by a hero who bombs Parliament. True, many guys will enjoy watching any building blow up, but surely the target has meaning, and this enticing image of iconoclastic anarchism recalls the punk values that were central to youth culture until they gave way to patriotic posturing after 9/11. Is the spirit of Johnny Rotten making a comeback?

Bear in mind that V for Vendetta is not just a unique sensation. It's part of the most important trend in Hollywood: films with a social conscience. In these dramas, evil is not a force threatening us from without but a presence in our midst. Even the best of these films--e.g., Syriana and Crash--are too blunt to fully engage the imagination, but V is an adventure fantasy that touches the pleasure centers. Because it evokes the erotics of resistance, this film is a significant event despite its aesthetic limits. It replaces the sadism that is the hallmark of conservative culture with the thrill of aggression in the name of freedom--and that's an association liberalism has lately lacked. Such metaphors of energy can be the seeds of a new politics.

One can see similar glimmerings of joyous dissent in pop music, where the rules of thug are being challenged in subtle ways. Consider Kanye West's recent exhortation about confronting homophobia. "Everybody in hip-hop discriminates against gay people," he told an MTV interviewer. "Matter of fact, the exact opposite word of 'hip-hop,' I think, is 'gay.'... And I wanna just come on TV and just tell my rappers, just tell my friends, 'Yo stop it, fam.'" Even more astonishing was West's explanation for his own homophobia: He was mocked as a mama's boy when he was young. This is a daring self-analysis for a hip-hop star, and it comes at a time when black leaders are addressing homophobia in the African-American community. The significance of this initiative is not just its attempt to root out sexual bigotry but its implicit critique of the machismo that constructs the faggot in order to define itself--and where there are fags there are nearly always women whose value is their sexual servility (as in bitches and ho's). The fantasy of rigid and ruthless masculinity is central to the conservative worldview, and now, it seems, there's a growing awareness in hip-hop of the connection between sexism and social politics.

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