11/20/16 - "So, Nick, do you prefer Batman or the Joker?" My answer, like most people, is Batman, for the same reasons as everyone who identifies with the hero in a story. "...But! You have told me that you (squealing in the common voice of an ignorant, obedient and proud citizen) 'hate our society and want to destroy it!' That's just like THE JOKER!! Batman wants to protect society, that's his job!" So, it is written. But let me ask you this... What IS Batman's job? Is it to "protect 'society' ", or to care for life itself and promote the perfect ideals that the Good in humans innately desires? The Joker and like villain characters have popularity in culture for making statements that seem to make sense, and some people identify with those statements and prefer the villain. Memes show up on facebook with the Joker saying sarcastic and witty things that portray him as intelligent, or having a certain integrity. I "prefer" Batman because I identify with him as something that wants the Good. His interest is in heroically achieving an ideal for human beings and preserving it. The Joker, regardless of this persona that he has been given of knowing some truth about humanity, (like he is more honest in his cynicism) does not seek this ideal. He claims to be right (implying the character is "good", in this regard) while doing evil. The problem is in the writing of ideologically conditioned Hollywood hacks. Then, as the script is written, is Batman protecting an evil (society)? No. Society has benign qualities which Batman is associated with protecting. I want to preserve and protect the qualities of human life too! My question to you, then, is "How well are you personally upholding and realizing such qualities?" If you aren't actually living your life in observance of what is Good, then you are helping the Joker. If society is created in your image, and you are overtly wrong, then society becomes a bad thing. You are the Joker. You are Gannon (the villain in "The Legend of Zelda"), wishing with an evil heart on the Triforce (a divine source of power represented by a glowing triangle) that your will be reflected in the world around you. Movies are not true. They are based on the truth, but they are, objectively, the realization of the writer's personal imagination. The writer controls the reality of a movie, and he can call Good 'bad", and Bad "good" if he wants. The writers of the Batman series, in part, did just this. While Batman stands for imaginary ideals of humanity, Gotham City is an evil place. Bruce Wayne is a millionaire and a Good guy... But Bruce does not create an ideal society. He is a selfish playboy millionaire, and once the Joker has been stopped, he plays with toys and revels in art. Then again, so does the Joker. By the standard of lifestyle, they are the same thing ;) The difference is that Bruce represents the positive qualities of human beings while the Joker represents negative characteristics. I do not wish to destroy society without improving it. The best I can hope to achieve is to firmly set in place a trend toward the expression of a positive character in human beings. I don't believe in the things the "Joker" or other villains say, regardless of whether or not their statements are sometimes true. The Joker is a liar and can't be trusted, since he is written as the villain of the story. All you've done, Mr. Hollywood, is associate truth with evil, taking honesty and turning it into a lie. The human condition is poor, that is the truth. The Joker commits crimes to verify that this truth (corruption in human beings) wins! Evil wins, and there's nothing Batman can do about it. An honest and intelligent Batman would agree that humans are poor in spirit, and simply protecting them to go home and play with money is not a worthy cause. "Batman's not supposed to be Jesus, Nick! *laughter* What a loon!" Then Batman isn't real enough for me, sir. Re-write Batman to be an honest character, and I'll start to care about the Batman series. "How?? *laughter* What's he going to do, take the shirt off his back for his brother? *laughter* Get real! "Batman" 's just for fun." ... To be continued |