The Dark Knight
This is one of the greatest movies of this century, and undoubtedly, the Joker is what makes it stand out from the sea of other comic book movies and makes me really like this film. Most movies have typical characters that share nothing profound making you forget about them the next second you close the movie, and that’s why the handful of outstanding characters become memorable and are always a pleasure to analyze.
In this post, I will focus my attention on The Joker because I feel that this character shares a lot of great lessons regardless of the fact that he has a deep dark side. I advise you to watch this movie beforehand if you haven’t done it already because I will drop some spoilers and this is that kind of movie that is worth watching without knowing anything about it.
Disclaimer: I have to note that these are my opinions, that I took from the movie, but I advise you to watch it yourself, maybe you will feel differently or pick up on something I missed.
Good and Evil
The goal that the Joker is trying to accomplish throughout the whole movie is to prove that under certain circumstances even the good guys can become evil and one thing we can notice from that is that there’s no defined good and evil, they are subjective. Because good and evil are dependent on the viewer, anybody can turn one way or another regardless of their current moral values.
But, the truth is that what I consider good, some people may view as evil and vice versa, because all humans have different values and their perception of the world is based on those values. To give you an example, look at Batman, he is portrayed as the good one in the movie, but he is at the same time beating down other people, which is considered an evil act. Yes, those villains may do a lot of harm, and the Batman is fighting them may make them stop, but physical aggression is still an evil trait making the Batman bad even a little bit.
The point I’m trying to make is that there’s no black and white, everything’s gray, a whiter or darker shade of gray, just combinations of the two. You need to have both, the good and the evil, the light and the dark so you can enjoy them. If all you have is the pleasure, it becomes “normal;” you stop appreciating it so you need the pain so that you can notice the good times. Try living both the good and the bad times to their fullest because regardless of how long they last, their opposite will come eventually.
Planning
You can notice The Joker’s planning abilities from the beginning of the movie; he is always able to develop elaborate and brilliant strategies that almost always work as expected. Even though he says that he’s not a guy with a plan, truth be told, his plans are rather different from the popular conception of a “plan.”
When most people are making plans they are expecting everything to work accordingly and are trying to control the outcome, but life always gets in their way, and things may take a different turn, and then those people are often lost. The Joker, he’s different, he’s making plans, but he does understand that there are certain things he cannot control, so he’s not taken by surprise when things don’t go as planned. You have to understand that there are things outside your control zone that you have no effect over and the best thing you can do is to let them go and focus on what you can control.
You need to have a good plan because without one you will be lost, you will just let the world decide what’s best for you instead of making your own decision, but you also have to understand that it’s not enough to have a plan. If the things don’t go as planned, you can’t give up; you will have to adapt to the new circumstances and act upon them accordingly. Life is not rigid but fluid so you have to stay fluid and always be ready for change because sooner or later, something will change.
Freedom
Maybe the trait that makes The Joker stand out most is his total carefreeness, he’s never worried about what will happen, and he has no fears, he is free. Such freedom is inspiring to anyone because we, as humans beings, always had the wish to be free to do anything we want and The Joker resonates with us at a deeper level. But, before acquiring that total freedom, you have to understand that it comes with plenty of responsibilities. If you’re free, you are the one in control and can’t blame anybody for the way your life is evolving. By taking up the responsibility that is your life, you will experience one of the most amazing feelings of aliveness and, in the end, freedom.
The reason why The Joker can be so free is thanks to the fact that he's fearless since he understands a few fundamental things about how our fears work. You see, most people are crippled down by their concerns and are unable to act the way they would desire, but that is only because they don’t know what their fears actually mean and how they are created.
The truth about fear is that the whole feeling is just a mind game and once you understand it, you can break it. You only experience anxiety when you’re thinking about a scary situation; you’re feeling afraid before the actual event, but never when it’s happening because the whole fear was just in your mind. If you can break that mental boundary and do that thing you’re afraid of, you will experience how true freedom feels like.
Also, as the philosopher Osho believed, if you look at every fear you have, you will realize that they are all different manifestations of the fear of death. It’s normal to fear death, the unknown since it’s something deep hardwired into our brains but in fact, if you understand death, it could be liberating.
We know nothing certain about death, but there are two options. You either die, and nothing survives to live on in another world, and in that case, you have nothing to fear because you won’t exist anymore. Or you survive even after death, and in that case, regardless of where you end up you don’t have to fear, you have already won because you’re still alive.
The Joker understood that he’s not afraid of death so Batman has nothing to take from him and that’s what makes the Joker so free. You have nothing to lose because, in fact, you do not own anything since you’re just a tourist in this world.
Lessons Learned
You might have mixed feelings about The Joker, and that is entirely understandable, but anybody could learn a lot from this character and try to improve their lives. A wise person is not the one that learns only from great people but the one that can learn something from anybody, the one that can see past the things they dislike about that human and still learn something from them. It’s not going to be easy to make a fundamental change in your life but if you make little improvements every day, baby steps, on a long enough scale you will be able to notice how much you have improved.
You don’t need a plan for everything but to know what you want out of life and to have a plan on how to achieve that, while also staying open to change, you will undoubtedly make a considerable improvement in your life. Understanding that there’s not good and evil and also becoming freer every day will help you both in your pursuit for success but also will help you have better, more authentic relationships with the ones around you.
Self-improvement is not a thing you’re doing just for yourself but a gift for the world because by becoming a better person you might impact the people around you to get better and grow too. And such a life-long journey is worth pursuing by any means, even learning and improving yourself with the help of movies.
Make sure to tell me in the comment section what movie you would like to see featured in this series because I will check out most comments.
Authored by @GuyFawkes4-20
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