Ramblings on the Dark Knight Rises
Christopher Nolan’s movies spur all kinds of discussion and debate. That’s because he includes themes that are true to life. They hit home with all of us. His Batman trilogy focused on three themes: Batman Begins focused on fear, The Dark Knight focused on chaos, and the Dark Knight Rises focused on consequences. In the Dark Knight Rises there are a number of consequences that occur.
#1 Consequence of Communistic Rule:
The goal of Bane's revolutionary army is to overthrow the rich ruling class and their false symbol of justice by total an anihilist mix of anarchy and communism, which mirrors the French Revolution. The irony is that all of their formalities of justice were a joke such as the "trials by jury" and especially Bane's reassurance that the power was in the hand's of the people, when in reality people followed Bane because they were afraid of him (Catwoman was a great example of one terrified of Bane and therefore a willing follower).
The socialist/communist dream imagines that if we just rip the wealthy few to shreds and feed them to the dogs then all will be well. But the reality is these dreams lead to violent uprisings giving opportunity for mercenaries to now become the ruling-class.This is the historic and current result of almost every true communist rule. The power gets taken from the ruling class by people who promise freedom and the result is the rule of a brutal despot. A historical example is the exchange of the Russian Czar which resulted in Stalin. And even currently Robert Mugabe who rid Zimbabwe of her 'opressors'. But neither of these forms of rule are truly good, more on that in a bit.
#2 Consequence of Total Sacrifice:
When looking at the prison segment in the movie, one thought is that it forced Bruce Wayne to truly risk his life and that truly risking his life would motivate him enough to face the oppressors of Gotham. This could explain the dialogue between him and Catwoman as follows, "You've given everything..." "Not everything." In order for Batman to be the true symbol of justice, he must be willing to walk in the shadows of death. And you can feel the threat of the enemy get so big in this movie that suddenly the death of one person is longer the issue but for the sake of the many in the city.
Tie ins with Plato’s Republic:
In Plato's Republic both the wealthy ruling class and the violent revolutionaries are bad solutions for man's dream of paradise. But this movie reminded me of two concepts from Plato's republic written~427 BC.
The first concept is the idea of the just man. The just man is put in contrast to the unjust man. Both are public symbols but very opposite in status and nature. The unjust man is privileged with all the indulgences, privileges, and popularity. The unjust man is built upon dishonesty and is rewarded. His primary aim is his public appearance and prefers to seem good/just then actually being good/just.
In contrast the just man recieves no reputation or reward but is clothed with justice. His full dedication is to truth and being just. And the people respond to his commitment by ordering and commiting his crucifixion. Batman was clothed in justice but in a more fitting degree does not the just man sound like the suffering servant of Isaiah 53?
The second concept is Plato's concept of the perfect government. His idea of the perfect government would not be an aristocracy nor an anrarchy nor a communist pipe dream but what he called a perfect philosopher-king. Plato made the case that if a perfectly just philosopher-king could be given all control then a most ideal goverment would be achieved. And this was no pipe dream because Plato was taught by Socrates and Plato then taught Aristotle and Aristotle trained Alexander the Great in Philosophy. Alexander the great was the first attempt in the Gentile world of a perfected philosopher-king. But his fall was marked by his demand for recognition and even worship as deity. (He literally wanted a mountain carved in his likeness). This demand for recognition proved him disqualified as the just man. And even his eventual successor ie the antichrist (Daniel 8:23-26) will be a "solver of riddles" a sort of philosopher-king but his heart will be full of deciet also disqualifying him as the perfect i.e. just philospher-king.
But the ultimate philosopher-king the true Davidic will rise will be given his throne by God because he has proven his just nature, and character in the cross