On Angels, Brutes and Dark Knights

“Man is neither angel nor brute, and the unfortunate thing is that he who would act the angel acts the brute.” Blaise Pascal

Why has western civilization fallen in love with a guy in a bat suit and a guy in a clown costume? I think it is because in some ways the story of Bruce Wayne and evil villains is our story. Batman tells us something about who we are. It tells what is good about us and reminds us of our great potential for evil. It also gives us hope. I don’t intend to spoil the plot but I do want to discuss some of the underlying philosophy of the movie.

I opened this post with a quote from Blaise Pascal who is a 17th century philosopher. His great philosophical work was not completed before his death but his writing survives in fragments and has been published under the title Pensees (French for “thoughts”).

In some of the fragments Pascal discusses the greatness and wretchedness of humankind. Who can deny that humans are capable of great acts of goodness? On the other hand, who can deny that humankind is capable of great acts of evil? Individual people do great things but we also do evil things. Societies and cultures as a whole do great things and they do evil things.

We know that we should do good things but instead, we do evil. We are not angles and we are not brutes yet, instead of acting like angels we choose to act like brutes.

I think we see this theme played out in The Dark Night. Bruce Wayne is a man with a lot of money and he can do whatever he wants. He chooses to do good. He acts like an angel. Well, a bat at any rate (they both have wings).

And then there is the Joker. Contrary to Bruce Wayne’s courageous selflessness, the Joker chooses to act the brute; quite literally. Make no mistake, these are not two equal and opposite forces of good and evil battling it out on the streets of Gotham. These are men who are capable (to some degree) of being good. But one chooses to be evil and to wreak havoc. This is a choice that we all have to make.

There is more to the story of course. Bruce Wayne himself recognizes that he is in danger of making wrong choices and being guilty of evil. We know from Batman Begins that Bruce has a dark side and that doing good does not come naturally. Just like Spiderman, Batman must struggle to do good things with his great power rather than bad things. Though he may wish to escape his high role of responsibility, to the delight of movie goers everywhere the caped crusader won’t be hanging up the bat suit just yet. The more he struggles to restore Gotham to a place of justice and opportunity, the more he must struggle with himself.

I think the people of Gotham illustrate Pascal’s point. It is from Gotham that these super-criminals come. There are very few angels in Gotham but many brutes. We do not get many glimpses of the larger population, but the look we do get foretells us that Batman hasn’t battled his last criminal. Gotham is constantly churning out new thugs and while crime rates go down, they never stay down.

In my opinion, Bruce Wayne has a false sense of hope in the people of Gotham. He really thinks that they can change. It is interesting that he thinks that a city that churns out supercriminals and a city that hates their own superhero might actually one day choose to act like angles.

And this is where I think The Dark Night reminds us of ourselves. We all choose to act like brutes don’t we? We all like to blame the problems of the world on other people but let’s face it, we are the world. Every once in a while a great person comes along and gives us great hope for the future. But we don’t listen. Every once in a while a very evil person arises and threatens the things that we care most about. We rise up and make a few good choices (like the people on the two ferries) but then we settle back down to live life as brutes. I think a little honest reflection proves this true. If we expect nothing but hideous evil from people we’ll be pleasantly surprised every now and then. After all, we’re not really brutes we just play the part. However, if we expect too much from people we’re going to be disappointed every day. Bruce Wayne won’t be with us forever.

Who can save us from this mess?

Contradiction.

Our generation is weird. We hate labels, love contradictions and make little sense of our world. I learned something a few years back that helped to clarify my thinking in a generation where anything goes, especially the weird.

This thing I learned is called the principle of contradiction, or the law of non-contradiction. Basically it’s just a rule of thinking that says contradictory statements cannot both be true at the same time.

So we can’t say that God does and does not exist. Either he does or he doesn’t. Just putting an ounce of thought into this demonstrates that this is true. If God exists and he is sitting there right in front of you then he obviously doesn’t not exist. If he doesn’t exist anywhere out there in the universe or beyond then he obviously doesn’t also exist. Got it? Pretty simple.

So I plead with our generation, please stop saying that everything is true. It can’t be. Happy thinking!

I leave you with Walking Contradiction by Green Day

The kids aren’t alright… anymore.

When I was 17 I swore I’d never do it, but it happened. I grew up. I’ve been reflecting a lot in the last year or so on my childhood and teenage years. Thanks to Facebook, I now know everything that is going on in the lives of every person I’ve ever met. We didn’t all turn out the way we thought we would. Some turned out better, some worse, some didn’t turn out at all.

There is a tragedy in growing older isn’t there? When I was a child I couldn’t wait to grow. I loved the thought of unlimited freedom, late nights and cake for breakfast. But now that I’m an adult I’m not so sure I want to be here. Already, friends are dying. The pressures of life are too much for some. Unlimited freedom didn’t turn out to be all that it’s cracked up to be.

Growing up doesn’t have to be a tragedy but the 9-5 and growing debt doesn’t leave much room for meaning. Before you know it life has nearly passed by and you’re wondering what you’ve done and why things haven’t turned out the way you thought they would when you were a kid.

I don’t know, maybe I’m the only one that thinks about this kind of stuff. I don’t bring this up because I think my life sucks. On the contrary, I think my life is pretty great. I have a great family, amazing wife, and awesome friends. On top of this, I’ve had the privilege of studying philosophy and ancient Christian writings with some top notch scholars for the last few years. I’ve dug deeper into Christianity over the last few years than I ever thought possible. I’ve wrestled with the meaning of life and the meaning of everything else for that matter! I just wish other people had these opportunities.

My life has really changed since I was 17. Believe me, it’s been for the better. The videos that I posted below are about the crappy part of growing older. There is some hope in them though. For some reason, in spite of all the crappiness of life, people still hope for something good.

The Offspring – The Kids Aren’t Alright

Less Than Jake – For The Rest of My Life