Not too long ago, the debate team and I were driving back from a tournament and Mr. Shimmield and I became engaged in a deep conversation. Lo and behold, we were not talking about the intricacies of refuting a logical fallacy or how to construct the unassailable contention. We were talking about a historic American icon.
It wasn’t Washington. It wasn’t Elvis. It was Batman.
Why does a DC comic book character who has pointy ears and wears a rubber suit matter? When Bob Kane and Bill Finger created Batman in 1939, they created a character immersed in paradoxes and contradictions. In fact, I sit here before my laptop to tell you that this comic strip character epitomizes the complexities of the political, socioeconomic, and cultural ironies of the world in 2007.
Batman symbolizes the archetype of a true hero. He selflessly risks his life for the cause of justice by combating evil in order to protect the innocent and helpless. DC Comics was certainly looking to create a champion of all that is good. As a result, Batman is viewed as the heroic savior of Gotham City in his various media incarnations, from television character to movies star to comic-book hero. Yet in order to preserve and uphold the law, Batman must break it. Unlike law enforcement officials, Batman is not held accountable for his actions, considering he operates outside of the law. For all practical purposes, he is a vigilante who can be as unpredictable and dangerous as the very criminals he turns in. Just ask Gotham City officials, who will attest to the millions of dollars in property damage that Batman has inflicted by blasting through buildings in his Batmobile!
As Batman puts it in the film Batman Begins, he doesn’t “have time to observe the rules of the road.”
That is the utilitarian paradox of Batman: his altruistic drive is channeled through a consequentialist moral scope where the ends justify the means. In order to outlaw injustice, the just Batman becomes an outlaw himself. Indeed, Batman subscribes to a libertarian distrust of the government that calls for individual action to maintain order. One can’t help but wonder how thin the line is between such a mentality and unbridled anarchy.
As is expected of any urban metropolis like Gotham City, crime is perpetrated primarily by the destitute and indigent. While Batman views these criminals as social parasites, the very plutocratic system that he upholds ensures that there will always be people whose social and economic condition encourages them to partake in crime.
Heir to a family fortune that makes him the wealthiest man in Gotham, Bruce Wayne assumes the life of a billionaire playboy who relishes in dating models, driving sports cars, and buying things that are not for sale. Conversely, Gotham’s delinquents do not enjoy such lavish lives of comfort. Ironically, Batman attempts to rectify the societal ills that his class generates through its excessive hoarding of wealth from the less-fortunate.
People like Bruce Wayne create and sustain conditions that are conducive to a world of the haves and the have-nots. It is this extreme level of socioeconomic inequality that is directly responsible for discontent and crime. In the words of the French novelist Honore de Balzac, “Behind every great fortune is a crime.” The day a society turns its back on its most helpless members is the day it forfeits its conscience. Gotham City is a testament to warped moral choices.
Batman’s function in Gotham City parallels America’s role in the world. Just as Batman attempts to single-handedly police Gotham, the United States has found itself in the position of the world’s policeman. Batman has done a great deal of good in Gotham; in the same way, the U.S. has unquestionably been a force for effecting positive change in the world through humanitarian aid, promotion of democratic ideals, support for human rights, and intervention in conflict zones like Northern Ireland and Kosovo. In a manner reminiscent of Batman’s indifference to systemic legality, the United States has displayed a tendency to ignore international institutions in pursuit of maintaining order on the global stage. Both Batman and the U.S. seek to utilize their existences to guarantee that the larger world mirrors their notions of a just world.
President Bush reminds Americans that he believes the U.S. is the sole force responsible for protecting the world from evil. Likewise, in the original 1989 film Batman, Bruce Wayne believes that he must defend the city “because nobody else can.” Batman and America have devoted themselves to the idea that one man or one nation can address the myriad of problems the world faces. Consequently, Batman and the U.S. take it upon themselves to fight the rogues of the world—be they dumpy cranks like the Penguin and Kim Jong-il, or menaces who always answer questions by posing them, like the Riddler and Iranian President Ahmadinejad. In doing so, they invest their very beings into attaining a specific world order. And they even have the help of staunch sidekicks: Batman’s got Robin, America’s got Tony Blair!
But in acting as the sole regulator for stability in Gotham, Batman unintentionally promotes a cycle of violence that breeds criminality. The greatest villain in the Batman universe, the Joker, is a product of Batman’s own actions, due to an accident Batman causes at a chemical plant. Similarly, the U.S. often finds itself confronting its own creations. Saddam Hussein is known today as a despot who America deposed, yet decades ago he was a key U.S. ally in the Middle East. Just as Batman sees himself as a straightforward do-gooder and would be astonished if one told him that he was a cause of the crime he fights, America is puzzled by the international community’s sometimes “ungrateful” reaction to its actions.
Perhaps this phenomenon is inevitable, as it is entailed in acting as a lone arbitrator of good and evil, a position both America and Batman have willingly accepted, and one that has come to define their legacies, for better or for worse.
On the surface, Batman appears to be nothing more than a fictional character designed for children. But upon closer inspection, Batman reflects the convoluted nuances of our world. Perhaps this is why we Americans are so fascinated by Batman—he reminds us of our own contradictions and sums up the paradox that is mankind itself. And he manages to do it at the same Bat-time, on the same Bat-channel.
