Hillary or The Donald: Getting Just What We Deserve

Have we ever had two worse candidates for the presidency running at the same time? Sometimes, I feel like this is some sort of nightmare or a cosmic joke and I'm going to wake up from it and see two half-way normal people running (ie, Jim Webb, Elizabeth Warren, Rand Paul, John Kasich, or hell....even Jeb Bush). The votes are almost in and for better and probably worse Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are going to be fighting it out for the title of "most powerful person on the planet". Yeah, exactly....let that shit sink in for a few minutes. 

The political climate is such that it has given rise to a quasi-fascist like Trump. I understand the allure and I outlined it in my last entry, entitled "The Trump Thing". We gave rise to this man. It's largely our fault. We have given over the reigns of our republic to the political and financial elite and they have shaped a country where the difference between the have and have nots is increasing by the year. The power has been taken from the people and given to the corporation, which our bought and sold Supreme Court backed up with their decision that says corporations are people and can make huge political donations to PAC's, basically buying power within our government. That power is used to  help elect politicians that will create favorable legislation to the wealthiest among us. Hillary is a glowing example of this sort of Main Street vs Wall Street disconnect rank and file voters display. We have allowed our country to be taken from us because we have been duped into becoming a narcissistic and distracted population. Social media, wedge issues, reality TV, opinion programming disguised as hard news, and the death of investigative journalism have crippled the average American and in concert, the United States as we formerly knew it. We fight for or over the wrong shit and we fight with each other as though we are enemies. We are manufactured enemies, but again, we did this. We kept voting for these two parties and fought tooth and nail to defend them against our own best interests and against the best interest of a nation we all say we love. We let it happen. We watched it happen with glee and pride! All of this distraction has finally led us to two candidates that should have most of us horrified, if not very concerned.

Donald Trump is a billionaire. He is also a political fraud and chameleon. He's already backing down from some of the blustering promises he has been making over the past year. He has suddenly "evolved" on issues like immigration just in the past few weeks. He has had many success' in business and he has had some failures. Anyone that puts themselves on the line in the business world is bound to slip now and again. Part of his rallying cry is how the mainstream, establishment politicians have sold out the American worker and you know, that's true. What he doesn't seem as anxious to scream from the roof tops is that he has taken advantage of the sell out. He has donated large sums of money to both parties over the years (including to the Clintons) because it was to his advantage. That's the way our system works. If you want something done, you go buy it. Our vote only allows us to choose which party or person we want to benefit the most from the purchasing power. Trump should be a lot of things that rank and file Republicans hate. They hated Bill Clinton for a myriad of reasons, including his womanizing. Remember, he cheated on his wife and therefore his character couldn't be trusted. Trump has done the same thing. Remember, Bill Clinton was involved in shady insider business deals that had huge financial windfalls for him personally and politically. Trump has taken advantage of his fathers fortune and political connections to get deals worked with huge tax breaks that not just anyone would be privy to. Remember when Donald Trump was a "left wing plant" that was running so the presidency would be given to Hillary? What happened to that bit of paranoid thinking? The same people that hated what Clinton was about are now willing to let those things go or even worse, make excuses for them in regards to Trump. They are slaves to the party. It's their identity. It's their team. Country be damned.....you gotta win, right? Throw personal integrity and character out the door. Just win baby. 

Trump exhibits fascist tendencies and at best he can be considered a quasi-fascist. He is now capitalizing politically on what he has been capitalizing on financially. Demonizing trade deals and companies that have shifted jobs out of country, even though, again, after taking advantage of them himself. He is openly isolationist and nationalistic which taps into the distrust/dislike of foreigners that so many on the right grumble about, but have now been given the green light to scream about out in the open. He doesn't do anything to temper the anger, resentment and hatred that is being poured out. American policy means more than human rights to Trump and his supporters. He has gone so far as to say he would order the military to break the law by using torture to procure information and to kill the families of known terrorists. Both are illegal, but he said the military will do it because he will order it. All you have to do is use Google and you can find much more on the views he holds that are consistent with authoritarianism and/or fascism. He has also been inconsistent on abortion, on conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as on other issues. He demonizes his perceived rivals and fellow Americans, based on appearance or stereotypes. This isn't an honorable man in any sense of the word. I get it, we all want a strong leader and we know we have problems with jobs, illegal immigration, terrorism, etc....but do we really want to overreact and go to the far right to fix those things? It's a road to less personal liberty, not more. It certainly isn't a road to greatness. I don't compare Trump to Hitler as a person or leader, but the nationalism and authoritarianism in a comparison of their rhetoric can't be ignored. "Make America Great Again" may be a slogan, but perhaps we can settle for "Make America Admirable Again"? 

That moves me on to Hillary Clinton. I believe this woman to be a fraud and a charlatan of the highest order that is basically using entitlement to bully her way to the nomination. She is purely a political animal and can probably be trusted less than Donald Trump when her words are taken into consideration. Trump doesn't hide what he is, Hillary has, does, and will. She wants the presidency and will say and do anything to get it. Her career is built off of her husbands rise to power in both Arkansas and in Washington DC. Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with that, but looking the other way in the face of humiliation, excuse making, and outright deception when it comes to some of the more unseemly pieces of her husbands political and personal life makes her out to be merely and opportunist and an enabler. She likely didn't stick with Bill because of any obligation to the sanctity of marriage or for Chelsea, but to keep her own political career intact.

Hillary is weak on her position that she knows how to get Americans back to work. She supported NAFTA, which her husband signed into law (and was supported by people like Rush Limbaugh for crying out loud, so as you can see, the elites knew the advantage of this "deal"),  and she has rattled off rhetoric about putting people out of work who are employed by the fossil fuel industry and then took it back a week later when confronted by a voter. She obviously doesn't even understand the people that she believes to be her constituency. She and her husband have been huge proponents of Wall Street. She is status quo on banking and in fact her husband pushed the banking industry to be more resourceful in giving horrible loans to people so they could buy houses, which eventually caused the great mortgage collapse and sent our economy into a depression/recession that we will NEVER recover from. She benefits from current campaign finance laws more than any other candidate and may well receive more money from PAC's than any candidate ever. How can she protect us from the predators on Wall Street if she is taking money from them? They are not giving her money to reverse the current trends. She has stated that she has voted for "barriers" to keep illegals out, but now is using Trump's rhetoric on the subject against him. She has been against same sex marriage and now she's for it. She is as much of a neocon as Bill Kristol and Dick Cheney when it comes to our use of the military. The Huffington Post (a noted liberal website) has called her "the candidate of Wall Street. Even more dangerous though, is that she is the candidate of the military industrial complex" and went on to say that her foreign policy experience basically stems from supporting every war demanded by the CIA and military. 

I am obviously of the opinion that neither of these people are fit to be president. We are supposed to be a beacon of light to the rest of the world. We are becoming a laughing stock. This democratic republic was designed to be a great experiment and we, the people, should maintain control over its affairs and leadership. We have ceded that control to the political and financial elite. We have no one to blame but ourselves. During the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968, the crowds were chanting "the whole world is watching" when the police and national guard were brutally dispersing protesters, basically interrupting the people's right to assemble and use free speech. My fear is that in August of 2016, the chants will be "the whole world is laughing". This is far from a laughing matter, but we have finally gotten what we deserve. Our leadership is finally reflecting who we are as a people and a culture. The will of the people is speaking and of course I accept it. Just don't expect me to get along and go along like a trained monkey. I will vote FOR a candidate that doesn't have a record of lying. That doesn't have a record of manipulating the system for personal gain. I will vote for a person of some character and integrity or I will not vote at all. If there is nothing else I have as an American, I have my vote. I won't bend over and give it up like a whore on spring break nickel night in Tijuana. 

This Needs To Be Said: America Is An Empire In Decline PART 1

I've never lived in another country, so I can't say for sure that we are the greatest nation on earth. Perhaps we are. More likely, perhaps we were or if we still are, there isn't much of a bar to jump over these days. 

We need to change. We are number one in in the world in regards to some things, but nothing that I would find worth bragging about. In fact, the things we used to be (and should be) best at are slip sliding away and we haven't even noticed, or maybe it's just that we don't care. 

As I said to kick this off, I have never lived elsewhere. I'm glad I was born here, but that doesn't mean I have to cheer lead when things are wrong. Love it or leave it? What kind of hillbilly nonsense is that? Without dissent, we'd still be colonies. Dissent and bucking the conventional wisdom is as American as it gets. I'm guessing if 30 people read this (and that's probably being generous), at least half will be pissed off about it. Well.....good. I don't care. Some things need to be said. 

First off, we are the best in the world at some stuff. We have more people in prison than any other nation. We spend more on the military than any other nation. We are the world's largest exporter of military grade weapons and often times we have our own soldiers killed by those very weapons. We have more gun deaths than any other nation. We are the most obese nation on the planet. Hip Hip Hooray!!!!

There are some things we should be right near the top in world wide, but sadly, we are not even close. We rank 11th among industrialized nation in health and healthcare. The rest of the world is seeing an increase in life expectancy, the United States is seeing a decline. Education? Glad you asked. US students rank 17th in reading and 21st in mathematics. Out of the 35 most economically developed nations on earth, the US ranks 34th in child poverty. 

http://www.alternet.org/economy/american-exceptionalism

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-wittner/the-united-states-is-no-1_b_5974516.html

Let's just not say we are slipping....we have slipped. The game isn't over, but we don't seem to want to do anything to change the score. We seem content to be the next great empire to implode upon itself. I'm guessing most Americans are not seeing it coming. Why would they? If you watch network TV or one of the cable news channels, everything must be going great right? I mean, they show us people with no talent in talent contests. We watch celebrities that can't dance, try to dance. Bruce Jenner's tits and dick are worthy of news reports. We are sold a bill of goods about our great democracy when 90% of the media is owned by 6 corporation, and the only bills that get passed are ones in which lobbyists are pouring money into the political piggy banks for. Guess who is getting the screw? The middle class? Give that dog a bone! 

You might still be with me at this point, but here is where I'm gonna lose some of you. It's time for some shit to change. It's time to start thinking like we live in 2015 and not 1615. 

The confederate flag. Isn't it time that goes? Don't give me some bullshit about heritage. It is a symbol of treason against the very nation that some of you say you love so much. It's a symbol of regarding some human beings as being animals and personal property. States rights? Sure, a states right to cheap labor. It's a symbol of fighting against the tide of change (geez, that should feel REALLY familiar to people in the south these days) and the evolution of thought. The country isn't going to shake like a big rattlesnake and the south isn't rising again. Let it go. The north didn't win and the south didn't lose. The entire country won and lost with that war and it's time to put the damn 1860's to bed already. 

Evolution. It's real. Educate yourselves. Cling to your 2,000 year old Koran/Bible or whatever, but don't hold your children and this country back any longer. If you don't want it taught in schools, well, you need to teach your kid at home so he/she can be a half brain dead idiot like you without any upward mobility. The rest of us are trying to move on. I don't give a damn what your book says....it's WRONG. It's been wrong about anything to do with science for thousands of years. We are dumbing our children down with nonsense. We are confusing them with mythology. This is becoming a highly technical world and we can't lose generations to believing we all came from a few people that got off a big boat after a flood. We spend a trillion dollars a year on the military (16% of the budget) and we spend 2% of the budget on education. What the hell are we doing? We don't even have simple factory jobs for the dumb asses to do any more (because your political ideology is giving you the high hard one and you aren't bothering to look over your shoulder) and the jobs the morons are qualified for are jobs you don't want to even pay them $10 an hour for! We actually tell people to get jobs and then get mad if we think they  make too much for said job. We actually side with the hundred billion dollar company over the slave....I mean worker making $8 or $10 an hour! Insanity.

Guns. It's time that we had a serious talk about guns and the gun culture in this country. For the record, I support gun ownership. I just believe it's time that we get strict with the ability to purchase/own one. Buying a hunting rifle or a shotgun is one thing. You should have to get a license and take a safety class. As for semi-automatic guns, folks should have to take some sort of test to see if any red flags fly up that may point towards future violence. At that point, a person should probably have to go through a longer waiting period and have to take additional courses on safety and hell, why not get a psych evaluation. (just spit balling ideas) What is so wrong with making gun ownership as safe as possible? You would think that the NRA and gun owners would want these sorts of things. The responsible people are getting a bad rap and frankly, less gun restrictions is just about one of the stupidest things anyone can argue for at this point. I'm actually more afraid of an American with a handgun on their person or in their car than I am of any terror threat. Hell, depending on what study you want to believe, we have had well over 200,000 gun deaths in the USA since 9/11. How many terrorist attacks have we had here since? We are manipulated to fear the wrong things. Stop buying the bullshit. 

Climate change. It's happening. Man made? Maybe. Probably. Even if it isn't, is that a good reason to ignore it and fight against trying to protect the planet? Most scientists agree that there are things happening globally in regards to our climate that are eventually going to have a huge impact on human life in a negative way. I guess if you want to side with big money corporations that don't give a single fuck about you or this planet have at it, but you are going to be wrong (as you are on a lot of things I'm guessing if you are a denier) side of history and what a helluva issue to be on the wrong side of. If you have children and say you care about this country, you should be appalled at deforestation, fracking, and the deregulation morons that are only going along with this thing for political reasons. We should be leading the world in trying to keep our planet habitable, not fighting against is because of politics. 

I suggest that we stop being controlled by political ideology and start thinking for ourselves. Reclaim your brain. Pick up a book and put down the phone. Watch a documentary instead of America's Got Talent. This conservative vs liberal, Democrat vs Republican thing is dragging our asses into a fast decline. We are a broken nation and we don't seem to know it. We cling to ideas more than practical reality. It's time to do what is best for the people of this nation. There are thousands more words I could write on how politics and corporate America being married is ruining the nation and our future, but I've already done it. If you care, search my site.

It's time to think differently....if you care. 

As I close this out, and leave you believing I'm some American hating liberal, know that I don't identify myself with an ideology. Most of this post would likely be applauded by folks of the more liberal persuasion, but there is a part 2 on this one that I will address at a later date. Some things need to be accounted for that many liberals don't want to face. Chief among those things are political correctness, crime, hardcore mental illness and topics as such.

So, until next time.....adios. 

My Evolving Stance On Religion & God

Admittedly, I can be pretty tough on religion. For the most part, I think I've been fair in my treatment of it overall. Yes, I focus on the negative aspects about 90% of the time. This isn't a newspaper, so if you want balance find it elsewhere. There are plenty of apologists and supporters that can tell you about the good things that religion can bring to the table. Often though, they act as though the good that is done by the religious couldn't be done without the behest of an ancient book. I take major exception with that premise, as even a two or three year old child can feel when someone is in need of comfort. For that matter, there are less evolved primates that can feel sympathy and care for others. That's not where I'm going today though. I want to actually put some of my thoughts down on how religion can be a benefit without being a detriment. Of course, I realize, even before I forge ahead that I will likely aggravate both the believer and non-believer with what I have to say. That's OK. I feel like maybe I'm doing something right if that's the case! 

Perhaps it's time to put aside the miracles. I don't care how devout you are, there has to be that little voice in back of your mind saying "That didn't happen.". No, it's not the "debil" saying that, it's your common sense. There are more reasonable explanations. And among those explanations are.....someone made it up. The virgin birth is not mentioned in two of the gospels. I, personally, would think that would be a pretty big deal if I were writing an account of someone that I considered to be the son of god. A better explanation would be that the authors (and nobody is 100% sure of who they are) that did include it were fulfilling prophecy. I'm not going to start listing all of them, but since there are no credible accounts of miracles since, it's pretty safe to say that the miracles were probably made up or misinterpreted. A lone person such as Muhammad, Paul/Saul, Joseph Smith, etc seeing heaven and being told what to do by god could just as easily been a mental delusion or the effects of psycho-active drugs. It happens today all the time (UFO sightings, people saying Jesus appeared to them), but nobody gives them credence. Read it in a 2,000 year old book and suddenly it's the spot on truth! Let's not pretend that people were not using hallucinogens for religious ceremonies in the past. That's been happening all over the world for thousands of years and could very well be the basis for why Jesus said the kingdom of is within you. I certainly know that I have felt that connection much stronger in seeking "god" (I really hate using that term, but for the sake of understanding I will) apart from religion than I ever did when I was immersed in it. Most eastern religions also refer to god or heaven being inside of us and not an external place to be sought after. So, I guess in these areas I'm asking folks to consider that the books written thousands of years ago may contain quite a few exaggerations, inaccuracy, and perhaps some passages that need to be re-examined in the context of what is possible or mostly probable. 

What about the notion of defining the attributes of god? God is explained in the ancient texts of our most popular religions as a man. A man with very human attributes and what we would consider flaws if we were speaking of a human being. We are told god is all loving, yet he is unforgiving. We are told god knows endless grace, yet he is vengeful. Maybe, just maybe, god has all the attributes of man because that's exactly who created the account of what/who god is? Why would god have a sex? Why would god need to be full of vengeance and anger? Why would god need to be jealous? Not very god-like attributes are they? Sounds like you or I, doesn't it? If we let go and actually admit to ourselves that we have no idea who or what god is, we could unshackle our imaginations and allow ourselves to be truly in awe of what god is (if god exists). What a wonderful creation we have. What an awe inspiring universe we are a very small part of. Do we need to be so certain that we are the center of it all? Do we have to be so certain that a very human-like god is keeping an eye on everything as a sort of cosmic pit boss? How about seeing the watchful eye of god in nature? That we are evolving and nature takes care of its own by instilling survival skills that can adapt to different environments or stimulus? Philosopher Alan Watts says that god is everywhere and everything, so any harm you do to anything else, means you are hurting god. He also says, so brilliantly that "the only god we can cling to, is the idea of god". Watts means that we can't possibly know something that is by definition vastly superior to us, and also is us. You let go of the idea of god because god can't possibly be defined in any way that doesn't limit it. I am not certain either way if there is a god or not. I will say this; if there is a god, I am CERTAIN that I wouldn't know how to describe it. Anything that we say about god must be so weak that we do a disservice to the very notion of what an all-powerful entity is. It's a disgrace to describe god. The religious texts are very wanting in the description of god. Amazing and awesome are even inadequate if there truly is a creator, don't you think? 

The devil and hell have to go. Much of the Old Testament doesn't really deal with the idea of hell after death. That death is merely the end with no eternal torture. Depending on the OT translation, "hell" could mean several things from merely being non-existent to a separation from god. I've said a good bit on hell on this blog before and don't intend to repeat much other than this; an eternal hell is in direct opposition to a loving and forgiving god. This notion of blaming everything that isn't "godly" on the devil is excuse making for our own humanity. It's time to stop bringing people to eternal love with the fear of eternal torture. Notice, I didn't say punishment....I said torture. That's the only way to describe what hell is as defined by most modern religious folks. 

The Hell Thing August 25th, 2010

Let's bring the ancient texts into modern times. The Bible/Torah/Koran are only precious and not meant to be altered because they say they are. They are only true because they say they are. Could you write "Kobe Bryant is god" on a napkin and use that as proof that Kobe Bryant is god? Of course not, so why would you take the word of a book that a bunch of people wrote that had absolutely no knowledge of how our natural existence worked? Because the books tell you to, right? See where I'm coming from? 

The 10 Commandments are nice, but we know that they are not the absolute authority on how human beings should act. There are some good ideas there, but any guide that doesn't include something about treating women and children humanely might need some revamping. A guide of morality such as the Bible is called that doesn't tell us to abolish slavery, yet tells us just how severely we can beat our slaves might not be that moral. I guess I will defer to Sam Harris on the 10 Commandments; 

“If you think that it would be impossible to improve upon the Ten Commandments as a statement of morality, you really owe it to yourself to read some other scriptures. Once again, we need look no further than the Jains: Mahavira, the Jain patriarch, surpassed the morality of the Bible with a single sentence: "Do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture, or kill any creature or living being." Imagine how different our world might be if the Bible contained this as its central precept. Christians have abused, oppressed, enslaved, insulted, tormented, tortured, and killed people in the name of God for centuries, on the basis of a theologically defensible reading of the Bible. (23)” 
― Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation

We could merely lift the ideas that are fit for modern time and apply them to our lives. It'd be so easy. Jesus and Muhammad supposedly said some great things and among those were lessons on how to treat other people and even animals. How can modern Christians and Muslims hold to those standards while at the same time wanting to deny the mere humanity of homosexuals, women, children, and opposing faiths? This "do unto others" thing doesn't really work unless you apply it to yourself honestly. If judgement truly is for god, you must give up judgement. We could also use a heavy dose of "STFU" when it comes to wanting to teach religions dogma in public schools. Science is science and we can't teach our children that Adam and Eve and Noah are the origins of life on the planet. We are already slipping down the list of the top educated countries and we continue to confuse the issue by telling our kids that the Bible/Koran can tell them more about the world they live in than modern science and basic common knowledge. The stories in these books can be inspirational and strong metaphors for living a life, but to teach them as truth is outlandish and a disservice to our nation and to humanity. 

We have seen the Crusades where Christians would "save" (baptize) babies before murdering them to serve god. We have seen Muslims blow themselves up taking life with them in order to serve god. These are extreme cases, but these things are done in the name of ancient texts which have no bearing on our modern society. Christianity has mostly evolved past the killing of apostates, but Islam is still behind the game. The ancient books hold us back. They separate us. They shame us as a species in how they ask us to treat people who do not believe as we do. 

Religion can be such a positive and if people truly think of their god as all loving and all forgiving, then they need to start acting like it and separate what they know in their hearts and minds from what they are being told by people that were trying to control populations and force their will on the poor and weak thousands of years ago. They still hold power today and that's a disgrace. Make religion personal. Make it about you and your relationship with god. If you say with your mouth that god is love and wants us to love one another than start reflecting it in your actions. It doesn't have to involve hate, distrust, and separation from others does it? Do we really think that is what god would want? 

So, I say that we can move towards a more harmonious existence that may well please a god by showing love, forgiveness, empathy, and understanding to one another. Not just to those who agree, but with everyone. We are not us and they are not them. We are all the same. We are of the same species. We belong to the planet and should be doing all we can to preserve this place for future generations. We should be doing all we can to ensure that our children have a pathway for living a life that doesn't involve worry about being ostracized for being a different color or of different sexual orientation. Shouldn't our children grow up thinking of others and how we can better existence for everyone? Should another 18 year old have to die in a war that is fueled by the unwavering dogma of a religion that holds absolutely no relevance in our modern times? Do you think the Middle East problems are going to be solved? If you do, you better think again. The problems in the Middle East are directly related to the notion that the believers of different religions (that all believe in the same god, the god of Abraham,oh by the way) think god promised them a piece of land that is for them and them only. That's not going to be solved until we set aside the two thousand year old bullshit. Nobody owns god, but I see people every single day that act like they do. To pretend to know what god wants is very presumptuous and prideful. If anything would help us to avoid killing or hurting one another it would be understanding at least that much. 

I could have really sunk my teeth in to more, but I'm not writing a book here. Our modern society can benefit from all religions fulfilling what many modern believers see as their core values; selflessness, forgiveness, understanding, kindness, and love. If you believe those are the attributes of the god that you worship, why would you accept the awful and disgraceful written words that implore the religious to act in direct opposition to those things? It's a tall order, but isn't it worth the effort?

I guess I'll close this by saying that I don't have a belief in "god". I do not have unbelief in "god". It is religion that I have the problem with. You Christians should really dig into the words of Jesus a bit deeper and think of them on a deeper level. I can't imagine that his words can be taken as someone that was intending to create a dogmatic religion based on his existence. I merely want to find as much understanding and knowledge as I can and religion gets in the way of that by limiting my (dare I say it?) god given gifts of reason, intellect, and curiosity. In that way, it doesn't matter to me if a god exists. I know that there is at least one conscious being on this planet and it's me. I can't be certain about anyone else. For now, I'm a part of the universe experiencing itself. I am not perfect, but even though I fail quite often, I want to try to treat people decent and with love.  I truly don't believe any amount of jumping through dogmatic hoops will honor our existence or a possible creator more than that. 

The Dark Knight Rises: An analysis of sorts

STOP!!!!!! Right now.....right here!!!  STOP!!!!!!

Read the first part here and then make up your mind if you want to continue on.

If you have not yet visited your local cinema to watch "The Dark Knight Rises", then you may not want to read further. I will reveal major plot points and give away certain themes about characters that you may want to reserve for your own sensibility and interpretation. So with that, if you read further, just know that you have been warned. 

KEY: 

BB is Batman Begins

TDK is The Dark Knight

TDKR is...you guessed it, The Dark Knight Rises

In no way am I telling you that anything I write is the true intent of the film, the filmmaker, its' producers, writers, or cast. I'm simply giving you my interpretation of how I perceived the films against the backdrop of our current place in history. 

In BB we had a film which explored the origins of Batman. But more than that, it set the tone for what kind of hero that Batman would be during the series. Bruce Wayne was an angry young man who had his parents and the promise of a certain way of life stripped from him when he was a child. Anger and vengeance were the things that drove him to leave his life behind and he chose to become a rogue agent, traveling the world and trying to punish bad guys in a fashion that lacked discipline and lacked a plan. He was "rescued" and trained by Ra's Al Ghul, who took Wayne under his wing and trained him to be his greatest pupil. Al Ghul's vision of the world was that once something got so out of control with corruption that it shouldn't be allowed to continue. That it was broken beyond repair and had to burn and be rebuilt for the world to see as an example. Oddly enough, he brought Bruce Wayne back from his broken nature and rehabilitated him, without having to destroy him. BB gives us a sense that Batman understood the problems with his city and believed that it could be rehabilitated and rescued from itself and he could be the man (symbol of doing what is right). At the time of its' release I considered BB to be the best "super hero" or "comic" movie I had seen and really didn't consider very much past that. 

But then came TDK and its overt look at terrorism and how to respond to it. I believe some of TDK to be fairly supportive of how America and the Bush Administration responded to 9/11/01. I also see areas where it questioned the validity of our response. The Joker was a great villain and one that law enforcement and certainly Batman couldn't quite understand. The Joker destroyed to destroy. He killed to kill. He didn't have rules. Terror is a form of warfare that is truly off the charts. The targets are not always military in nature. The targets can be random and hit the very conscious and heart of its target. The Joker took advantage of the survival nature and fear of Gotham's people. He took advantage of Batman having a certain set of principles that he bound himself to when taking on crime and corruption. He (Batman) wouldn't kill in response to killing. Harvey Dent was interesting to Bruce Wayne/Batman because he was a representative of the people, right out in the open, saying that it wasn't acceptable to terrorize free citizens. That it was not acceptable to take advantage of the nature of the common man. He even believed it was not acceptable to draw justice from the well of vigilantism. That is why Batman saw Dent as the true leader of Gotham's anti-crime movement. He didn't hide. He represented the people and looked the bad guys in the eye. He had no fear and didn't hide from the chaos brought on by the criminal element. The law is important and following the law to bring down crime validates the law. Dent didn't lie or distort any part of his determination to bring crime to justice. That is why at the end of the film, Dent was hailed as the hero. Batman was not taking on terror or crime within the law, he was circumventing it. It was the only way, in the short term to deal with an immediate problem, but Batman knew that it wasn't the way to change things in the long run.  

Thus, the connection to America, terrorism, and how our leadership chose to approach it. Remember, Batman developed a system of spying on the citizens of Gotham, just like the Bush Administration pushed and got with the Patriot Act.  But unlike Luscious Fox in TDK, our political leadership has not drawn down from using techniques that are a violation of our right to privacy. Batman, like Bush felt there was a need to approach this enemy different than any they/we had ever dealt with. Rules were out the window. If you watch TDK carefully enough, you can grab on to the undertone of Batman being secretive about the things he was working on to combat crime. He was willing to go to some dark places to combat crime and terror, just like America did, but how valid and right is that approach. Fortunately, Batman seemed to consider those things. Sadly, at times, we as a nation have not. The Joker actually brought out the worst in Batman at times (ie, the beating Batman gave the detained Joker while in the holding cell). Batman also wanted a life and saw Dent as his ticket to dumping the Bat Suit and pursuing a relationship with Rachel Dawes and running Wayne Enterprises. He longed to get out of the way and let freedom and justice prevail out in the open. Wayne and Commissioner Gordon thought it was the right thing, to deny the truth, so the people could feel safe and embrace the right way of taking on crime.  

TDKR comes back to some of these themes. I believe the film showed how problematic it is to create a fake sense of security and prosperity. Underneath the lie is the truth. The truth was that despite the "comeback" that Gotham was enjoying in the aftermath of the Joker's "defeat", evil was reloading right under their feet. Literally. This deflection of the validation that was seen at times in TDK, wasn't pushed upon the audience for the most part. It seems that Nolan, through both films, put the success and failures of our battle against terror out there for us to consider and judge for ourselves. This ties a bit into the way that he handled social injustice (in the film) in our monetary system today. The battle lines are drawn and Nolan touches on both sides and the middle, then lets the audience consider the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all. 

There is definitely a fantasy glimpse into the mind of an Occupy Wall Street supporter. The Wall Street scene felt both good and bad. It hinted at the prosperity that is constantly being traded among our society's elite and how satisfying it would be to see that world interrupted and exposed. At one point in the film, the common citizens and thugs begin to run Gotham City and it has dire consequences for those in law enforcement who perpetrated a lie about the safety of the city and those who enjoyed life on a premium level, while the mainstream citizen struggled. It shows the illusion of control that the elite portray, as if they are shining brass on the Titanic, even after the iceberg has been hit. Bruce Wayne is not immune from it. His sensibility towards society and culture were washed away by his pain and anger and the false notion that he and Rachel Dawes were going to be together if not for her death. Alfred had lied to him and in that way, failed Bruce Wayne. The lie spared Wayne's feelings, but was not good for him. Much in the way that the lie of the mass media and consumer culture tries (and largely succeeds) to lead us into a sense of security socially, even as people are hungry, jobless, and homeless all around our nation. Things are failing all around us, but like Bruce Wayne, our feelings are spared, so we don't react to life based on truth. 

There are three main characters that are responding to the failing of Gotham's capitalism. Bruce Wayne becomes detached from his role and responsibility to the community. His negligence of his company, and simply living off the spoils of the past, leads to the suffering of others. Bane and the League of Shadows sees the have/have not disparity as another reason that the corrupt Gotham City must be made an example of and destroyed. Then, you have Catwoman/Selina Kyle who is right in the middle. Not quite as ready to commit to the destruction, but quite at odds with the upper crest of society gaining more power and wealth while standing on the shoulders of the working class and poor. She and Robin....oops, I mean John Blake (by the way, I called that one, even as many people were telling me that Nolan/Bale were NOT going to have Robin in the series....sucker fan boys) are really the heartbeat of the film. Kyle comes across immediately has distrustful of the wealthy and Blake develops a distrust in being fearful of the enemy while hiding behind a badge. The bridge scene took him over the top, and amplified the words of wisdom he gained from Wayne/Batman throughout the film. 

In the end, we got hope. Bane at one point said that Bruce Wayne couldn't truly experience his punishment unless he had a glimmer of hope. It was a way to torture Batman. The hope that Nolan gives at the end of the film is that we can see that while the truth may hurt, a life built on lies feeds into the underlying fear of not having enough, of not being safe, and of looking out for ones self, instead of others. Trust, sharing, and truth are the ways to build a truly free society that gets us closer to everyone being able to enjoy the fruits of this country. Fear, anger, and hate play against those themes and are prevalent in many parts of our society today. 

A couple of things I noticed in the film that play into the notion of putting a glossy finish on a piece of garbage (metaphorically speaking) is the way that the mayor of Gotham just went about business as usual, attending a football game, even as an important crime fighting initiative was taking place. He didn't trust the people enough to tell the truth even at that point, when destruction could be just around the corner. Like George W. Bush told us after 9/11/01....if you want to contribute against terror.....just go shopping. The people paid the price. They were treated as children and left in the dark and paid a very high price for not being told the truth. For too long things seemed OK, even as horror was barreling towards them. The people of Gotham had given up responsibility for their city, much in the way we have done that with our country. 

I also caught on to there being no American flags in the scene where the kid was singing the national anthem. Some in the crowd were mouthing the words, most were silent. It was a false sense of patriotism that seemed forced and out of place. After the anthem, the crowd goes nuts waving flags and cheering. The distraction of the game was taking precedence over the truth....that their society was faltering. What is the old cliche'? "Fiddling as Rome burns". Later in the film, when Gotham is coming unglued, we see flags hanging off of buildings. Those flags are in tatters, but are still there. I take this as symbolism. We are still here. We are coming apart though. We need to recognize injustice and lies when they are right in our face. We need to demand the truth and not play the role of the child waiting for the daddy (the elite, the media, government) to protect us. The ideal of America is still right here, but we have recognize it and regain our place as the controllers of our own prosperity and destiny. 

Well, if you made it this far, I'll just close with a disclaimer; I am simply interpreting the films as I see them. There are things I didn't touch on in relation to national security and wealth disparity. I could really dig into those a bit deeper, but I seriously doubt anyone wants to read 3,000 or more words on this, if you've even made it this far. If there are things about the film that you want to share, please feel free to hit the COMMENT button and let it rip. I take film fairly seriously when the context is there for it to be done. I'm sure Christopher Nolan would laugh at what I've written on one hand, but probably be happy on the other that someone was thinking about his work on another level. Nolan is one of our great filmmakers and to this point, has not made a bad film. As of right now, Nolan's Batman series has taken over the top spot in my favorite film series of all-time. Sorry Mr. Lucas. If you had left the Ewoks and the "house band" sequence from Jabba the Huts lair out of "Return Of The Jedi", perhaps you would still be on top. 

Thanks for reading!