What Would Batman Do?
I’ve been surprisingly depresssed over the Batman slaughter in Colorado. Isn’t it surprising that one should be surprised to be depressed upon hearing that a movie theater was turned into a Funnybot routine?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzjsSrAQTNA&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
And yet, shooting sprees are simply par for the course in the United States of Utopia. Hell, you’ve probably  already forgotten last week’s Day of Flying Lead in Alabama.
I eagerly await the pointless hand-wringing over our violent times, with Ted Nugent and Bill Maher occupying the magnetic poles of the debate, and with the usual villains (video game designers, Hollywood, gun store owners) trotted out to be tarred and feathered throughout three to seven days of blistering, pointless rhetoric. Afterwards, this incident will be forgotten completely, hung like an ornament on the Christmas tree of mass murder alongside Columbine and Virginia Tech, ready to be reflected on for ten seconds during the next national trauma.
I suppose I could join the crowd, wax woeful in my blog, maybe diminish the horror using a South Park clip, and then move on, but that doesn’t feel like enough this time. This incident (can a moment of soul-stirring carnage be reduced to an “incident”?) has eclipsed other notable shootings for me in that, unlike most recreational killing sprees, this one was loaded with meta.
After all, what more precise commentary on American escapism could there be than to actually bring the theme of  Batman: The Dark Knight Rises to life in the very theater that is showing it, through an act of selfish terrorism, with the punchline being that while Batman villains are easily made flesh, Batman himself is nowhere to be found.
Awkwaaaaaard!
The super-villainy of this act almost cannot be overstated. One survivor described the killer (I refuse to name him) as resembling the Juggernaut, dressed as he was in mask and armor. The  killer himself allegedly had dyed his hair and declared himself “the Joker”. And of course, similarities to the motif of Batman villain Bane go without saying. The guy even wired his apartment with booby-traps for that “the deeper you dig, the deadlier I become” mystique.
I feel inclined to do something, and yet what is there to do? I suppose I could go see Batman and carry a John 3:16 sign (although the audience might assume I was a suicide bomber), but I’ve got a better idea: I’m just not going to see the movie.
This might come across as pointless shaming of Chris Nolan and the fine executives at Warner Brothers. Afterall, it is hardly their fault that We the People choose to sell guns to every psychopath with a library card for identification. In time we’ll probably find out that this guy had originally planned his massacre for the midnight premier of The Lorax.
But really… aren’t we all looking for a way to strike back? Well, how about we do so by not pretending this didn’t happen, which is America’s default position? How about we accept the symbolism of the moment and recognize that the only way to play Batman is to not forget what the villain did?
The guy is caught, the blood is dried, and we (especially fans of this genre of entertainment) are all trying to stifle that urge to care in a meaningful way about this incident, to suck it up and go see The Dark Knight Rises as if we aren’t all going to feel just shitty when the football stadium collapses and swallows up the good guys.
So don’t. Don’t see it. Give the victims a moment of silence, at least for this week. Catch the film when it is no longer the cherry on top of a sundae made up of Syria, Bulgaria, Mexico and the bad neighborhoods of your own town.
What if you already saw it at the midnight release like I did?
JY: Drink the memory away.
JY,
Don’t any of you find this event a little too coincedental? This guy was on unemployment and a Phd graduate student, yet he could afford upwards of $20,000 worth of assault and tactical gear? And he happens to go on a rampage about a week before the voting on a UN small arms treaty that would essentially give the government the ability to come into YOUR home and take any guns or weapons they wanted. I think this guy was a patsy for a larger scheme. Being a nerd myself, I know the Joker woul;d never just “give up” to the cops. Holmes not only gave up, but warned the cops that he had booby-trapped his home with explosives. Not very Jokeresque, wouldn’t you agree? This whole thing reaks of setup but by whom? Why don’t we ask the person who stands to gain the most from this tragedy? Our president. He’s turned this into the media frenzy it is so that when he tells people about the UN treaty, he comes off looking like a hero. But I tell you this, when they start trying to take peoples’ guns away, all that will happen is they are going to kick start World War 3. That’s just my opinion, or maybe not. I force no one to accept my thoughts as truth, and on more than one occasion, I’ve had my mind changed. But I’m telling you, keep your eyes open guys and gals.
Oh, just like a certain un-named past president took the actions of a couple of dozen determined terrorists and used that as an excuse to totally gut the constitution and call it the Patriot Act?
I know Grendel. I always remember the old adage, “Never point the finger. There are always four more pointing back at you.” Something EVERYONE should remember. Remember, Bush was elected twice, if you didn’t like his policies, then why was he put back into office? Like I said, don’t go pointing fingers. Look at the business resumes of both Bush and Obama. One was a Navy pilot, and the other has done nothing but anti-government and anti-congressional organization. Gee, which one is which?
Venom–
I am always in favor of conspiracy theories for the pure amusement of it all, but is this really where your mind goes after something like this?
Captcha… grrk…really trying to stump me today…. if you are alive and reading this message… gk…then it must have been…. Nsusal Principle!
“When they knock at your front door, how you gonna go”, The Clash Captcha- insurance rotories
JY: Some forms of political fanaticism have an effect not unlike that of bath salts.
Don’t get me wrong, JY. I feel bad for those folks, really I do. But for everyone to canonize them like they were the flippin pope just annoys me. These people went to a movie and, by sheer bad luck, so did a gun toting maniac. This wasn’t some guy flying a 747 into a national monument or someone going into a crowded city center with a bomb strapped their ass. This guy didn’t even try to fight the cops. I’d even bet dollars to doughnuts the victims’ last thoughts were things like “Fuck! Now I won’t get to see the movie!” Is it a terrible event? Yes. Is it a crime of the most heinous nature? Again, yes. But is it a national tragedy, on par with such calamities as Hurricane Katrina and the Oklahoma City bombing? Fuck no.
“I’d even bet dollars to doughnuts the victims’ last thoughts were things like “Fuck! Now I won’t get to see the movie!—
What the fuck is wrong with you? You argue against the ‘incident’ garnering undue angst and hand wringing, but what you are really doing is intentionally trivialising it. You are playing it down, much as I imagine Bill ‘liberals will use this to attack our gun rights’ O’Reilly would do.
“I’d even bet dollars to doughnuts the victims’ last thoughts were things like “Fuck! Now I won’t get to see the movie!â€â€
This is an embarrassing, detached, inhumane and shameful statement…
Okay everyone. I’m sorry that ONE sentence in my previous comment pissed so many of you off. Like I said, I do feel bad for the shooting victims, but let me ask one question. Before this horrible event, how many of you had actually heard of Aurora, Colorado? I’m guessing not many, but because this Holmes guy went apeshit, now everybody mourns this small town community. The past couple days all I’ve seen is the headline “Town still in mourning over tragedy”. You guys are just mad because you’ve allowed something to happen to you that you accuse conservatives of ALL THE TIME. Which is sympathizing with an event that you have NO STAKE IN. I mourn these people too, but I’m not gonna let one event suddenly stop me in my tracks and make me reflect on how lucky I am to be alive. This is my opinion and, just like you guys, I have the right to express it. But as the late Richard Jeni said, “These are the sensitive liberal people always yelling about everyone’s freedom of speech and expression, unless you happen say something that pisses them off.”
Richard Jeni shot himself in the face. Mmmmmaybe not the best example of sane and rational discourse.
Venom-
Your opinions appear to be all over the place, but the common thread is their tackiness.
So no one had heard of Aurora, CO before the shooting? What does that have to do with the price of dogshit? Had you heard of Columbine High before it became the nation’s most famous shooting gallery? And if the carnage is relegated to a movie theater instead of being spread all over Louisiana, how does this not make it a national tragedy? A tragedy doesn’t have to involve all 50 states to be noteworthy.
And the hell I don’t have a stake in random acts of mass violence. I’d like NOT to be the next person shot in the head for going to the movies, wouldn’t you? Or are you too busy not smelling the roses to care?
It seems this Richard Jeni was an idiot, whoever he was.
“These are the sensitive liberal people always yelling about everyone’s freedom of speech and expression, unless you happen say something that pisses them off.â€
Let me explain what is happening here in this thread, but bear in mind that it also applies quite broadly. 1) You are exercising your right to freedom of expression to state your opinion. 2) I am using my same freedom to criticise your opinion for the load of turds that it is. Subsequently, 3) you are having a moderate case of what we on the internets call ‘Butthurt’.
Go back to the Blaze.
The real tragedy is that we will be having this exact same discussion in the near future when the next asshole shoots some random place up. And Venom will be sitting there furiously trying to trivialize it with bowls of word salad.
I’ll say what I said on Facebook: “I am not saying take away all the guns and every time someone conflates the argument about addressing gun laws with repealing the second amendment I die a little inside. It ruins any possibility of having an honest discussion about an issue that is completely out of hand.
What I have been saying, for a very long time now, is that more stringent gun laws coupled with a more liberal approach to mental health care, and health care in general, absolutely WOULD lead to a decrease in gun deaths. I know this because that’s how every other first world nation on the planet does it.”
We have working examples of how to reduce gun crime. But we can’t have that discussion, because it would be soshulism. And we might hurt Venom’s feelings.
Wow Jody. You almost went a whole comment without insulting me. You should feel very proud of yourself. As for the rest of you, my logic or lack thereof is my logic. Some of you would get it if you could ever speak to me in person. Trying to fit my thoughts into printed words is difficult due to an old learning disabilty. I can write fantasy just fine but when it comes to social discourse, I tend to drop the ball. Again, I’m NOT saying we shouldn’t feel sorry for these people but, we don’t need to focus on it. Having lost one of my parents tragically to cancer, I can tell you that focusing on the pain does no one any good. I’m not blaming the townspeople of Aurora for the media frenzy, I blame mainstream media for canonizing this story, just like the Columbine shooting. Now everybody is going to look funny at comic fans and movie goers that don’t “fit” the “normal” stereotype. After the Columbine shooting, a friend of mine was told he could no longer were his trenchcoat to school because it worried the faculty. At Dragon con one year, they told people they couldn’t wear the V costume from V for Vendetta because of it’s anti-government themes. This whole thing is just going to give people a new reason to ostracize a group of people just because they are different. This will be my last comment on the matter because like the media I have done nothing but keep the argument going and have lost my way in it. God forgive me for my comments as these guys and gals never will.
Is Roadkill licensed to carry that thing?
I think the tone here has been moderate, but let’s remember to play nice. I don’t want anyone to leave with hurt feelings and forget to buy a Megaton Pack.
Captcha Ron Jeremy memoir: Varicum History
Most of the problems with violent crimes are the lax penalties and sweetheart deals! We got a bit of a problem here but the police are frustrated that they put the punks away and they wander back on the streets in a couple of years. Meanwhile, if I decide to hammer the highway at around 60kmh (about 45mph) in my Buick I get treated like Antichrist Superstar by the assholes that I’m payin’! (I can handle a car quite well, thank you) Personally, since these putzes like to play with steel, I’d bulldoze the prisons and build some nice foundries for them to work in; 20 years with no parole!
Mind ya, I suspect this would have no bearing on a fruitcake like this one. That he got his firepower is quite ironic even to me. I never figured gun laws did much to deter violent crime. If i was figurin’ on a shooting party I sure as hell couldn’t get an HK G3 and armour piercing rounds at my local Bass Pro shop, much less anti-tank rockets! Firepower will always be a problem in this part of the world.
That’s my piece! I do offer condolences to the victim’s friends and families of this incredible pointless tragedy. Rock on.
Jody, you made me cringe more than turning on the light and seeing the floor move with your comment, “more stringent gun laws coupled with a more liberal approach to mental health care”.
Yeah, what could be more gross than emulating every other first world nation on earth, who all have national health care and less than a tenth the gun crime we do? Eeeeyew!
The comment was not about your lust for a two tiered health system or willingness to be victimized, it was for your short sightedness and ignorance of your comment quoted. Always remember, the devil is in the details and the government being justis a myth. Just ask an Indian on a reservation, New York has some Seneca and others willing to impart truth to you, but before you think it is a U.S. limited invention, talk to an indigo Brasilian.
I’d strongly advocate doing the exact opposite of what you’re telling people to do.
Don’t cower at home. Don’t avoid seeing the movie that these people died to see. Who’re you trying to hurt or punish, here?
These people went to that movie and stood in line because they liked – and in many cases, loved – the Batman mythos. That guy who lost his eye – HUGE batman fan. What good does it do these fans, for you to boycott the stuff they love?
And Warner Bros are leaping in and saying “We’ll help with that”. That didn’t seem to be forced on them. Nobody, that I could see, was saying “You should be helping these people with no health insurance and millions of dollars in healthcare bills just because it happened to have been your movie they were shot at.” – far as I can tell, WB is just Doing the Right Thing. Which is so freaking rare in corporate America, I think it should be rewarded. Seems to me that helping the victims is, from a corporate stantpoint, insane and suicidal: it’s like they’re claiming part of the moral responsibility for it, and that could have legal repercussions when they inevitably get sued! And that’s gonna be millions of dollars of profits down the drain: it’d take a LOT of good PR to even cover that!
Well done, WB. Seriously, well done. I mean… I’m sure your bean-counters crunched the numbers and decided that it was worth the money for the good PR, but still: kudos to you for even thinking of helping, and asking them to consider that idea and crunch those numbers. Most corporates would never get that idea past even the first layer of red tape.
[std disclaimer: I could just be a corporate shill (but am not). I might well be entirely wrong about everything. Do your own damn research before forming opinions or taking actions, rather than just going with what someone says: it’s not like it’s hard now we have the net.]
Dewi-
The people seeing Batman: Rise of the Sequels did not “die” to see it. They died SEEING it. It was a night at the movies, not a fucking love affair.
I saw it yesterday. Great movie!
– Federally run healthcare doesn’t work; it has to be run by the state. healthcare has been and will always be two-tiered, kids!
I went to see the movie this past Saturday. I’d already intended to see it the moment it was announced, but after the shooting, I asked myself if I should be so eager. And what I decided was this: not going to see it was not a tribute to the victims, it was a declaration of surrender.
I carry a firearm. I argue the pro-gun side of gun control debates (though I think that Nugent is a dick). But that didn’t have anything to do with it.
I can’t begin to entirely understand what drives a guy like Sideshow Bob (which is what they’ve been calling him over at Fark.com). I don’t understand how opening fire on a group of moviegoers satisfies even the most base of urges. But I do know that if he, like the Joker of The Dark Knight just wanted to spread chaos and disorder by a random act of violence, looking at something I considered safe to now be dangerous is tantamount to letting the bastard win. Even if I chose to avoid the film out of respect for the dead, I fail to see how avoiding a film that was the collaborative effort of hundreds over the span of years during the time that is most closely scrutinized by the studios as they determine if this was a worthwhile effort and investment does a damn thing to honor their memory or pay them tribute.
I appreciate the sentiment, but I don’t agree with the expression. There are better ways to offer our collective grief and sympathy than to let this movie become a symbol of madness and misery.