2016.5.9 Revised
1. The original sin of superheroes
When Nolan takes Batman out of the comics and puts it in a realistic setting, we have an opportunity to examine what a superhero is. Although Nolan did not give the answer directly, he gave us enough hints through the plot:
A superhero is essentially a group of people who exercise justice beyond the constraints of the law.
So, here is the first question, also outside the legal constraints , which one is more terrible than super sin and super justice?
Maybe many people will answer without hesitation, of course it is evil, of course, the stronger the justice, the better. Good stuff, why not make it a little bit stronger?
Probably not.
For evil, even at its height, is naturally restrained and countered by the legal system of government, the moral force of society, and people's fears. If bad people want to harm us, then their sins will naturally be vigilant, discerned and guarded against. From law to morality, to people's natural sense of self-protection, we have actually added several safety bolts to sin to prevent it from going out of control.
But Super Justice may not have such a safety bolt. When confronted with evil, if someone stands up and shows his powerful strength to protect us, should we still be ungrateful to guard against and suspect him? This seems a little unreasonable. Psychologically, then, we are naturally less wary of justice out of control than we are in the face of sin.
In this way, if justice is free from legal supervision, it actually has more chances to get out of control. And when the person who holds the ultimate justice loses self-discipline, the destructive power it produces may be more terrible than the ultimate sin.
In The Dark Knight, there is such a thought:
In the film, Batman developed a device through which he could see holograms of the entire Gotham City and monitor cellphone calls, and it was through this device that Batman later found the Joker. And Batman's good friend Fox has always opposed using it.
Under Batman's strict moral self-discipline, the device ultimately did little harm. But even so, Fox is still worried in the end, because this is a red flag of unfettered extreme justice sliding out of control - this time you can control yourself with morality, but next time?
This detail is, of course, directly based on reality: a few months after 9/11, US President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to launch a surveillance program, allowing investigators to monitor international long-distance calls within the United States without court authorization, stealing Read email for clues about terrorist activity.
In the film, Batman relies on his moral self-discipline not to abuse this power, but what about a government that is more and more like a superhero in reality? Will maintaining security end up being an excuse for violating people's privacy and freedom of information?
This is the situation of superheroes. They hold great power in their hands for the ultimate justice. But whether or not this power is abused is usually only constrained by the superhero's own moral power. And once this restraint is lost, they are no different from the super evil they are trying to fight.
Therefore, unconstrained ultimate justice is actually the original sin of superheroes.
This original sin that Batman bears is the source of his sorrow. This makes him never equal when confronting the Joker: the Joker's ultimate sin can be unbridled (unscrupulous is the proper meaning of sin), while Batman has to use morality to restrain his ultimate justice. The Joker can use all his strength, but Batman can't. Because he knows that his morality is the only safety bolt that restrains his own strength. Once he crosses it, he will probably become no different from the clown, or even more dangerous. As a result, Batman is always bound by the bottom line set by himself in the process of exercising justice. For example, although he is inevitably above the law in the process of investigating and chasing criminals, he never punishes criminals by himself. He returned the power of sanctions to the law.
The Joker said to Batman: "To them, you're just a freak like me (in people's eyes, you are a freak like me)." I think Batman really listened to this sentence, and it hurts in my heart .
2. The Helpless Knight
Even more tragic than this layer of original sin is that the legitimacy of superheroes is inherently conferred by supervillains. When evil is not so powerful, justice under the protection of the law can already suppress evil. Therefore, the premise of the existence of ultimate justice is that there must be a super evil that cannot be contested by the forces within the legal framework.
The Joker said to Batman: "You complete me!"
Sadly, the opposite is true. In fact, it is the existence of the Joker that completes the existence of Batman. Justice never gives a reason for evil to exist, but evil does justice. The phrase "You complete me" should actually be what Batman said to the Joker.
In the film, Harvey, who punishes evil within the legal framework, is regarded as a hero, while Batman, who has power above the law but restrains himself with morality, can only be a "dark" knight. Batman is destined not to be a hero in a bright world. Only when darkness comes, can he appear, confront the darkness with caution and restraint, and reluctantly live by the darkness.
3. Evil at its peak
Batman's justice is restrained, but the Joker's sin can be at its peak.
What is the highest evil? In the culmination of evil, evil is not a means, but an end. The peak of evil is pure, not for money, not for lust, not for any other purpose, the creation of evil and the execution of evil are the only pursuits themselves. The evil of the clown is such pure evil, for nothing else, he just wants to create "a higher taste of evil" for the city. Compared to the Joker, even the crime of the anonymous person in "Seven Deadly Sins" is not considered "evil of good taste", because there are too many additions to the evil there.
If Batman is a knight who strictly observes justice and morality, then the Joker is an angel who guards evil. In his eyes, crimes for money, power, sex or any other purpose are actually blasphemy against "sin". Sin is pure only in his hands.
In the clown's hands, sin becomes a work of art, and he wields sin like a painter paints and a musician composes music. So from the beginning to the end, no matter what the situation is, he maintains a arrogance and self-satisfaction as a demon, which is actually the dignity of an artist.
Just as Batman deserves his justice, the Joker deserves his guilt.
To Batman, the dark knight who carried the original sin.
Also respect the clown, making fun of the evil angels in the world.
Text: Wei Zhichao
A little personal stuff, my new book published in 2020:
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