Morals. What are they? Some title morals as a person’s standard, or the code that he lives by. Whether instilled through a religious institution, a third party, or a custom selection of ideals we have thoughtfully crafted to fit us specifically, morals guide every choice we make. Morals are meant to be our rock, our constant, the lone survivor in a world that can crumble in an instant. But what if they aren’t?
In the critically acclaimed film, “The Dark Knight,” the question of morality is thoroughly and constantly challenged. There are complete opposites in Christian Bale’s Batman and Heath Ledger’s Joker. Batman’s moral code guides him through life in a world that is full of darkness; The Joker, however, is a self-described man who “…just wants to watch the world burn.”
Batman and The Joker clash on the fundamental aspect of their own mortality. The one I find most glaring is the eerie similarity to the Locke vs Hobbes feud regarding the inherent nature of man. Is man good, or is man evil? What even counts as good and evil, anyway? And finally, are morals somewhat of a strawman, or are they a serious guide to one’s soul?
This brings us to a quote from The Joker that has stayed in my head ever since I saw the movie.“See their morals, their code, it’s a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble. They’re only good as long as the world allows them to be. I’ll show you, when the chips are down, these “civilized” people, they’ll eat each other. See I’m not a monster, I’m just ahead of the curve.” There is genuine shock value in such a bombastic quote. However, a closer look at our world and how this quote applies reveals a scary truth: for the vast majority of people, morals are a figment of the imagination, meant to make us feel good, but ultimately dropped at the first sign of trouble.
The Joker says we are only good as long as the world allows us to be. And he has a point..it is fairly easy to live within your moral code during a normal day. You go about your life, you don’t get in anybody else’s way, and you fully play into the status quo. But it has been programmed in humans to survive. The simple philosophy of Darwin’s “ survival of the fittest” is embedded in our DNA. So although we have proven that as a society we can build a hierarchical system and fall somewhat in line amidst the chaos, how long can that last? What happens when a situation arises which forces us to question what we are willing to do to survive? It’s easy to think we would always take the moral high ground, but would we really?
The Joker’s basic premise shares themes of the teachings of Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes believed humans were inherently selfish and evil, and as such that their “state of nature” would’ve been a grim and horrible place since humans had nothing to check their inherent selfishness. The premise relies on the notion that if the structure and the natural known order falls, so do we as humans.
This idea has never been more relevant to me than it has amidst the COVID-19 global pandemic. COVID-19, or the more commonly used name, the coronavirus, has reduced many humans to their primitive state. Hoarding materials and fighting in grocery stores for items such as toilet paper, water, and basic medical supplies are just a few disastrous examples that truly shake the social order and reduce us to our “natural instincts.”
Acting as though we have no inherent concern to make sure other families get the supplies they need while having every instinct to provide for ourselves and our family is precisely the Joker’s point. Helping others is ok when the social order is undisturbed. But when there’s a shaking up of normal everyday life, we want to be the “fittest” who survives.
So this brings us back to morals. We hear the phrase, “Every man must have a code.” But must we really? If we drop morals at the first sign of trouble, then our morality is less of code and more of a strawman, a mechanism used to convince ourselves we are virtuous, decent people. Whereas the reality may be that we as “civilized” people drop our morals as fast as those we look down on when we are pushed even slightly.
Fortunately, my family and I are not at the point of having to re-examine our moral code to survive. We have a bit of savings and both of my parents are still being paid. I feel for those, however, who were living paycheck to paycheck before this and now have nothing because their jobs were not deemed “essential.” But paying bills is still essential. So they wait on a government check that will undoubtedly underwhelm them, as a check from the government can’t satisfy every need and doesn’t give the security of a job. I ache for those in that very situation who might ultimately be forced to re-examine their morals just to survive. It takes a man of great integrity to stay loyal to his morals during times like these. But integrity, much like morals, only lasts as long as society lasts; and when society breaks down, no man is moral. And that’s no joke.