Comments on: What Heath Ledger’s ‘Joker’ Taught Me About Myself

By: Ryuen

Ryuen — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 18:55:02 +0000

I hear that.
I see this coming to fruition in the Westernized societies, America, the original thirteen colony area, mainly. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an American but I see our society is hellbent on becoming total utilitarian and dropping others at the first sign of trouble. Example – “They can’t get me ahead in my position anymore, or, I can’t use them to get rich anymore, or, I’ve got what I needed from them” so, they have no purpose in my life anymore. They become a liability. Until! You’ve got something they desire that is out of reach. That is when you become an asset again.
On the issue for losing control, Americans, we’ve been trained to think we have control over everything because we’ve been brainwashed to believe we can have everything our way all of the time. It’s all an illusion that MANY people can’t discern from the real world. I think Joker was reality and Batman was fantasy.
Finally on Dent – He was just a person trying to do good but they wouldn’t allow him

By: ds_robinette

ds_robinette — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 16:46:49 +0000

50 years nothing. As far as Im concerned words like Frienship dont exist today.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:30:43 +0000

You mention “I snap. I am impatient. I am selfish. And that was the Joker’s main ambition in life – to prove that when there is chaos people will “eat each other””.

Just as a quibble, I think only the last part of that sentence is what the Joker is talking about. To become impatient, even to ‘snap’ is not inconsistent with losing morality. In fact, it may be a sign of someone that is doing the OPPOSITE of what the Joker refers to.

It’s the selfishness that comes into it. The Joker in that scene is not talking about frustration with the world. He’s not talking about Harvey Dent or Batman there, though he may — at that moment — think he might be (and they too have to potential to fall under those comments). He’s really talking about everyone besides our protagonists. The people who are most exhibited in this are the cops who sell Dent out.

When Dent falls, he does not fall to corruption. He does not fall to please himself and decides he likes killing. He falls becuase he cannot deal, in the end, with the world as it is, a world that the Joker forces him to deal with by exhibiting that phrase that most people “are only as good as the world allows them to be”. And in the end it becomes an even greater truth for Dent than it is even for the Joker — there is more than enough evidence I think, in the movie, to suggest that the Joker arrives at this summation only by accident: that he’s a man who likes to watch the world burn and so gives himself excuses as to why that’s not only ok, but he’s no different from anyone else. Dent meanwhile does not want to watch the world burn becase he enjoys watching things burn or resents anyone’s control over something. If he wants to see something burn it’s becuase, in his estimation as Two-Face, THAT WHAT IT DESERVES.

The Joker meanwhile will burn something if it deserves it or not.

In the end there is more in common between the Joker, Batman and Dent than most of the other characters becuase those three share the same passion for thier own vision. And they either do not sell that vision out, or in Dent’s case, only abandon it when it is revealed to him that in adhering to his ideals, he is mostly alone. Batman at the end says that “Sometimes people deserve to have thier faith rewarded”.

Dent is an example of someone whose faith is not rewarded.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:52:51 +0000

Batman in the Dark Knight represents the state. A “Law and Order” Authoritarian through and through, who breaks the law in order to save the law. Who tortures and spies to “protect”.

Joker in a lot of ways represents anarchist thought. He is an anarchist. He represents unintended consequences, he mocks Batman in the interrogation room for Batman’s inability to gain leverage on the Joker, even with the full power of the state (a monopoly on force). Batman had to rely on torture and spying on Gotham’s citizens on a massive scale to find the Joker, he literally turned Gotham City into a panopticon.

How convenient was that spy machine. The NSA would be quite impressed. If Batman is so concerned about the safety of Gotham’s citizens then he should have kept the machine going. Like Eisenhower said:

“If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom.”

By: plucky p.

plucky p. — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:15:24 +0000

I must disagree. The Joker IS a ‘Buddha’. The Batman and other “do-gooders” could never be cause of there constant grappling for control over others and the world around them.

And I didn’t quite see the Joker as taking direct pleasure in either killing or the suffering of others. I remember a few instances where he said something along the line of, ‘…Don’t take this personally”. His destruction, as I saw it, wasn’t out of hate or because the thing being destroyed went against his beliefs(he had no beliefs or ideals-a sign of a true liberated person), no he couldn’t bomb out of dislike for that would be fascist. As an “agent of chaos” he destroyed to set people free from their bonds with control.

I actually see batman and the rest as “bad guys”, if there is such a thing, as they are the discriminating ones. They are the control freaks.

Only someone who is truly free could have acted as the Joker did. None the less, I don’t think that the character was intended to have the depth that it actually did.

By: SnowGo

SnowGo — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:49:22 +0000

Hi TDM! Unfortunately, I experienced it on my own skin…

When “the chips are down”, everyone puts himself/herself at 1st place…

It’s sad, but well… truth is (ost of the times) sad…

By: The Daily Minder

The Daily Minder — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:35:26 +0000

Hi SnowGo.

WOW! That is some skeptical stuff!

Why do you think 99.99% of people are selfish?

TDM

By: SnowGo

SnowGo — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:37:02 +0000

so I have to say it’s a really nice text. I don’pt know if the basic is good. Maybe it is, but people just cannot see it, so… Most of them are Joker’s I guess..
but you know sometimes it’s right. When you help someone, when you are good… and then someone kicks your ass instead saying thanks, when noone seems to be good, and you’re the only one, don’t you think”what’s the sense of all this?” It would have sense if ppl would help each other, but since the 99,99999% of people is selfish, this is pretty hard don’t you think?

Our society sux, and it’s getting worse day by day. In 50 years, the words FRIENSHIP, GOOD,… won’t exist anymore.

By: The Daily Minder

The Daily Minder — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 10:20:13 +0000

Chris – thanks for stopping by. I think its funny that the Joker resonated with so many people.

TDM

By: Chris - Zen to Fitness

Chris - Zen to Fitness — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 07:41:50 +0000

Love this post. It rung true for me as well…. There are times when if things are not going to plan my mental state can start to crumble, and my good characteristics fade away. This is a superb observation… Thanks very much for the knowledge