The Dark Knight Rises: The Occupy Left Get the World & the Justice They Deserve

No wonder the Democrats were afraid of the Dark Knight. The final installment of Christopher Nolan’s sweeping trilogy provides a breathtaking excursion into the depravity of moral relativism and the triumph of the human spirit in the face of great evil.

The lame attempts by the modern left to commandeer a film that was billed in advance as ‘one of the most conservative ever’ was a tip that this film was not your average comic book thriller.

The left desperately tried to connect the film’s arch-villain Bane to political foe Mitt Romney by risibly suggesting that the former governor’s days building successful companies at “Bane Capital” was akin to going on a mass reign of terror. Democrat Congressman Ed Markey seized on the film as a platform to spread yet more unfounded fear about global warming. ABC News disinformer Brian Ross latched onto the name “James Holmes” to make a ludicrous connection between the Aurora massacre shooter and the tea party  to smear a benign political movement as a criminal enterprise like the Obama-endorsed Occupy movement.

Never mind all that. Although I was skeptical of advance praise by conservative critics, the film completely obliterates the shibboleths of the left of “returning power to the people” and pursuing “social justice” by getting even with the rich.

Without giving much specific about the plot away, Gotham City devolves into a pit of wanton crime and vengeful mobs after an eight-year period of peace and order, brought to them courtesy of “the Batman,” but falsely attributed to the deceased “two-faced” District Attorney Harvey Dent. Commissioner Gordon knows the truth about who saved Gotham from the Joker and his criminal minions, but made an agreement with Bruce Wayne to let the people rest securely in the lie that Harvey Dent was the hero.

In the meantime, a self-exiled Bruce Wayne languishes in the recesses of Wayne Manor, a figure unable to enjoy life without exacting justice on criminals who are the manifestations of his inner demons. The Catwoman’s character, played by the slinky Ann Hathaway, provides a powerful lens through which to view the tension between selfishness and justice.

Essentially, a “coming storm” of chaos and lawlessness brews in the Gotham City underground, as the powerful crime boss “Bane” arrives on the scene and builds an army of fanatical foot soldiers who starkly and unmistakably resemble the zombified Occupy movement. Bane is a viscerally intimidating figure with a compelling backstory that unfolds late in the movie, and develops into a nemesis for Batman.

In the end, director Christopher Nolan gives the Occupy crowd exactly what they want in vivid cinematic strokes: a world without ‘hierarchy,’ and a mob of vengeful psychopaths exacting ‘people’s justice’ on the rich on behalf of the underprivileged and poor. But the question is begged: Then what?

As more than one character battles the traumatic experiences of his and her life, it all boils down to a choice: is the injustice of life a call to seek revenge on one’s fellow man, or to grapple with one’s ordeals to be a better person, a personal protector of the poor and downtrodden, and a righter of wrongs?

The ultimate conclusion is that we cannot outsource our virtues to the government or to any demagogue that comes along. We have to be heroic ourselves.