Key Terminology

• Ideology – a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.
• Socio-Political Context – This sociopolitical context refers to contemporary ideologies, regulations, policies, conditions, laws, practices, traditions, and events that define America’s education. These ideologies, practices, laws, and policies cause the current structural inequality in the education sector.
• Vigilante -a member of a volunteer committee organised to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate) broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice.
• Dominant Hegemony – Hegemony’ describes the dominance of one social group or class in a society. … Such ‘hegemonic dominance’ rests on cultural influence, non-military resources, and economic power.
• Authoritarianism – the enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom. Lack of concern for the wishes or opinions of others.
• Dichotomy – a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.

Click on the image to read the article on The Dark Knight

Key Quotes in the article

1. Vigilantism, justice and vengeance – ‘Batman as a symbol of vigilantism,
   justice, vengeance and even fascism. He
   is a force for ‘good’ who fights criminals
   by putting on a mask, attacking them in
   the dark and dishing out his own vigilante
   justice, uninhibited by the laws, restrictions
   and corruption that the local police deal
   with. Bruce Wayne is a character who begins
   by wanting to take vengeance on the
   murderer of his parents by attempting to
   assassinate the criminal.’
2. By any means necessary – ‘the tactics of Batman – In The
   Dark Knight, his interrogation of the Joker
   becomes brutal, like the torture so eagerly
   justified by stopping acts of terrorism in real
   life. Batman then uses a scarily sophisticated
   and completely illegal surveillance’
3. Inequality in Gotham – ‘The
   people of Gotham are poor, struggling and
   desperate. The first real contact with them
   that Wayne has is when a criminal robs,
   then kills his parents for their expensive
   belongings. Dothan (2012) argues that:
   the Batman movies pretty consistently
   portray Gotham as corrupt, chaotic, unequal
   and unjust.’
4. The masses – ‘However Nolan’s films have
   less faith in the masses. Aside from The
   Dark Knight’s climax, Gotham’s people are
   seen as docile, useless and incapable of
   achieving anything worthwhile. The Dark
   Knight is interesting in that
   the film’s ideological conflict seems to centre
   around the fundamental worth of humanity,
   whether it is truly as corruptible as the Joker
   thinks it is or if it has an essential nobility as
   Bruce Wayne believes.’

‘Bruce Wayne became the terrorist and Batman became both torturer and operator of a mass surveillance system; it was exactly the point that in fighting the villain, he became the villain.’ similar to Americas approach on the War On Terror.

Turner, P. 2013. Dark Knight, Dark Ideas. The Media Magazine. 44(2), pp. 3 7-41.

Here are my notes on War on Terror.