Better Late Than Never - Comment on the Dark Knight

I saw the new Batman movie when it first came out – and as I was watching it I was really struck by the character of the Joker. His speech where he calls himself an “agent of chaos” has gotten a lot of play on the internet. I couldn’t help thinking of how his character is similar in many ways to the devil and evil. Evil doesn’t have a plan – its only aim is to throw people off the path of good. It doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter what you believe. That’s its only purpose. But what about people who actively act evil? What about real people like the Joker?
It got me thinking about how people come to be the way they are. Throughout the movie, the Joker makes up different reasons for how he got the scars on his face. When he asks Batman if he wants to know where the scars came from, Batman replies that he doesn’t care. I thought that was really impressive. Does it really matter where our scars came from? Or is it enough that they are there and have shaped us in some way? Batman, too, had a dark past, but he decided to turn his past into a positive to help the city. It goes to show you that people can have evil things happen to them. It’s awful, and sad, yes. But how people respond to those evil things shapes who they are now. In the present. Which is most important. People can react like the Joker when evil things happen, and act in evil ways as well, or like Batman, they can react in a positive way.
I have been reading a book called, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” by Victor Frankl. It’s about the holocaust and people who were in concentration camps. He said something that really struck me in that book. He wrote about the prisoners and said, “Fundamentally, therefore, any man can even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him – mentally and spiritually.” Later, he continues with this thought and says, “It is this spiritual freedom – which cannot be taken away – that makes life meaningful and purposeful.”
I think that is the lesson in Batman, as well. Just goes to show you, sometimes you can find life lessons in the most random of places.