Inspired by Dr. Oliver's confession that he had not seen the latest Joker movie, I decided to bring another voice into our conversation: the Crown Prince of Crime himself! Of course, there's pretty of reasons to disagree with where Joker goes from his declaration that the world truly makes far less sense than we prefer to believe. The termination of his philosophical meandering is too nihilist for my tastes and, obviously, his actions are morally repugnant.
With that said, there is some value in his acknowledgement of just how much the messy reality of our world defies the meaning-making logic we impose on it. This is especially more acute, I think, for atheists because we have no supernatural guarantor of said logic, i.e. God, when things get dicey. I, for instance, stop short of saying what particular instances of human suffering are good for. Many feel like they can speak more confidently about why bad things happen, because the source of this reasoning is divine and therefore ultimate, universal, etc.
Of course, at the end of this clip, Batman reasserts human transcendence, the power of the human spirit to resist being crushed. That we don't have to be products of "one bad day," especially when being so would mean becoming cruel and hateful, is a consoling and inspiring conclusion, I guess.
Here's a Genuis transcript of Joker's monologue, with helpful exposition for those unfamiliar with the story:
https://genius.com/2058591
An interesting question to let hang around as we continue in the course is, in addition to the more general search for meaning, how do atheists handle suffering, evil, and the like? What are the traditions of wisdom for this? We're without many of the tools religionists have so I'm interested in hearing where we go (I've got some ideas; the Stoics are a favorite of mine).
For the record, I prefer Adam West's Batman franchise-the one that did not take itself at all seriously but still remembered it was a comic book.
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, atheists handle gratuitous suffering by acknowledging that it is bad, and that we must do all in our power to minimize and mitigate it. There's nothing about it to explain, bad things happen to all kinds of people all the time (and good things too) because the universe is fundamentally indifferent to our fates. We've got to take care of each other - as Joaquin Phoenix said.
Indeed! I'll drink to that!
DeleteI always find it interesting how humans will find patterns in anything- say a piece of toast that looks exactly like the divine face of the lord (holding aside having no real knowledge of exactly what he would look like)- I feel its important in our speciese, in respect to survival, to find these patterns and make them work for us. However I think we often forget that correlation does not equal causation, and many of us attribute 'miracles" or sightings of 'divine messengers' to some supernatural answer that others have stated before, when the cause is likely a natural occurrence the individual or humanity has little to no knowledge of it's inner workings.
DeleteThe world isn't some perfectly organized schema that has all the answers within itself, it is pure chaos that we humans attempt to organize and conquer.
The Joker is a favorite villain of mine, because he represents the absurdity of absolute nihilism. He's correct in telling Batman that there is a reason for Bruce becoming who he is: he had "one bad day" when his parents were murdered. However much Bruce tries to forget that he is a product of his past experiences, he has to at least recognize that they have shaped him. Fortunately for Gotham, Bruce recognizes that he still has to accept personal responsibility for his actions, instead of allowing his trauma to excuse nihilism and engender violent criminal behavior. I think one of the strengths of Nolan's Batman is that he showed just how close Batman can get to crossing the lines he arbitrarily drew for himself; Ledger's Joker tries to get Batman to break his no-kill rule because it would prove that Joker's worldview of nihilistic self-serving and chaotic evil is justified.
ReplyDeleteWell said!
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