The Joker Question

                                                           

Joker is a fascinating character.I feel very awed by him and his ideas every time I see Nolan's Dark Knight.He is not your  run of the mill, trigger-happy villain who wants to conquer the world or has a backstory justifying his evil. He is evil just because he is, like  a force of nature, he just exists. Anarchy and Chaos are the corner stones of the philosophy which he abides by.

He describes himself as an agent of chaos and he really is. The dilemma that he puts  Gotham in, with two ships having the trigger for each other's bomb asks real soul searching questions.The civil behaviour and morality it seems is a pretence that people put on because they are not allowed to behave otherwise. Push the people sufficiently, and they will throw away the facade or at least think seriously  about it. Now it is a subjective question, whether we will be pulled down into chaos like force of gravity as Joker puts it or we ultimately let our nobler instincts prevail as it happens with the people of Gotham.

But it is an interesting thought, if we really are civil and moral due to our choices or due to compulsion. The overwhelming conviction of Joker is that we behave ourselves just because that is what is allowed in our society, the artificial rules are what hold this world together.And if we let it all loose we might see the people in the truest sense, stripped of the pretence and back to animalistic behaviour. He was successful to a large extent in revealing the moral vulnerability  of humans by changing the outlook of Harvey Dent. But the extent of human nature is such that it never ceases to surprise us.The world is replete with examples where people have shown  examples of kindness in the face of extreme strife and also we see comfortable people behaving in most inhumane ways.So we can't be sure if we will eat each other up  in case food on Earth runs out but it is indeed a distinct possibility.

Facing such a potent villain or rather an idea, Batman did not just have to defeat Joker in the material sense but in a deeper philosophical battle. The only weapon to counter it would have been hope and that is what Batman uses, even if based on a lie. Joker's questions over human nature are answered by Gotham itself when the ships  do not blow each other up. But the light is not lit everywhere, Dent does fall prey to Joker's machinations and embraces his dark side. To defeat Joker, to keep the hope alive, Batman has to lie to make the people believe in themselves, in their own humanity.He has to sacrifice his own self to achieve that.

It really boils to each one of us and where do each one of us wants to go.Its like a self-fulfilling prophecy, if we do think that we will blow the other boat then we might be the one who might get blown up.As for me, I am still hopeful of the world amidst all the strife, I still believe that hope is a good thing and no good thing ever dies.