tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3412583847145043520.post689428483428739160..comments2024-03-27T19:01:21.504-06:00Comments on Enik Rising: Dark Knight and the War on TerrorSeth Maskethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17178036016555722068noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3412583847145043520.post-43045756783042541102011-11-08T14:31:37.802-07:002011-11-08T14:31:37.802-07:00Love your comments, Seth. I agree that the film i...Love your comments, Seth. I agree that the film is ambivalent towards legality, and that it seems anti-democratic. But reading your comments, I am reminded about why I loved the movie for its "political science." It seems to me that the film is generally positive towards political institutions, and has a Madisonian take on democracy. Batman erects an "institution" of separated powers around the surveillance device because he understands that "men [not to mention batmen] are not angels." <br /><br />Additionally, by sacrificing his reputation in favor of Harvey Dent, Batman makes a strong claim for the importance and legitimacy of political institutions and processes. Extra-legal means may be necessary, Batman may be necessary. But, lone vigilantes are limited and dangerous. In the end we must rely on elected representatives and political processes.Jason McDanielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02974549669485446109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3412583847145043520.post-72356068318011002562011-11-05T02:23:21.839-06:002011-11-05T02:23:21.839-06:00You left off the scene where Batman is interrogati...You left off the scene where Batman is interrogating the Joker, beating him to a pulp. By the time the Joker's on the floor, he's mocking Batman because for all his might, he can't make the Joker spill what he knows. (I'm sorry, I'm horrible film critic; I'm an even worse football player). <br /><br />At the risk of sounding psychotic, I found some of what the Joker had to say in regards to power brokers quite true; that they are all in their own little ways trying to control people. (The hospital scene where he, dressed as a nurse, taunts Harvey Dent/Two-Face). Was there not a bit of an anarchist/Libertarian streak in his message?metricheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08160603323000839703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3412583847145043520.post-92078364915915585892011-11-04T20:37:37.789-06:002011-11-04T20:37:37.789-06:00You make a very good point, Andrew. The Joker does...You make a very good point, Andrew. The Joker does have a motive -- to demonstrate that society's rules are a sham and that its principles will be tossed aside the moment things look grim -- which can be broadly construed as political, but it's nothing like "Get the soldiers out of Mecca." Yet the political motives of Al Qaeda were often ignored in the early part of the War on Terror. Administration officials and talking heads regularly just said that "they hate our freedom." Dan Rather, of all people, said, "They're just evil." <br /><br />So I think it fair to say that the Joker in "Dark Knight" was regarded by Gotham's elites much the same way that Bin Laden was regarded by America's elites in the early 2000s.Seth Maskethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17178036016555722068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3412583847145043520.post-63347487401436717512011-11-04T13:46:44.400-06:002011-11-04T13:46:44.400-06:00The big difference between the Dark Knight and ter...The big difference between the Dark Knight and terrorism, and it is an essential definitional one, is that the villan's motives are not particularly political. The Joker does not lead a political movement that dervives from grass roots sympathy. It is not war by other means, it is crime at a high crescendo.<br /><br />One of the reasons for ambivalence about war on terror techniques is that while terrorist acts constitute unambiguous crimes, when removed from the criminal arena and brought to the level of war, it becomes not just war by other means, but politics by other means. A terrorist group without a political wing really isn't a terrorist group.<br /><br />If terrorist groups were like the Joker, comprised of isolated evil people motived by ideosyncratic grudes without a political agenda that has grass roots sympathy or any necessary economic role, an exclusively military and technological solution of the type that the Dark Knight's efforts exemplify would work. <br /><br />But, terrorism isn't like that. Terrorism isn't fundamentally about evil people who hate the world. Terrorism is about the failure of politics to provide the route of least resistance for a political movement to achieve its ends. Its vanguards are disaffected members of elites, not the downtrodden losers who commit street crimes. Our constitution makes certain methods of dealing with terrorism problematic because our nation was founded by people who started their struggle, in part, as terrorists and worked their way up to being sovereigns.Andrew Oh-Willekehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02537151821869153861noreply@blogger.com