Light From the Darkness

Hard to miss the buzz over The Dark Knight. Everywhere you look there’s Batman promos, reruns of the earlier movies, hype for the Joker as an Academy Award performance, tie-in lunch boxes and T-shirts, and review after review of the film. It is an unquestioned success. Gosh, the last time a dead guy was such a shoo-in for an Oscar was last year when Al Gore won.

I’ve not yet gotten around to seeing the movie. Like most films, I’ll wait for the DVD release rather than endure the Hajj to a big city theater and the ring-tones of all the oblivions who forgot to turn their cell off. Maybe by that time I’ll have sprung for a Blu-Ray player. Yet, I feel by now that I’ve got the concept of the story down pat. This go-around takes darkness to a new level. This might be a good thing if you like allegory.

I’ve always been fascinated by allegorical tales. A metaphor for life, carried out in detail and rich with nuance makes for great reading, viewing, listening and contemplating. I like the metaphors even more if they are about principles and values that I hold dear. Maybe that’s why I never got blown away by the parables of the Good Book. They were too simplistic, too literal, and arguably too liberal. I’m more into revenge than “other cheek” solutions.

But, take a look at this fine piece and I defy you not to see what he’s saying:

Meaning Many Missed

Certainly the supporting observations validate the allegory that is drawn. One doesn’t have to dig very deeply to compare the successes of the super-hero films and the abject failures of the anti-American drivel that Hollywood has been spitting out. One can spit on their customers only so often before the customers stop begging for your products.

Americans are still a moral people and we still know the very basic difference between good and evil. We understand what it takes to protect our families. If we stop to think the issues through, we quickly conclude that what must be done is often not pleasant, but it is a deadly necessity. We are deluged with simpering apologists who tell us what we are, but they are wrong. We are not the evil in the world, but the good. We are not the weak in the world, but the strong. We are not globalists, but Americans. And in surprisingly large numbers we are essentially conservative and patriotic.

Even if it takes a comic book story to point it out.