Apr 21 2008
The Killing Joke – Lessons on Choice and Freewill
The never ending debate of nature vs. nurture in modern psychology overlooks a third obvious possibility: choice. Medicine and psychology are chomping at the bit to blame all our actions on genetics, chemical imbalances, or bad parenting… just about anything other than choice. The recent rebirth of the classic Batman comic, The Killing Joke, reminded me that there are two kinds of perspectives people have. To some, all the injustice and hardships in life serve as fuel to excuse their poor and destructive behavior. To others, all those hardships and injustices are just obstacles to overcome and opportunities to grow.
Batman has always been my favorite “superhero”, so when I saw the 20th anniversary edition of The Killing Joke by Alan Moore at my local bookstore I compulsively picked it up. Not only did I enjoy indulging in one of the most well-written Batman comic books ever, I was also moved by the underlying message.
In the comic, the Joker is determined to prove that only difference between the criminal and the law-abiding is a bad day. Hence, the Joker sets out to give Commissioner Gordan (head of Gotham police) a VERY bad day in hopes of driving him insane. The various torments included shooting his daughter and parading him around naked. Of course, in the end, Batman saves Gordan. Gordan, after suffering all these torments, grabs Batman and firmly tell him to capture the Joker “by the book”. Wanting to prove to the Joker that he was still quite sane.
The Joker blames Batman and the police for his own criminality, believing himself to be the victim of “one big joke”. However, Batman captures him in the end saying, “it’s just you”. The Joker was confronted with the reality that the authorities around him have been through just as much, if not more, hardship than he has and CHOSE to overcome them.
I know it seems silly to draw so much meaning from a comic, but actually, I think that a comic in all it’s exaggerations can be a good place to make a point (when well written). In this case, the point is made very well. So many people just sit around feeling sorry for themselves for one thing or another. The truth is that many people have very legitimate traumatic events in their life, but that still doesn’t free them from their own choice to overcome it or drown in it.
When we die, God is going to hold us accountable to all our missed opportunities and potential. Try as we might to whine and complain about how “hard” we had it, God will show us those who had it worse and conquered life anyway. After all, the nature of freewill is that no matter what happens, we are still in control of how we respond. The secular world will always seek to blame everything on our genes, environment, or luck, but the truth is that there are always amazing people who prove all those things are just poor excuses.
