Yes, Jen and I finally saw the Dark Knight. But Jen’s not been posting because she’s had all day sickness for several days and hasn’t even been able to finish posting about our trip to California. Today, she thanks God for Zofran.

So, suppose you’re a citizen of Gotham. Whom can you trust?

Republicans? Democrats? This or that political leader? God? Parents? Family? Government? Neighbors? Church members? Fellow citizens? The “vigilante” Batman?

This question, “whom do you trust?” implies some assessment about goodness. I mean, why trust the Joker? He’s wicked. Why trust McCain? Or Obama? if not because of some goodness? And if none are good, why trust anyone? Can we find the true patriot to trust? Will we even be good enough to know him?

The public in the Dark Knight faces a daunting task: How can we find a true leader who won’t sell out to the mob? How can we find a leader smart enough to defeat the Joker?

And for the public the question is immediate. Without government–but with the Joker–the city faces anarchy, mob rule. It seems that without some hope, everyone will be tempted beyond human endurance and all will serve the Joker’s ends…. When the best of the public falls, what hope is there?

Well, being a Batman movie, the hope is Batman. The hope, however, is Machiavellian. He does what is necessary to save the state. He operates behind the scenes; he gives the public a lie to believe in order to save the public. In the end it seems that the public can’t handle the truth.

But there’s a problem with the consistency of this story line. Faced with a “lifeboat” scene, the public wins. The public can handle the truth and so, like Jared at the Thinklings, I liked this scene.

While the outcome was uncertain, the clock ticked. The good people of Gotham was up to the temptation. Over time the truth was revealed.

So the clock was a nice bit that focused the public deliberations and drew in the audience…. And I was reminded of the “lifeboat” situation of MAD and the slogan, “One World, or None!” Seemingly inescapable situations can be escaped. Sixty years has shown that the logic of that slogan wasn’t inescapable; we’re American and we’re still here. And Gotham endures.

Now, I say the public won the “lifeboat” scenario, but I know that a critic would say, “the ‘public’ would have died without the Batman.”

Yeah, yeah, the “public” would have died without the Machiavellian Batman.

But remember the Alamo! They all died too. But we don’t say the heroes of the Alamo couldn’t handle the truth. We don’t say the heroes of the Alamo didn’t have the stuff to be good citizens of a prosperous society.

So why not trust the public? While we vainly look for a Batman or an “enlightened statesman,” the ordinary man can be the means of our salvation. Good news can come from unlikely sources. Even convicts may exhibit a human capacity for change and improvement and real understanding of liberty. That’s why I liked the “lifeboat” scene; it was righteous. The least may be the greatest. There is hope, and help may come from a condemned prisoner who now, if not before his imprisonment, knows what is right and can do it. What kind of person couldn’t recognize that that was a righteous scene?

So, why not have a government with it’s flaws, and avoid the anarchy of the Joker? Why not trust politicians who may be “two faced”? Who really needs a rich man with a techno suit? Why not, as Reagan said, trust, but verify?