I had this conversation in my box (CrossFit gym) locker room. We were discussing about Marvel comics and movies. And then boom, he banged my head with idea “Batman is crazy”. I could not understand the issue but he kept going “he has bats in his mind”. This stopped me to think. Idea was spinning in my head for recent days. Why I don’t see the same? Batman was not crazy at all, or was he?
The surface of the story is a lonely billionaire with almost unlimited resources – but not super powers. It is every boy’s dream to be the Batman. You can get fancy cape and mask, you can kick bad guys asses. But Gotham is a metaphor. It reflects the society where we live in.
Each of us have the skills to be Batman. The story about the mask is that usually the good deeds are not to be recognized. Being the superhero of you own life and doing heroic acts are in the shadows. The craziness of Batman is to remind people who we are. It is the price of humanity. Do good things and never get response of it. And still we keep doing them. It is human, not rational.
There is thing called esoterism. It is always a lonely journey for the inner mind. One cannot transfer the knowledge of doing correct. It is the inner feeling that says “now you did good”. The dark does not mean black. It is a shadow of awareness that only you can feel. The price of a knight is the title that person gives him/herself. You can be the Batman, I can be the Batman. And nobody knows.
The true essence of an esoteric dark knight is a person that can recognize the good from the bad. The price of all being always needs to be paid. Some beliefs (religions) call it karma. Dark karma is not bad, it is just hidden.
I see Batman story as philosophical guide. When Batman takes out the super weapons and stops the bad guys – it is the every day choices in our life. When he puts the mask on, it is the mask we need to take when you don’t agree with the surrounding environment. Then it is time to bend. We bend but not break. It is the price of being a dark knight.