Worldview in pop culture #4: Batman part 2

A city in ruin. An angry hoard of the oppressed routing out and destroying the rich upper class, making them wonder how they could live so high and leave so little for the rest One man standing above them, rallying them to himself. The end of Batman? You'll have to watch the movie.

In Christopher Nolan's epic conclusion to his Batman trilogy, Batman is pitted against Bane in a motion picture that has received praise for being nothing short of amazing. I must make a disclaimer here, because I actually haven't seen the movie yet. You may ask how I can comment on a movie I haven't seen. Well, I comment not so much on the movie, but the worldview there within. From the reviews I have read and the trailers I have seen, this movie contains some strong themes that have sparked equally strong debates. Namely that of Capitalism and Communism.

When Karl Marx called on the workers of the world to unite, he told them that they had “...nothing to loose but [their] chains.” Bane seem to give the oppressed of Gotham a similar charge. Unfortunately for Russian, Marx wasn't exactly right. The workers also found that they lost their freedom trying to gain it. Many of them lost their very lives. Most conservative estimates place the toll of deaths at the hands of Communist regimes in the hundreds of thousand, if not millions, in the 20^th century. It seems, on the outside, that the socialist or communist way of doing things wouldn't lead to such horrific death tolls. In principle at least, (but no further), Marxist Communism has a few interesting points. After all, the sharing of wealth and labor should work out, right. Wrong. Communism cannot satisfy the needs of the common man because of three reasons.

#1: The nature of man.

Communism wrongly assumes that the heart of man is good and can be trusted. Communism is founded upon atheism, and totally rejects the fallen nature of man. Thus, Communism holds that there is really nothing wrong with man that can't be fixed by the state. The idea behind intellectual Communism is that eventually, the state itself will not be needed. It can bring about utopia by getting everyone to agree on peace and love. However, in practice, communistic regimes never relinquish their power, and they brutally murder anyone who disagrees. The problem with this assumption is also found in the fact that when half of the people realize that they are not receiving the rewards for their work, and half of the people realize they can receive the rewards without working, none of the people will actually want to work. This willingness to work is essential to ideological Communism.

#2: Economics.

Socialism, the economic force of Communism, is a failed system. This is best illustrated by the fable about the communist who was bragging to an American by showing him a massive storehouse that appeared to be filed with massive tubes, ranging all the way to the ceiling, with diameters of about 4 ft. This was, as I remember, in the 80's. (I could be off by a decade or so). When the American asked what the tubes were, the Communist replied proudly, “hula-hoops.” You see, when the government decides what is to be produced and how it is to be produced, you end up with a bunch of stuff that the public doesn't want. In order for the market to work, those who provide goods and services must provide the kind of goods and services that the public wants, at a price that the consumers can afford, or fail. It sounds brutal and mean, but it is the only way to guarantee the survival of a healthy economy and society, which in the end will actually benefit everyone, not just the upper class as most Marxists would have you to believe.

#3: Tyranny.

Communism has been shown to always result in tyranny. This idea is closely related to #1, but with the added connotation that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. (That should be in quotations, but I'm not entirely sure who said it. George Washington is usually credited.) Every time a Communist nation has been attempted, the result has been the loss of thousands of lives at the hands of their corrupt leaders (Don't believe me? Search “Gulag Archipelago”). If you think that Hitler killed a lot of people, research Stalin. Or worse yet, Mao. Instead of placing the power in the equally divided hands of the people, Communism places it directly in the hands of too few men.

Alright, so this one wasn't exactly about Batman. It was more about Communism. I happen to think that Capitalism, while flawed, is a much better economics system, and that a representative republic is a superior government philosophy. Why? Posts to follow.

~Steven Hamilton