With the release of The Dark Knight on DVD this week, thousands are flocking--myself included--to the nearest Best Buy or Wal-Mart to purchase a copy of the record-breaking film. Comic-based movies have done very well for themselves in recent years and something is to be said for that alone. That is not our most pressing concern however. Instead, we want to raise the question, "What makes The Dark Knight surpass the rest in terms of critical review, box-office intake, and general popularity?" I'll give you one hint: it begins with a "Joke" and ends with an "Err."While its quality in many areas plays a supplemental role in the huge success of the first sequel in the latest Batman series, the Caped Crusader himself is not the character whom audiences are left talking about. Rather than the hero, it's the villain who has captured the minds and hearts of viewers. This isn't just any villain though; it's The Joker, the antithesis of not only all things heroic but all things meaningful. He has no tangible incentive for his actions and in his mind has nothing to lose. The Joker is a man who, as Michael Caine's character Alfred Pennyworth puts it, "just wants to watch the world burn."
The Joker character stands as a symbol for full-blown nihilism. Most commonly associated with the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, nihilism is the philosophy that the world is devoid of any meaning, standards, values, and purpose. Existence is pointless, in other words. In an August blog post titled "Why is Batman Making So Much Money?," theologian C. Michael Patton described The Joker as "the Nihilist who believes in nothing, cares for nothing, and pursues nothing." Precisely. Patton continues:
At one point The Joker says, “I have no plans. I am like a dog chasing a car. I would not know what to do if I caught it.” There is no rationalism because there is no such thing as order, reason, or ends that create purpose. It is just the moment, and the moment is ruled by randomness.
In other words, "I just do things," The Joker explains in the same scene. Why would such a blatant display of anarchy and utter recklessness prove appealing in today's culture? Patton speculates that the impulse to find nihilistic behavior entertaining stems from postmodern thinking. He writes, "Our postmodern culture may see itself in the character of The Joker. Like a person who has not seen his face in many years, we are going to the mirror to take a look."
With its rampant embrace of moral relativism and existential thought, our postmodern culture sees what it is becoming in The Joker. Once people realize that if every individual determines the truth for himself, the inevitable conclusion is that there is no all-encompassing unity to reality. Thus, existence is unintelligible and pointless. All is nothingness since there is no absolute standard or transcendent meaning. If everyone sets the truth, there is no actual truth since no person's perception or interpretation of reality takes precedence over another's.
This type of thinking will undoubtedly lead to despair and from despair to apathy, as Patton notes.
It is when the despair turns to apathy and we are what we are and we don’t care what we become. With the deconstruction of morals, truth, knowledge, revelation, and the like, is it any surprise that so many people are going to look in the mirror?
Moreover, we must admit most pre-teen, adolescent, and 20-something males are not infatuated by Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker because they are conscious of the implications of postmodernism. Our attraction to the character is more basic than that. The Joker was not the first to ask, "Why so serious?" Such a question was not first posed in Gotham, but rather in the Garden. It came with the Serpent asking Eve, "Hath God said?" (Gen 3:1). The temptation to create our own rules and define reality for ourselves was appealing to us then and proves to be more so now this side of the Fall.
Aware that mankind's tendency is to rebel against its Creator, Christians are to call persons to repentance, reminding them that we as creatures made in God's image are not our own. As Francis Schaeffer stated, "We must never forget that the first part of the gospel is not 'Accept Christ as Savior,' but 'God is there.'" Only the infinite, personal creator Yahweh can assign meaning to the universe, thus making it possible for human beings to reason and interpret things. Furthermore, God's existence not only necessitates that he is the One to Whom we look for meaning and purpose as revealed in his Word, but that he is the One to Whom we are accountable.
Patton is right. Our culture does see itself in The Joker--and we all should if we're honest about the condition of our hearts (Jer 17:9). Nevertheless, this is not something we should embrace or celebrate. This represents humanity gone wrong. In knowing that "God is there," we are to be ready to engage a culture of emptiness and rebelliousness.
Why so serious? Because this is no laughing matter.
8 comments:
Wow, that's something to take in. Give me a day or two and I will says something somewhat intelligent. In the meantime, "how about a magic trick?"
Mr. Haze, very very good post. I enjoyed this thoroughly. Glad to see that you used your birthday wisely. I hope it was a good one.
Nietzsche’s nihilism is something that is very palpable in our world. One must not look far to see it. The idea that there is no point to anything “under the sun” is something that I run into more and more. This creates many problems for us as Christians, but especially in evangelism. No longer are people searching for the right answers to what happens after they die and how can they be sure they go to the right place, but now, it doesn’t matter to them. If there is no meaning, absolutely no point to our existence, then why care?
In the book of Ecclesiastes, king Solomon felt this same way. In chapter 1:2 he says, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.". He too had come to the conclusion that all of life was ”vanity and striving after wind” (v. 14). However, the neat thing about the book of Ecclesiastes is that it allows us to see into the journey that Solomon takes to get to God.
One of the things he tried to do was fill his head with knowledge and become wise. In 1:13 he says, ”And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven It is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.”. Perhaps the reason it is such a “grievous task” is that the more a man knows, the more he realizes that he doesn’t know. This is something that must have haunted him because he continues in the same chapter ”Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.” (v. 18). Sounds like he would’ve been a lot of fun to hang out with.
When all of this did not satiate his longing for substance he turned to wealth to go along with his knowledge. But he also again realized that this did not fill the longing he harbored in his heart. ” He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity” (5:10). He continues a little later: ”There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt.”
Solomon needed substance. He had a longing in his heart (as all do) for fulfillment. He was beginning to get a sense that there was something out there that could be grasped. He searched and searched…and he found it! I believe that in the book of Ecclesiastes we see the spiritual journey of king Solomon until he finds God. At the very end of this book he seems to have come to grips with the reality that there IS substance, there is purpose, there is meaning. Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived and if he figured out what the meaning of life is, we would do well to hear what he says. What is it? He tells us in 12:13, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
Dever made a good case in "The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made" that Solomon probably did not, in fact, write Ecclesiastes. just thought it was interesting
Let's take this discussion a step further. This apathy and non-caring about the "outcome" of actions also recruits others who are like minded.
In the movie, the Joker prompts an emotional charge Harvey Dent to "rage" against his pain and join his apathic "cause" to "watch the world burn."
The scary thing about this visual is we are seeing elements of this nihilism work its way into the church through the apostates. For instance, in Jude 11, it shows the progression from the original apostate Cain, going next to Balaam, and finally moving on to the rebellion of Korah.
Korah's rebellion is a prime example of apostates who have no concern for the outcome of their actions as they rage against God's church and God Himself. Korah convinced others to join him in his quest, much like the Joker did with "Two-Face" in the movie. As the Joker explained, "He just needed a little push..."
As Mr. Lloyd pointed out, this mind-set makes it difficult for true Christians, especially in the area of evangilism. With those within the "church" showing this apathy and recruiting others, witnessing and discipleship becomes more difficult.
Hence Jude's warning in verse 3, we must "contend earnestly for the faith."
Also notice that the Joker blamed Batman for his own condition as he spewed his venom. Many of the nihilism apostates spew their venom against God. Blaming God for the way they are; blaming the true church for "creating the problem" when in fact it is their sinfulness and pride that is the true issue.
Great post, great movie, great discussion.
Please feel free to rip into my thoughts...especially since I wrote this "on the fly" with not much thought or study.
What? Does no one disagree? Did I actually get something right? Where's the harsh words of criticism? I'm getting disappointed in you guys. :)
At Ralton's insistence, I will provide some follow-up thoughts. I was going to hold back, but Ralton seemed avid that more comments be made. That said, let me preface the following comments by saying, "Ralton, I promise I wasn't eager to pick apart your ideas. But it was at your insistence that I ended up writing the following remarks. Please try to enjoy them and be edified, brother."
Concerning the apostates referenced in Jude, they do not exactly fit the criteria for nihilism. While any form of rebellion against the truth has nihilistic tendencies, that does not mean such rebellion should be considered nihilism per se. Perhaps I should define nihilism once more to provide more clarity on the matter.
According to James W. Sire in The Universe Next Door, a very helpful catalog of worldviews, nihilism is "not a philosophy at all. It is a denial that anything is valuable... [It] denies the reality of existence itself. In other words, nihilism is the negation of everything--knowledge, ethics, beauty, reality" (87).
Nihilism stems from the conclusions of naturalism. To elaborate, a nihilist takes the presuppositions of a naturalist, namely that the universe is a closed system with no external forces or being(s); further, human beings are a product of impersonal forces such as chance, time, and natural processes. Henceforth, the nihilist makes the conclusions the naturalist typically avoids: there is no basis for a purposeful existence, there is no basis for human value, and there is no way to acquire knowledge.
In other words, if our minds are the products of time, chance, and natural processes, how can we even trust their ability to receive and interpret information? To do so would assume order in the universe. Furthermore, if everything is the product of an unguided, blind process known as evolution, our thougths and concepts are but byproducts of this process and therefore cannot be trusted. In other words, we only think we're thinking, so there's no way to have true certainty about reality if we can't even be sure we're actually thinking. Our actions are determined by the nature of the universe, which in turn means we have no free will. Everything is of necessity.
To apply this sort of mindset to apostates and heretics would be improper. They still believe there is order and rationality in the universe despite the fact that they have improper ideas about the God who is the basis for its order and rationality.
For examples of more modern nihilistic art and writing, research the works of such persons as Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Franz Kafka, and Samuel Beckett. The most popular nihilist of mainstream culture is perhaps Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and others of that series. In fact, a film adaptation of this book was released in recent years.
Lloyd is correct to note that, despite Friedrich Nietzche is responsible for bringing consciously articulated nihilism into Western thinking, such a mindset is captured by the writer of Ecclesiastes. Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun (including nihilistic thought). Without God, there is no meaning, value, or purpose to the strife that is life. If there is no transcendent, personal Creator on whom to base meaning, it would only be self-delusion to create purpose for ourselves.
I'm pleased to see this post has brought forth such a discussion about worldview and the implication of ideas. I hope this will make everyone reading more aware of the ideologies behind movies, music, and art of any sort the next time they go out for entertainment.
Thanks for the comments and compliments, brothers. As always, keep thinking.
For an hilarious skit by The Onion involving nihilism, visit the following URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1feEqgRZQI
For perhaps the best artistic example conveying the "message" of nihilism, watch Samuel Beckett's 35-second (yes, that's right) play Breath at YouTube. Here's the URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1ZON66BbB0
Told you, I told you, and you just proved it!!!!
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