when I think of a
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xiety the first movie that usually comes
to mind is the dark knight by now it is
clear to many that the dark knight
roughly parallels the war on terror in
both 9/11 America but merely looking at
this from a political angle is my
opinion too simple of an approach I
think what is really at stake here is
how terrorism changed our perception of
risk and as a consequence our perception
of ourselves and our society our heroes
and our villains our virtues and our
vices in this video I'm going to explore
how these issues are represented in the
Dark Knight and vice versa how grounding
a fictional story and real-life issues
elevated the Dark Knight to its now
legendary status so let's begin
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when trying to understand the driving
forces of our modern society I can't
think of a better place to start them
with German sociologist will give back
and his risk society thesis in the late
20th century he presented this argument
that the risks of modernity ranging from
political to environmental and economic
risks followed from its triumph modern
society has become a risk society in the
sense that it is increasingly occupied
with debating preventing and managing
risk that itself has produced in other
words we were suffering from the
consequences of the victory of modernity
the unintended side effects of progress
that were increasingly dominating the
public realm
I think this shift from a modernity of
linear progression towards one that had
to respond to this progression can be
observed between Batman Begins and The
Dark Knight in Batman Begins Bruce Wayne
seeks to free his city from corruption
and crime by using Batman as the driving
force and by the end of the film he has
made notable progress in that goal a
progress that Gotham responds to in The
Dark Knight in which the consequences of
Batman's actions become a growing
subject of discussion this refers to the
intended consequences as well as the
unintended once at the end of Batman
Begins inspector Gordon already warned
Batman of the possibility of new risks
and uncertainties that come with
introducing a new entity like Batman to
Gotham status quo we start wearing
Kevlar they buy armor-piercing rounds
and you're wearing a mask jumping off
rooftops in the dark night the initial
optimism resulting from Batman's success
becomes challenged by these unintended
consequences that greatly impact the
perception of risk
traditionally risk is measured by the
chance and impact of an event which
implies a certain degree of knowledge on
both of these elements back pointed out
how this model of measuring risk is
practically rendered useless in this new
phase of modernity that is dealing with
increasingly significant unknown
variables that undermine our trust in
adequately determining the chance and
impact of an event moving into the 21st
century this became even more evident
for however unpredictable risks had
become impacts earlier work they were
still blows of fate of bad fortune
understood in the dialectic terms of
goods and Bad's and then came 9/11 and
now you you have to move from talk about
a possible accident to talk about
something deliberate this has to be
deliberate folks why do you say that was
definitely on purpose because it just it
just flew straight into it it really
blew itself into World Trade Center I
think we have a terrorist act of
proportions that we cannot begin to
imagine a disjunct er the crash of these
two aircraft into the towers of the
World Trade Center New York appear to be
an act of terrorism the terrorist
attacks on 9/11 can be seen as a Black
Swan even a term coined by risk analysis
Nassim Nicholas Taleb to conceptualize
events that are completely unpredictable
but carry an extreme impact terrorism
fundamentally changed how we perceive
risk because it replaced chance with
purpose it introduced malicious intent
into an equation that was mostly focused
on the accidental Beck emphasizes that
although we can more or less ensure and
cells from chance and accidents we are
utterly defenseless against this concept
of terrorism that turns every human
being into a potential danger good
evening ladies and gentlemen in the dark
night we see this purposeful terror in
the Joker a villain that no one saw
coming until it was already too late not
Gordon not the mob not even Batman whose
risk perception of criminals mostly
seemed to consist of figuring out their
goal complicated Alfred
we just need to figure out what he's
after the Joker however doesn't seem
driven by anything doesn't seem to
desire or want anything and because of
that he is the pure embodiment of this
malicious intent this will be terrorized
the ultimate representation of the idea
that deep down every human being poses a
fundamental risk I'll show you when the
chips are down these are civilized
people they'll eat each other one
important distinction that needs to be
made here is that risk is not synonymous
with catastrophe risk is the
anticipation of catastrophe they are
always future events that may occur that
threaten us but there are in the Dark
Knight doesn't come from the impact of
specific events it arises from its
anticipation the anticipation that
follows from the Joker announcing pretty
much everything he's planning to do the
Dark Knight is filled with this type of
suspense the anticipation of the Joker
assassinating city officials and blowing
up a hospital the anticipation of
ordinary citizens resorting to deadly
violence and the anticipation of both
passenger sacrificing each other to save
themselves it is this anticipation of
the Joker's terror that is unraveling
Gotham just like the anticipation of
terrorism according to Beck arguably
more so than the actual act of terrorism
is unraveling the Western world
ironically because the measures we take
against the risk of terrorism seem to be
eroding the very institutions of
democracy and freedom we want to protect
this is most notable with the
restricting of individual liberties in
the hope of security represented in the
dark night by the significant intrusion
of privacy by Batman's Sona device
unethical dangerous at what cost but it
can also be found in the growing
distrust in the institutions that are
supposed to protect us and in the
growing wariness towards our fellow
human beings this more abstract notion
of the consequences of the anticipation
of catastrophe is symbolized by the soul
of Gotham which if you've seen the essay
from lessons from screenplay is exactly
what Batman and the Joker are battling
for it towards the end a representation
of what is perhaps the fundamental
struggle of our time I have enough blood
on my hands I've seen now what I would
have to become to stop men like you the
most important question that remains is
what can we do against this terror how
can we regain security and control in
this time of fear and uncertainty The
Joker shows us how terrorism attacks
precisely those values that allow it to
happen and how the anticipation of
catastrophe forces us to reflexively act
based on increasingly unreliable risk
perceptions that can lead to
self-defeating consequences for example
in the scene that led to some confusion
the Joker switches the location of where
Rachel and Harvey are being held hostage
and in a dark twist of fate Batman ends
up losing Rachel exactly because he
acted out of the anticipation of losing
her for it is in this anticipation that
he didn't take into account the
possibility of the Joker deliberately
corrupting the information he gives to
Batman this doesn't necessarily make
Batman guilty of Rachel's death it just
shows the futility of our traditional
models of risk assessment when
attempting to take human will into
account a variable that almost by
definition presents limitless
possibilities some of which are bound to
lead to catastrophe still facing the
concrete consequences of acting based on
increasingly intangible information
and after devastating effects on our
perception of ourselves
losing Rachel is a turning point for
both Batman who loses his composure for
the first time and feels responsible for
what happened Harvey Dent who loses his
ideals and turns into a villain I have
never eaten wasn't change we decide to
act we three then why was it me who is
the only one who lost everything to me
it is a bleak reminder that this is not
an issue that we can conceptualize in
the traditional terms of good versus bad
of us versus them because as much as
we'd like to isolate ourselves in our
moral codes and create a safe space for
our morality the Joker reveals that
these walls we put up between ourselves
and that which we consider to be a
threat are an illusion this is not a
battle fought somewhere far away this is
a battle on home turf a battle for our
soul we are all part of this and
whatever we choose to do
however we act in the anticipation of
catastrophe is final for our faith you
thought we could be decent men in an
indecent time
I greatly admire how the Dark Knight
doesn't give us one favorite response
one obvious solution to this fight
because in reality there simply isn't
one instead it shows the multitude of
reactions like trading in freedom for
security taking morality out of the
equation simply trusting in the goodness
of humanity and fabricating a reality to
provide people with some sense of
certainty ultimately the Dark Knight
reflects a society that is radically
changed in the face of terrorism and
forced to explore new ways of coping
with fundamental risks that have broken
down the societal and personal
Security's we once found comfort in by
taking these real-world issues and
weaving them into the fabric of the
narrative The Dark Knight uses one of
our most beloved heroes to help us
understand this ongoing battle for our
soul and the price we've paid in
fighting it the part of ourselves that
we've lost for regardless how you feel
about Batman's sacrifice at the end of
the film there's only one thing that's
for sure our hero as we know him it's
gone forever
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