Watchmen Poem Meaning

The esteemed poet William Blake once spoke of “dark satanic mills”, assumed to be referring to the industrial warehouses of London during the industrial revolution. An alternative interpretation of the saying is that the satanic mills he refers to is actually supposed to be referring to the established orthodox church of the time. Blake wanted a radical faith and likened the traditional church to the run down factories of the industrial revolution. It is with this poem in mind that Alan Moore, the writer of Watchmen, proclaims the location of Britain’s first millhouse as the fossil imprint of capitalism in an interview. Looking around the remains of the mill, he quickly points out the commonality of used needles, empty beer cans, and stolen

He chooses the villain, Veidt, to represent the embodiment of capitalistic lust and human greed. On page eight of chapter ten, Veidt conversates with an employee who is asking him what they should invest in. He speaks of using an underlying sexual element in his commercial advertising. He brings up the baby boom of the post war era and further recommends investing in baby food and maternity goods once the short-term erotic advertising is over. In this scene Veidt is portrayed as someone who enjoys using natural human desire in order to manipulate consumers into purchasing goods he will provide. As the only named advertiser in Watchmen, Veidt’s billboards cannot be ignored. Using words like “Nostalgia” shows again Veidt’s willingness to convert people’s thoughts, feelings, and memories in capital gain. Someone who has a wealth of information from people around the globe as seen on page two of chapter 11, Veidt also symbolizes the corrupt nature of big business and corporations that are well established around the

There are people who demonize people who use the capitalist system to enrich themselves and those who recognize how the capitalist system allows the general public to benefit from people’s self interests. Ironically Watchmen takes place during the cold war, a war over ideologies and in many ways a war of capitalism veres socialism/communism. It is odd that a writer like Moore, being very aware of the time he is writing about, would not take into account one of the main reasons the cold war ended, being because the collapse of the Soviet Union due to their failed