The Joker: EVERYONE is Dead Wrong
A GUEST POST, by Chris Campbell
The worst part about having a mental illness is that people expect you to behave as if you don’t” - Arthur Fleck
[Guest Post] - by Chris Campbell
Everyone is wrong about Joker. Nobody got the joke.
To be honest, I had no idea how big a ruckus this movie was causing until after I saw it (while visiting Asheville, North Carolina)…
And then I looked up some reviews.
In a time when the general mood of America is becoming “Wake me up when this sh** is over with”…
The Joker movie has pierced a bulging and irritated nerve.
“What does it mean?” the pundits pondered.
Alas, they didn’t ponder for very long.
Before the dust settled — and, astonishingly, even before the movie was released — everyone reached for their flavor of vindication.
He’s a dangerous rallying cry for sexless, angst-ridden males!
No! He’s an unhinged loner finding his place and his life’s meaning through violence!
No! He’s a product of a country that doesn’t take its mentally ill seriously enough!
No! He’s showing us why gun control is needed (or doesn’t work)!
No! He’s the radical left’s maniacal leader for the “Eat the Rich” movement!
No! He’s the “people’s hero”!
But perhaps, says this particular keyboard clatterer, he’s none of it…
Perhaps he doesn’t fit in any of our preconceived boxes.
After all…
The figure of the joker, jester, fool, or trickster is nothing new.
It’s an ancient, archetypal figure, showing up in all cultural myths all throughout human history.
It’s a spontaneous and universal manifestation of human nature.
The trickster has always, throughout history, played the same role.
He always shows up in times of disorder and chaos. He always emerges when the rubbish of the time has piled up to become unbearable. (In Gotham, we see this portrayed symbolically with the pile-up of trash.)
And this time is no different.
As I make the case below, he’s the archetypal character (and energy) of our age, which is precisely why he’s evoked such strong and multifaceted reactions.
The truth?
Although many in the “scapegoat culture” of the mainstream hard right, hard left, hard center and everything in between have called the film a propaganda flick from the enemy…
I’ll present to you a different take.
(Buckle up, we’re going deep.)