In the first volume of Plato's "Republic", the orator Thrasymachus attacks Socrates, and his confidence lies in his discovery that people who do not observe justice and morality in real life can occupy a place in social competition Powerful position, and moral people are often in a weak position. This poignant question actually represents a great crisis about justice and moral life - good people are not rewarded, and those who follow the rules cannot get their due and competitive position within the existing rules. Not only the sages in the West, but also Christ, as well as Confucius and Sakyamuni in the East, have also encountered this major problem. Under such circumstances, how should we regulate people's behavior, make people's hearts better, and establish a normal moral and ethical order in society? Without this order, society must be in great chaos. The answer given by Christianity is "Judgment at the end of the day". God will judge every soul at the end of the day and decide whether to go to heaven or to hell. This statement is very similar to Socrates, the last book of "Republic". borrowed from mythology. Buddhism's "retribution theory" is also very similar, that is, "it's not that there is no retribution, the time has not come." Religious claims are extremely clever, pushing the date of judgment into the indefinite future, making it impossible to falsify. But why do some people believe in religion? The answer is that they exploit people's fears of judgment and retribution someday. We modern people can no longer understand this kind of fear, and even find it ridiculous, but please don't forget that during the thousands of years when Christianity ruled the West, Westerners believed in God and the "Doomsday Judgment". In this way, Christianity has succeeded in establishing a moral and ethical order in society, which is guaranteed by a supernatural force, the power of God, and punished by eternal suffering in hell. In "Mystery of the Shadow", Bruce Wayne is trying to solve the problem of the collapse of social order, and its most prominent performance is the tragic death of Wayne's parents. Wayne's parents were brutally shot and killed in front of the theater. This was the shadow and nightmare of Bruce Wayne's life, but the significance of this incident was not only for him personally, but more importantly, it symbolized the degeneration of society as a whole. Bruce's father, Thomas Wayne, was Gotham City's richest man and the biggest philanthropist who devoted his life to the development of the city and the lives of the poor. In "Mystery of Heroes and Shadows", Old Wayne said to little Wayne, "The whole city is declining day by day, and the life of the little people is very sad, so we built an economical mass transportation vehicle to unite all the citizens." The railway was built at his expense, and his dedication is evident. However, the Wayne couple, who had done good deeds all their lives, ended up dying on the street, and the murderer was the one they tried to help—the poor, and the reality of "good people don't get rewarded" was highlighted. Instead, when Bruce returns to Gotham, he finds out who is the most intimidating person in the entire city? ——The gangster Falconi, the real underground mayor of Gotham at that time. Rachel, a childhood sweetheart, would angrily say to Wayne: "This city has fallen into corruption... The life of the common people is getting harder and harder, Falconi took the opportunity to rob and do all kinds of evil, forcing people to go to a dead end... He may not kill your parents himself. , but destroyed everything they stood for." Wayne's parents represented the normal moral values and social order that Bruce Wayne hoped to recreate, and he followed the same approach as religion - people of fear. Wayne said: "Just being a person, it's easy to ignore and destroy, but if it becomes a symbol, I will never be defeated." Said a lot, but actually said one thing - to create a deification image of. For the Christian theory to be valid, Jesus must be deified. This is true of all religions. Having one god means there is a standard for judging right and wrong. Multiple gods can easily lead to contradictions and confusion of standards. From this point of view, monotheism is better than Polytheism is advanced, and most of the major religions that survive today are monotheistic. The deified object will inevitably cause fear and awe in people, and will inevitably be abstracted into a symbol. The bat is the abstract symbol chosen by Wayne. Bats are nocturnal. Little is known about this animal. It has an eerie and scary image in people's minds. Wayne valued this impression because he was scared by bats himself as a child. It's not easy to deify yourself, but fortunately, Wayne's family is rich, and he has been trained by the Shadow Alliance, which makes things a lot easier. The first is the appearance, the black bat suit, the batmobile, and all kinds of gadgets are indispensable, but the practical function is second. The important thing is to shape the image of his judge to the whole society, so that people will feel awe when they think of him. The criminal thinks of him and fears. In this process, mass media such as newspapers, television, and radio stations play a key role because they have the most direct and effective influence on public opinion, which is a psychological warfare. Once Batman was climbing a building, a little boy saw him and said to him, "Everyone is talking about you." When Batman attacked the "Scarecrow" chemical factory, one of the "Scarecrow" subordinates screamed "Listen to the scarecrow". Said he could fly!", without a doubt, Wayne succeeded. But all the deified images in modern times will eventually encounter a big problem. In history, after the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment, people had the spirit of science and rationality, especially Darwin's theory of evolution, which made the "God's creation theory" self-defeating, and the theoretical edifice of Christianity collapsed. The process in which the "divineness" of this deified image is removed by science and reason is called "disenchantment", so Nietzsche said that "God" is dead, what he means is that the "divinity" of God has been removed, and people Faith in God is dead. Will Batman be "disenchanted" too? In "The Dark Knight", the Joker attacked him by intimidating Batman "If you don't take off your mask a day, I'll kill someone every day." In fact, the Joker didn't want to "disenchant" Batman, otherwise when someone wanted to reveal Batman's identity, why would the Joker kill him immediately? In fact, the clown's intention is not to drink alcohol, but to have another purpose. Every time one more person dies, ordinary people feel that they are more dangerous. In order to protect themselves, people began to hate Batman for not revealing his identity, and finally everyone urged Batman to stand up and take off his mask. He is well aware that people are more afraid of death, of being hurt than they are of Batman. He knows very well that in times of crisis, in order to protect their own interests, people can abandon any so-called morality and principles, and they can kill anyone, including their former benefactors. Without the need to "disenchant", the Joker turns the entire Gotham people towards Batman's enemy, so we see at the end that Sheriff Gordon had to smash the Bat Searchlight to satisfy the people's demands. The clown deserves to be a super-first-class psychology master. Why would Bruce Wayne rather watch the Joker kill innocent people than go public? Because if the identity is made public, not only will Batman be "disenchanted", but also the social order that has just been established after hard work will collapse. This order is based on the "deified" image of Batman. Harvey Dent also understands this truth, so in order to save Batman, he admitted to the media that he is Batman. When the dominance of Christian ethics is no longer the rule, Western society again encounters a big question: what kind of new order should replace the old Christian order? What is used to maintain the normal order of society? Nietzsche said, reassess all values with the "will to power"! Humanity has not adopted his standards. The answer given by some other modern thinkers is law and morality: the law is a strong binding force, and if you violate the law, you will be imprisoned, and the basis for execution is the state apparatus; It's mostly people's self-discipline. From this point of view, the law is really the basis for the operation of the society, and the formulation of the law has become the most important part of the construction of modern society. Bruce Wayne is very clear that the ultimate establishment of the normal social order still has to rely on the law, which is the cornerstone of society. So he sees Harvey Dante as his hope, because Dante represents the force that relies on the law to punish crime, and Batman is violence above the law, and the ruling order established by violence is short-lived and unstable. Bruce is looking forward to the day when Gotham no longer needs Batman, not because he can finally retire, but because the law finally establishes a perfect social order. As a digression here, the idea of maintaining society by law was not invented by the Enlightenment thinkers of the 18th century. As early as ancient Greece, legislation has been valued by people, otherwise Plato and Aristotle would not have written so many books to discuss the issue of legislation. But the early philosophers may have had another consideration, namely: there are certain conditions for the use of law to maintain society. The foundation of the law is people. The law is made by people and obeyed by people. What is the basis for making and obeying the law? human rationality. But is human reason necessarily reliable? They may not think so. No knowledge of modern psychology is needed. From the observation of human history, it can be seen that there is often a devastating and huge irrational force under human reason, which needs to be restrained by external force, and this external force will Religion, simply put, is a God who transcends everything. From the very beginning, Western civilization has tried to use the power of God to suppress the evil in human nature. In the "Old Testament", human beings made a covenant with God. If they abide by the covenant, they will be blessed by God; if they violate the covenant, God will bring disaster to man. . The author strongly suspects that the early philosophers may not believe in religion in their hearts. They talked about gods and religions because the social order at that time required religion to maintain. Later, Kant was also the same. He did not believe in Jesus and God at all, but the last one of his three postulates of practical reason was "God exists", perhaps for this reason. The later generations failed to fully understand the intentions of the former people, and magnified the restraining effect of God on man to every aspect of man's life. The infinitely enlarged God suppressed the evils of human nature on the one hand, and the desires of man on the other. Reaching the extreme of suppressing human nature, people had to seek liberation, and the Reformation, Renaissance and Enlightenment also came into being. There is an important question that runs through the entire trilogy and all Batman comics, and it goes to the root of political philosophy. In "The Dark Knight", Harvey Dent has a line: "When the enemy troops are under the city, the Romans don't talk about democracy, but hope that someone can turn the tide. Fire and water." But Rachel immediately retorted: "The last person they chose to defend the republic was Caesar, and as a result he never surrendered his power." When society is facing collapse, if a strong person chooses to stand up To rebuild order, should the people temporarily abandon the principle of democracy and hand over power to this person? But with such a great power in the hands of one person, who can guarantee that this person can use it reasonably? Who can guarantee that this person will not become a dictator? The people of Gotham are lucky to have Bruce Wayne, he's not for power, because Batman is outside the system, he's really trying to save a fallen city. But in order to complete such a huge and difficult task, he had to do some things that are incomprehensible to normal people. He not only wants to obtain the "form" of Christ - "the image of deification", but more importantly, he must obtain the "God" of Christ - "the spirit of dedication": in order to atone for the sins of all mankind, Christ was saved by the mankind he wanted to save. To be crucified is an impossible consecration; it is impossible to forgive that Christ forgives the man who will kill him before the man who killed him realizes his mistake. The reason I think Bruce Wayne is the closest to Christ of all modern images is because he too has that spirit. Judging from his experience, witnessing the tragic death of his parents in his childhood made him begin to hate the sins of the society, which laid the ideological foundation for him to fight crime later; in order to understand the psychology of criminals, he personally experienced the feeling of crime and did not hesitate to stab at it. Go to a dirty prison; in order to maintain Dante's reputation, he is willing to bear all the murders and be blamed by thousands of people; in order to stop Bane, but he still dragged his body full of scars out of the rivers and lakes; in order to save the city, he You can sacrifice everything. More importantly, he is very aware that he will be misunderstood, and does not expect anyone to understand him. All the pain in the process is borne by himself, which is really lonely. In "The Dark Knight Rises", Catwoman said to him: "You don't owe these people any more, you've given everything for them", and he replies; "It's not everything, it's not enough." To bear the sins of the whole society with the suffering of one person, this is the Christian spirit of Bruce Wayne. The people of Gotham are lucky to have Bruce Wayne, he's not for power, because Batman is outside the system, he's really trying to save a fallen city. But in order to complete such a huge and difficult task, he had to do some things that are incomprehensible to normal people. He not only wants to obtain the "form" of Christ - "the image of deification", but more importantly, he must obtain the "God" of Christ - "the spirit of dedication": in order to atone for the sins of all mankind, Christ was saved by the mankind he wanted to save. To be crucified is an impossible consecration; it is impossible to forgive that Christ forgives the man who will kill him before the man who killed him realizes his mistake. The reason I think Bruce Wayne is the closest to Christ of all modern images is because he too has that spirit. Judging from his experience, witnessing the tragic death of his parents in his childhood made him begin to hate the sins of the society, which laid the ideological foundation for him to fight crime later; in order to understand the psychology of criminals, he personally experienced the feeling of crime and did not hesitate to stab at it. Go to a dirty prison; in order to maintain Dante's reputation, he is willing to bear all the murders and be blamed by thousands of people; in order to stop Bane, but he still dragged his body full of scars out of the rivers and lakes; in order to save the city, he You can sacrifice everything. More importantly, he is very aware that he will be misunderstood, and does not expect anyone to understand him. All the pain in the process is borne by himself, which is really lonely. In "The Dark Knight Rises", Catwoman said to him: "You don't owe these people any more, you've given everything for them", and he replies; "It's not everything, it's not enough." To bear the sins of the whole society with the suffering of one person, this is the Christian spirit of Bruce Wayne. The people of Gotham are lucky to have Bruce Wayne, he's not for power, because Batman is outside the system, he's really trying to save a fallen city. But in order to complete such a huge and difficult task, he had to do some things that are incomprehensible to normal people. He not only wants to obtain the "form" of Christ - "the image of deification", but more importantly, he must obtain the "God" of Christ - "the spirit of dedication": in order to atone for the sins of all mankind, Christ was saved by the mankind he wanted to save. To be crucified is an impossible consecration; it is impossible to forgive that Christ forgives the man who will kill him before the man who killed him realizes his mistake. The reason I think Bruce Wayne is the closest to Christ of all modern images is because he too has that spirit. Judging from his experience, witnessing the tragic death of his parents in his childhood made him begin to hate the sins of the society, which laid the ideological foundation for him to fight crime later; in order to understand the psychology of criminals, he personally experienced the feeling of crime and did not hesitate to stab at it. Go to a dirty prison; in order to maintain Dante's reputation, he is willing to bear all the murders and be blamed by thousands of people; in order to stop Bane, but he still dragged his body full of scars out of the rivers and lakes; in order to save the city, he You can sacrifice everything. More importantly, he is very aware that he will be misunderstood, and does not expect anyone to understand him. All the pain in the process is borne by himself, which is really lonely. In "The Dark Knight Rises", Catwoman said to him: "You don't owe these people any more, you've given everything for them", and he replies; "It's not everything, it's not enough." To bear the sins of the whole society with the suffering of one person, this is the Christian spirit of Bruce Wayne. Dante's reputation, he was willing to bear all the murders, and was blamed by thousands of people; in order to stop Bane, but he still dragged his body full of scars out of the arena; in order to save the city, he could sacrifice everything for himself. More importantly, he is very aware that he will be misunderstood, and does not expect anyone to understand him. All the pain in the process is borne by himself, which is really lonely. In "The Dark Knight Rises", Catwoman said to him: "You don't owe these people any more, you've given everything for them", and he replies; "It's not everything, it's not enough." To bear the sins of the whole society with the suffering of one person, this is the Christian spirit of Bruce Wayne. Dante's reputation, he was willing to bear all the murders, and was blamed by thousands of people; in order to stop Bane, but he still dragged his body full of scars out of the arena; in order to save the city, he could sacrifice everything for himself. More importantly, he is very aware that he will be misunderstood, and does not expect anyone to understand him. All the pain in the process is borne by himself, which is really lonely. In "The Dark Knight Rises", Catwoman said to him: "You don't owe these people any more, you've given everything for them", and he replies; "It's not everything, it's not enough." To bear the sins of the whole society with the suffering of one person, this is the Christian spirit of Bruce Wayne.
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