https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=p37oIVUhqak
Welcome. A little bit of a twist today. What I’m going to talk about today is Batman vs. Superman. And I want to talk about this in the framework of how it’s affected the world, why this is in the media, why it might be important, how it’s seeped through everything as the primary story source for other media from a more simple maybe media form. And I want to tie that all into a bunch of other stuff. And so I hope you’ll join me on the journey. Why should we care about something like Batman vs. Superman? What is the big deal? It’s just, you know, some media, maybe came from some comics and some comic rivalries and some superhero motifs and how does this play out? Why do we think it plays out at all? So what I’d like to propose is that what leads society is art. Art leads everything. And why that happens, look, I mean, I’ll just state it quickly. I think that there is a collective unconscious, the way someone like Carl Jung talked about. And so there’s the zeitgeist and it has a consciousness and an unconsciousness just like we do because it’s just a reflection of us at the group level. And that plays out or unfolds over time. And the way it’s first expressed is not propositionally, but through art. And so if you look at the comics, I think that’s what’s happening. And so I want to show you how this weaves into sort of everything and explains a bunch of things nicely. Things like emergence and emanation. I think that those are at play here. Materialism is at play here. There’s a bunch of components that are at play here. So I just want to tie those together for you if I can. So let’s start with the framing. If art’s leading the way, what is this? What’s playing out here? So it starts as comics. Comics are childlike artwork. They’re designed for an immature audience. Not to say that adults can’t read comics or won’t enjoy comics, but they’re designed specifically for a younger audience on purpose. This is a deliberate thing. Nothing wrong with it. Not denigrating comics. I’m just stating a fact. They’re cheap. They’re done on a relatively cheap medium for the time. They are competing with other mediums like newspapers at the time that they come out. A whole new way of storytelling, of visual storytelling, is born in the comic. We can argue about when comics started or whatever, but I think actually the superhero comics are the beginning of some shift in the comics. Now, I’m going to propose that all of this Batman versus Superman stuff is actually the thing that leads to this idea of living hidden in Christianity. Victim culture, cancel culture plays into the loss of virtues and values. The reason why I think this is because it’s deliberately no hero to emulate. We can all pretend to be a hero now because heroes are hidden. They’re in the shadows. They have two identities, and one of them is secret. That plays into this secret, sacred self. It validates that whole framework. Now we can all be the hero, but we don’t know what a real hero looks like because we only have these comic images of them. You can say, oh, they did a movie. Fair enough. That’s the development of the comics from the 50s roughly. Where did this stuff come from? Superman is based on Nietzsche’s Ubermensch. That’s what it’s based on. It’s based on what I would argue is bad philosophy, bad modern philosophy, all modern philosophy past Plato and Aristotle. Bad. Nietzsche, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. You get things like Superman. But what’s the thing about Batman and Superman? What am I really proposing here? Why does this make any sense? So let’s make the case. What does Batman represent? Batman builds himself up from nothing except his father’s fortune. So there’s the materialism. What makes Batman special are the tools on his belt. This is well stated. I’ve had many conversations with people about this over the years. That’s the way it’s viewed. For better, for worse, I think it’s right actually. But that also means that money equals superhero status. The two are the same. There’s the materialism. The material you build on you for yourself or have with you whether you built it or not makes you the superhero. But we’re still hiding from society. So let’s make the case. Batman emerges from his trauma explicitly as a hero and almost nobody knows who he is. So he’s living a double life. There’s the playboy Bruce Wayne and then there’s the superhero Batman and they don’t cross. They don’t really cross. They do to you, but you know, you’re in on the secret. The secret. You have the knowledge, the gnosis. There’s the gnosticism. He emerges, builds himself into a superhero and then hides that identity. Interesting. And the world is roughly equal because the only thing that makes him unequal is his access to money and to the tools through the money. So really the world’s pretty equal. Like anybody could train the way he trains and build up that stuff if they have that fortune build up that stuff if they have that fortune and emerge as a hero. It’s a very enticing story. Now let’s just switch for a minute in contrast to Superman. Superman comes from the sky. He comes from another planet. He literally comes from the sky. He falls out of the sky. There’s your combination. And he’s Superman. He’s not man. Like Batman is man. Superman is man plus or better man or ubermensch which is where it comes from. No really. He’s also masking his true identity and has two personas. And he’s being looked up to in his hidden identity not in his true identity. That’s interesting. And no one knows that Superman fell out of the sky except maybe his parents. Nobody knows that. So maybe the reason why you feel like you’re saving the world or helping the world or can help the world maybe the reason why you feel like you don’t fit with the people around you why people treat you as a stupid man working at a newspaper is because you’re really from outer space and you’re actually better than those men. Now you may think this is silly but I guarantee you I’ve had people recently actually say this to me basically saying no no no I don’t have a handicap actually say this to me basically saying no no no I don’t have a handicap I’m I’m so special that you can’t understand me it’s like well no but people think that way they do and so you could fit people you know I don’t like doing stuff like this this is binary thinking you know I have a video on binary thinking don’t do it but you could you could put people into the Batman or Superman camp right not not by their own choosing but by how they act like are you acting like you’re emergent building yourself up a materialist or are you acting like you’re supernatural emanating from below and that’s why you don’t fit in either one doesn’t fit into the world like Bruce Wayne is like this you know playboy looking guy even though he’s not really but that’s what everybody thinks right he’s make deliberately fooling people deliberately by the way knowingly manipulating and uh making people think a certain way of him even though he’s not that way and then also hiding his identity as an exemplar an exemplification of goodness in the community the same way Superman is except he’s out there in the daytime so emergence is associated with darkness how interesting and a clarion call of the light gets Batman out emanation happens in the daytime and it’s a stark contrast against the sky of this ubermensch Superman it’s all right there so what are the side effects of this well look everyone’s living hidden and you can live hidden as a superhero in your hat whether it’s an emergent superhero like Batman or an emanating superhero like Superman you can do that because the art is right there it I mean this is what’s happening with the characters that we’re reading about and enthralled by and enchanted by art enchants us beauty is not a goodness by itself it’s true the good and the beautiful it’s not beauty equals truth beauty equals goodness truth equals beauty truth equals no there are three separate things for a reason so I could be the superhero no one’s gonna know do I think it’s because I’m so much better than everybody else because I came from a better place or do I think I’ve just got the goods like I’ve got the knowledge and the tools maybe they’re computing tools I don’t know maybe they’re just access to Wikipedia either way I’m living hidden as a hero and in some ways a lot of the Christians I meet are like that right they’re like oh no we’re saving the world and you ask them how and they’re like well we want to talk about it because pride yeah I’m not buying it if you do good in the world you tell people why so that they know you’re doing good in the world so that they know what good is like I can say all day long I’m doing good in the world and kill people serial killers think they’re doing good in the world no really they do you know usually they’re killing hookers and they they’re they’re ridding the world of a morality problem by ridding the world of people with low morals that’s what they’re doing now I would argue they’re not good but if they told you that you would know when people aren’t telling you I’m doing the good and showing you what it is be suspicious they’re living hidden they might be doing the good I don’t know but I’m also not able to evaluate the claim at that point what good is a claim you can’t evaluate and maybe I don’t know what the good is so I need somebody to show me no no this is good is that going to work every time no of course not but I’m not an idealist I don’t want it to work every time I want it to work most of the time that would be great we just tilt things more good than bad we’re doing okay we’re not doing that now so I would like to get back in that direction imperfect but way more good that would be fantastic we were there we can get back you can’t live hidden though you’re going to show people the good they’ve got to see it and go oh this is something I can mimic I can emulate this you don’t want them emulating Batman and Superman and the whole Batman Superman battle is a battle between good and evil wait a minute which one of these heroes that was doing good one by day one by night is now evil and which one is good oh it’s ambiguous so it doesn’t matter what you do as a live hidden hero or a Christian because it’s ambiguous now so now you can claim to be doing the good and not doing anything at all after all behavior is ambiguous according to Batman versus Superman model and it’s a real model and what’s really happening here is the destruction of virtues and values because they’re not exemplified correctly they’re not called out they’re not shown to us they’re not shining at us they’re not things we can look up to to and look for in the world and see and understand and interact with and emulate and mimic and exemplify and celebrate there’s no surprise party for Bruce Wayne for catching the bad guy there’s no surprise party there’s no celebration for Superman there’s no parade I’m not saying that nowhere in the comics or the movies are they not praised but it’s not what’s happening there’s no gratitude there’s no exemplification for the good behavior and we can’t thank people for a job well done there’s a lack of feedback for the good for goodness itself for good behavior you’re wondering why in this world we’re just arguing and complaining well we don’t see anybody doing anything else so what do you expect if you’re not saying hey that was a good point that you just made hey I saw your talk you did a good job hey I like the way you did that that was pretty cool I like the way you did that that was pretty cool if we’re not doing that in public in front of other people a you forget to do it I do all the time b you don’t know how to do it c it’s not socially acceptable things you don’t see other people do in public are not socially acceptable by default that’s how our brains work sorry guy not gonna change it by talking to you wish I could but it’s not how the world works it’s not how people are motivated it just isn’t so what am I saying let me try to wrap this up and see if I can do a reasonable enough job of this hopefully you’ll let me know in the comments with likes and subscribes and all that stuff and tell your friends and you know trying to grow the channel here the loss of the hero as outstanding or an outlier like something special something different means we have nothing to mimic nothing to emulate nothing to measure ourselves against no ideal no ideal form of what a superhero looks like no way to understand the hierarchy no way because it’s hidden no way to engage with the rarity of good behavior in ourselves and in others no way to engage with the gratefulness the gratitude that there are people out there that are holding up virtues and values so that we don’t have to because otherwise it’s too much of a burden on you we believe in superheroes but cannot and are not supposed to see them therefore part of being a superhero is to be unseen anyone can do this with just materialism and emergence even when the superhero emanates from above they are hidden the mystery is intact because it’s no longer emergence and materialism although superman has material aspects right and bring down the kryptonite but mystery is intact but our senses are tuned in on themselves maybe we are not of this world that explains things nicely maybe we were traumatized but we can modify ourselves to be that superhero except that we cannot not everybody can be a superhero but everybody can sometimes exhibit virtues and values exemplify virtues and values everybody can be good and i don’t just mean good at something but good in the world without that exemplification without those heroes out there doing it we don’t have anything to to follow we don’t have an ideal standard to measure against we don’t have anything to mimic we have nothing exemplified for us that’s the problem with batman versus superman and it’s a mess it’s a problem and it’s a mess it’s a problem it’s seeped into culture it’s all the way in movies and that signals out there and we can’t do that and it’s very very tempting to be a live hidden superhero it’s tempting to feel like we are even when we’re not doing anything because there’s ambiguity in the world and you know it happens to people and we need to fight back against this stuff and it’s hard because you have to make a sacrifice to do these things and we sacrifice all the time we just don’t realize it and the thing that i think to keep in mind the thing for example that is a value is what you’ve given to this video and watching it and hopefully you’ll give it more of it by commenting and liking and telling me whether or not i’ve done a good job or what you liked and didn’t like and and that thing that that i value that i think everybody should value the thing that i’m grateful for from you the most is for your time and attention