The Philosophy of Batman
Discovering the Power of Accountability
Hello Friends,
From the time we first open our eyes and are able to perceive colours, we are fascinated with heroes. Children may not understand the philosophy or psychology of a hero, yet they can easily become encapsulated by the virtuous acts of other people. Batman happens to be one that many get drawn into.
But Batman is no ordinary hero. In fact, one may be challenged to call him a hero at all. He is a dark individual, suffering from the loss of his parents. He also blurs the lines quite often, killing being the only line that he won’t cross. Is Batman someone we should look up to? And could we label him as a hero or even a Stoic sage?
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Defining a Hero
Let’s start by defining a hero. We can all name them: Superman, Spiderman, and Wonder Woman. If you’re not a fan of fiction, we could reference history: Martin Luther King Jr., King Arthur, Albert Einstein, and Socrates. Which qualities make them a hero?
Fundamentally, it seems to be courage. And not just boldness, but courage, meaning: heroes must be courageous and formidable. It simply would not due for Superman to be bold had he also not the strength to enact change. Strength is often represented in superhero movies as being physical, but it is mental strength that makes one truly strong. It’s the same as courage.
Courage means many things. It means speaking the truth when appropriate. It means charging into battle. Sometimes, it means retreating from battle. It means living in such a way that considers risk but doesn’t let fear overcome their actions.
Heroes are also wise, temperate, and just. In sum, we could define a hero as, essentially, the Stoic sage! That’s the whole idea: who is worth aspiring to be like? And the Stoic sage is a person of virtue. It’s a person who has good character and works for the common good.
What’s interesting about the way that Stoicism defines and visualizes Stoic sages (or Stoic heroes) is that two sages could be entirely different from one another. Two sages could be fighting each other in a war! Why? Because virtue, to the Stoic, is about doing what is appropriate, and what is appropriate depends on the context of your life. It’s a very individualistic thing.
A sage on one side of the war could be fighting with good intentions as could the sage on the other side of the war. The fact that two sages can be entirely different will help us explain later on the virtue of Batman
The Dark Knight Synopsis
In Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, we have two heroes: Batman (of course) and Harvey Dent. We all know Batman: dark, troubled, and works in the shadows. Harvey Dent is the opposite in some sense: he is the public district attorney, shows his face, and works in the light.
In this movie, the city of Gotham has needed Batman to help tip the scales towards justice, but that time seems to be coming to an end. You see, when a group of people become so corrupt, it is near impossible to implement positive change.
Take our current political system in Canada and the USA. We have politicians on both sides, but they are all, more or less, the same. They character attack, they are corrupt, they seem to leave office with a tremendous amount of money, and so on. I don’t want to get deep into politics, but the point being that for anyone to go through that system to enact positive change must, by definition, be corrupt to some degree. The system wouldn’t entertain them either way.
It’s the classic thing that people tell themselves: “I will become corrupt now, just until I get into power, and then I will enact change.” The problem is that by the time they get to power, they have changed themselves. They’ve grown cynical and, of course, corrupt.
Back to Batman.
Gotham is a corrupt city, and so Bruce Wayne decides that the best way to tip the scales is, not through the system, but through fighting crime at night as an unknown crusader.
Doing so allows him to fight injustice in ways that the system no longer can. For example, one of the villains in the movie is in the US but then escapes to China. The Gotham police does not have jurisdiction to go to China to arrest him. But Batman can. Batman can go to China, kidnap him, and then bring him back to justice.
It’s: “this system is so corrupt that the only way to fix it is to be corrupt.” Now, that’s a very slippery slope. But in The Dark Knight, Gotham City is at a place where the district attorney Harvey Dent may be able to take over justice using the system.
Batman is the Dark Knight; Harvey is the White Knight. Batman covers his face and works in the shadows, not following anyone’s rules other than his own one rule (do not kill). Harvey Dent showcases his face all over the city and uses the law to fight crime.
The White Knight Falls
Unfortunately for Gotham (but fortunately for us because we got a third movie out of it), the villain “the Joker” corrupts Harvey Dent by murdering his almost fiancé. Harvey Dent turns into a villain. Not a Dark Knight, but a villain. He kidnaps the police commissioner’s kids and threatens to kill them. He changes and starts standing for the opposite of what he used to.
Batman shows up to save the day. Harvey dies in the process. And the police commissioner Gordon and Batman are there thinking what to do.
At this point, there have already been several deaths linked back to Harvey Dent. If the city were to find out that Harvey Dent did that - that their knight in white, shining armour who supposedly could not be corrupted ended up being corrupted and ultimately became a nightmare - then they would completely lose hope for a better future.
Think about the importance of hope. Gotham was a city full of crime. Now, all of a sudden, they had someone courageous and virtuous who could fight crime using the system. And then he fell and became a villain.
The Dark Knight Rises
Then, Batman does something very interesting: he takes the fall for Harvey’s murders. He tells Gordon, the policeman, that he would take the blame.
“Batman stands for something more important than the whims of a terrorist…even if everyone hates him for it. That’s the sacrifice he’s making: he’s not being a hero. He’s being something more.”
Alfred, The Dark Knight
What does it mean to be more than a hero? How could someone possibly be more than a hero? It’s like saying being more than a virtuous person, isn’t it?
Well… no.
A hero is someone that we all get inspired by because of their virtue. Take some of those names I listed earlier - Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein, Socrates. We know about their virtue. We know the great things they did.
But that actually isn’t virtue. That’s reputation. In other words, they are heroes because they have a reputation of being virtuous. But here’s the thing: virtue is not the same as reputation.
“Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
Coach John Wooden
The Stoics say: do not worry about your reputation because that’s not up to you. What is up to you is your character. Do what’s right.
Now, there is a formula between the two but it’s not an exact one. It’s an approximate one. The formula is this: if you have a good character, you will have a good reputation in the long-term. People will eventually find out that your character is good. But, again, that is not an exact formula, and there are no guarantees.
In the case of The Dark Knight, Batman was more than a hero because he was acting virtuously at the cost of his reputation. He was being what Gotham needed. He wasn’t concerned about the fact that everyone thought that he was a murderer because he felt that what Gotham needed more was the White Knight.
And, in fact, the Stoic hero, the Stoic sage, would do what Batman did.
Not only did he focus on character over reputation, but he also destroyed his reputation through good character. His virtuous actions cost him his reputation.
Heroes are those we look back who have had both a good character and a good reputation. But what do we call those who have had good characters but, for whatever reason, have had bad reputations? They are tarnished in the history books, though their actions have made the world better.
I think we call them Stoic sages. Stoics do not care about reputation. They stand for something much more than that. They stand for virtuous action regardless of any recognition. They don’t care about recognition because they realize that some things are so much bigger than their own reputation.
Should you be a white knight, inspiring hope, or a dark knight, ultimately saving today? It depends on you, and what you’re called to do. But to the Stoic it’s irrelevant: do good regardless of who is watching.
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Brandon Tumblin is most well-known for his podcast, The Strong Stoic Podcast, where he discusses philosophical ideas (solo and guest episodes).
Brandon is also a writer for THE STOIC, the official journal of The Stoic Gym.