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In the movie The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan, there are many powerfully constructed scenes which are almost mini stories in themselves. As the movie reaches its crescendo, there is a scene where it appears that the Joker’s clowns have taken doctors as hostages. Of course, being a Joker ploy, the situation hides a trick and an inversion. The way Batman deals with this situation can help us understand what it means to be a hero in an upside down world. This is Jonathan Peugeot, welcome to the Symbolic World. The trick being played in the scene is indeed the setup of an upside down threat. Although appearing as aggressors and instigators of chaos, it is in fact the clowns who are taken hostage, gagged under their masks while the doctors, representatives of goodness, This scene Batman has an insight that the others don’t have. He can see the truth hiding behind appearances. He can perceive that the world is upside down. This is of course shown by him having glowing eyes, with light representing the insight which he has over the police. So Batman realizes that this situation makes obeying those in authority impossible for the time being. Not only does he disobey the police, but he actively attacks them. He prevents them from harming the clowns who are in fact victims in disguise. By attacking police, he is not only protecting the hostages, but he is actually protecting the police themselves, though we have no way of knowing that at the moment. Without knowing it, the police are in danger of compromising themselves by killing innocent victims. And they are also in danger of being ambushed and killed by the kidnappers who are dressed as doctors. But from the perspective of the police, Batman is helping the kidnappers. And so they soon turn their hostility towards him as well. By all appearances, Batman is now their enemy, though secretly he is helping them. In many ways, this is one of the best examples that I can call to mind of what I mean when I use the term double inversion, and how an upside down world can only be restored to normality by a second inversion. Batman makes himself an enemy of a corrupted order in order to restore a proper one, but for a moment, the moment of transition, this is evident only to Batman. Now, this type of social game with the clowns and doctor orchestrated by the Joker is in fact what motivates him. What the Joker wants is to make a point. It’s not about money, it’s about sending a message. He wants to expose the corruption and chaos of the world, to expose the darkness, and show that it is in fact the darkness which rules over the light. If you have upset the established order, then everything becomes chaos. The appearance of order in hierarchy are illusions in his vision, a deceptive veneer that can be scratched away to reveal the abyss which truly motivates reality. As he says, When the chips are down, these civilized people, they’ll eat each other. He’s an evangelical nihilist. That’s why he wants to turn Harvey Dent. This is the point of the standoff at the ferry. And it’s also the point right here, by duping Batman and the police into killing innocent people. This whole situation is a very dangerous one ethically. How many people have you met who feel that they have ample reason to break the rules or to act against authority? And how many times have you felt that same self-righteousness within yourself? Doesn’t every rebel, criminal, tax evader, and insurgent feel like he has good reason for breaking the rules and acting against authority? What makes Batman’s action different from the action of some other mere rebel? The first argument that comes is the most obvious one. He’s doing this for others, to help the hostages. This is a good start, but it lacks something. I’m sure Stalin and Robespierre all believed they were acting for the good of others. Or better still, the good of even those against whom their actions were immediately directed. Just like Robespierre, Batman is acting for the good of the police, who he is actively attacking. Another angle which can help us understand is that Batman, unlike Stalin or Robespierre, is not trying to gain power for himself or some ideology that he represents. His actions are not meant to make him the mayor or the chief of police, and so it’s not a revolution in that sense. He’s also not trying to promote some ideology at the expense of those being attacked. But through all of this, it is in my last and most important argument which lies the secret. What Batman is doing leads to an act of self-sacrifice. After attacking the police and becoming their target, he doesn’t try to defend himself. In fact, he takes the blame on himself, and not only for his own sins, but he even tries to carry the sins of Harvey Dent, though ultimately he can’t. Even though he’s innocent, Batman submits to the current authority and says that he must be hunted and that the dogs must be set on him. He carries the consequences of his actions and doesn’t attempt to be vindicated. He shows no self-righteousness, though he would have had every right to call on his innocence to those attacking him. This is what justifies Batman’s rebellion. It’s these three elements coming together. 1. Acting to help others. 2. Not acting to gain power for oneself or some ideology. 3. Not willing to sacrifice oneself and accept the consequences of our actions. This story shows a surprising parallel with another more famous anecdote. It’s the story of Christ clearing the temple from money changers and animals. So this story has often been used to portray Christ as a kind of revolutionary. But in fact we will see that it is not at all the case and that Christ is balancing out all these elements that I mentioned of how to act in an upside down world. So Christ is facing a corrupt structure. The purpose of the temple, which has the highest purpose that one can imagine, has been diverted. A place meant to be the house of God, a place of purity, of hierarchy, and ultimately the center of Jewish society and identity has been given over to greed and corruption. So we find moral compromise. But also money changing itself shouldn’t happen in the temple. This is a little more complicated to understand, but money changing is the opposite of purity. Money changing is something like the interchangeability of identity, a place of flux where one identity moves into another, where identity is reduced to quantity, and where what is inside and what is strange move into each other very easily. So money changing should happen in a market or near the wall of a city, but certainly it has no room in a space meant for hierarchy and purity. The money changer story is also dealing with animality, this idea that animals, the garments of skin, shouldn’t be our prime concern. On an individual level, the animal part of us should be kept out of the heart we could say. Which is why the story has often been an image of the taming of the strange thoughts and the passions from the inner sanctum of the bodily temple. So Christ purifies the temple, cleans it of impurity, animality, and immorality. He is doing this to heal the temple, just like he cast out demons in the possessed man or disease in the sick. So he’s acting to help Israel. And therefore he fulfills the first aspect of the hero in the upside down world that I mentioned, he’s acting to help others. But in doing this he is also acting in opposition to the corrupt leadership of the temple and possibly the Roman authority as well. In fact they think that Christ is doing this in order to claim some authority for himself, to become king. But Christ says he is acting in the name of the Father, and not for his own glory. He is also not trying to install something new, he just wants to restore the proper order that should already have been there. He is acting against the present lower authority in order to restore some higher authority which those currently in power are blind to. This is also what Batman is doing in the hostage situation. But let’s be honest, it’s also the claim of many reformers, revolutionaries, and insurgents. Almost all people who take power and oppose current structures claim to do so to restore a higher, more ancient or pure version of authority, though secretly they also want to claim power for themselves. And so the question of the second rule of not wanting to gain power for oneself or some ideology is answered by the third, willing to sacrifice oneself and accept the consequences of our actions. The cleansing of the temple is the event which sets in motion the crucifixion of Christ, When he is arrested, when he is judged by a corrupt system, when he is condemned to die, he does not protest, he does not call upon his followers to fight, and does not attempt to usurp the current structure. He was willing to act against the authorities to do what was right when these authorities were wrong, but he also accepted the consequence and did not cause a political revolution. By acting this way, Christ was in fact planting a seed, a seed which would grow in secret and would flourish to overturn and transform the Roman Empire. Not from without, like an invasion or a revolution, but from within, like a transformation of the heart and the growing of a mighty tree. And this is not just some moralization that I am trying to do, but it is in fact revealing the very structure of reality. We have seen what the revolutions of the modern world have brought about, when one sets oneself up in power through revolution and makes you vulnerable to others to do the same to you. And so this leads to succeeding breakdowns and tyrannies which the culture of demand and protest inevitably bring about. So this mode of action, the one exemplified by Christ, and maybe more imperfectly by Batman as well, is the only one which can ultimately produce true transformation. So this lesson is a hard one to accept, nearly impossible, but I think it is nonetheless something to ponder as the world becomes increasingly mad, increasingly corrupt and upside down, and we all wonder what to do as we watch it break apart around us. If you enjoyed this content and our exploration of symbolism, get involved. I love to read your insights and questions in the comments section. 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