Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and the Batman
If you are one of those kinds of people who constantly think about the consequences of their actions, weighing in every small step on the merciless scale of the right and the wrong, then you would’ve faced situations where you don’t know whether a thing is moral or not. You try to work out the details and the outcomes of your actions and then carefully decide whether to go ahead with it or discard it for the sake of the greater good. The general principle one decides the morality of an action is somewhat like this — whatever that aids society at large is the moral thing and whatever that harms is an immoral thing. Even though there is no hard and fast rule about this, it can be considered a heuristic measure for most cases.
And for the sake of people who can’t think so diligently about the good and the bad, we have moral codes as to how a person should behave within the bounds of society. We all decide to adhere to these rules and rituals and punish those who don’t. Do this over a long period of time and you have the law of the land in it’s crudest form. Ever since man formed societies, we have had certain do’s and don’ts that we pass on to the younger generations. Over time, we forget the whys of the moral code and just stick to the hows. Looks almost like religion. It can be argued that all religion is propaganda to establish a moral code for a particular time and geography.
So far as the survival of society is concerned, these set of rules function brilliantly. As long as we do not aspire for something higher, the rules make sure that we live harmoniously and tolerant of one another. If, however one aspires for greatness beyond the measures of society and its rules, one has to go beyond the realm of the morals established. One has to go beyond the society and establish the superiority of the individual over the collective. Because all greatness is in the overcoming the general to establish the individual. All greatness goes against the codes and conducts of the society in one way or another precisely because greatness goes against everything that the society takes for granted. The individual greatness, the greatness that changes the direction of history has to rise out of the comfort of the societal norms. Without first going against the incumbent, the greatness cannot emerge on to the bigger stage. The individual always has to break the general. Alexander became great by waging wars that ravaged kingdoms. So did Genghis Khan. Buddha left his wife and kid to seek the truth. Krishna advocated Arjuna to kill his brothers and relatives for the sake of his duty. All these people went against the general rules of morality to make their mark on the rest of mankind. Most people we remember today have established their greatness by suspending the moral code of that time and place or at least have struggled with it.
But not all the people who go against the morals are considered great. Hitler killed millions and he is abhorred all over the world. A husband who disowns his wife and kids will be chastised by the society. A person who instigates another to kill will be branded a murderer. Given such nuances between greatness and petty crime, how does one move beyond the ethical to the realm of greatness? How to establish the act of greatness? How to suspend the ethical? If everyone broke the rules on their own accord, society as a whole will collapse. Only the few great people are allowed such a privilege. So then how do we establish that only those people deserve such suspension while the others must adhere to the ethical?
The Knight of Faith
One of the earliest accounts to explain the suspension of the ethical for the individual was made by Søren Kierkegaard. In his long but beautiful treatise on Abraham, Kierkegaard explains how Abraham almost killed his son and still ended up being worshiped as the Knight of Faith. According to Kierkegaard, all our actions and thoughts fall into one of the three categories — everything we do for our own gain is the Aesthetic, everything we do for the greater good of society is the Ethical or the Universal, and what we that lies beyond the ethical is the Religious (note that the religious has nothing to do with our idea of either God or religion). According to him, we follow the rules and submit to the ethical even if it goes against the aesthetic — that is what we consider to give up our innate individual desires to abide by the codes of the society. But Abraham broke the moral code when he decided to sacrifice Isaac and he did it not for his own sake but to prove his faith in God to God. He made a clear suspension of the ethical for something higher — or as Kierkegaard calls it, the “teleological suspension of the ethical”. He does this through the double movement — the movement of infinite resignation and the movement of faith. Abraham first resigns to his fate — the fate of a life without Isaac and then goes on to believe in his faith in God. And this faith is so strong that it can be based on nothing but the absurd. Abraham does not sacrifice Isaac for his own benefit or out of his own folly, he sacrifices Isaac on the basis of his faith that God will never take his beloved son from him. Through this double movement, Abraham is able to to suspend the moral codes and being called the Knight of Faith. It is this leap of faith following the resignation that separates Abraham from the rest of the murderers — one cannot sacrifice Isaac without first being Abraham.
The Übermensch
Kierkegaard’s ethical suspension was further extended by Nietzsche — although not without controversies. Nietzsche’s entire life was mired in misery and pain yet most of his writings are on celebrating life. Probably he wrote it as a reminder to himself or probably he wrote it because that’s how he lived. He wrote through ambition, fame, pain, depression, and madness. He asked us to enforce our soul on the world and exert our Will to Power. He wrote about celebrating our individualities beyond the shackles of mad societies. His Übermensch is one who is beyond pity for himself and for others and full of life. He dances his life to death amidst the cacophony of pleasure and pain and considers the entire world to be just a manifestation of his willing. He is Kierkegaard’s Knight of Faith, although for an uninitiated reader, he relates more to the aesthetic individual touting the rules of society unnecessarily for personal gain. Nietzsche’s Übermensch does not pity himself when faced with tragedy, instead he accepts it and plays his part to utmost perfection with extreme diligence. He is the justification of the self in a society where groupthink is the accepted way of living. He shatters the societal rules and definitions to exercise his Will to Power. But he does that not for satisfying his individual desires and ambitions but to become more than just a human. To go beyond humanity. To acknowledge life both in its bright colours and dark shadows. To live by his own superior code than the one enforced upon society.
Nietzsche never makes a deliberate effort to separate the aesthetic from the religious like Kierkegaard did and this is exactly why Nietzsche is so controversial. One has to tread carefully to understand the difference. Probably Nietzsche missed a link. Probably he ignored to mention how not to assert our Will to Power which came back to haunt him in the form of Nazi propaganda. But Nietzsche’s Übermensch is beyond the petty criminal. He is someone that looks beyond the shackles that bind us throughout our life.
The Dark Knight
The modern times have given us our own Knight — the Dark Knight. He gives up the comfort of his luxurious life to fight crime with his bare hands. He takes in all the pain and suffers in silence yet staying absolutely true to his duties. He gives up his Aesthetic life for a higher purpose. Not the purpose that is the Universal but one that is beyond it. In that sense, he follows the Individual that is above the Universal. He is above the ethical in the sense that he breaks the very rules established to hold the society together. He thinks he is above the law when dealing with both the criminals and the cops. He has a clear disregard for rules we commonly obey in an ordered society. Yet we associate him more with a hero than a criminal. We discount his blatant display of lawlessness because we know he has his own moral standard he subjects himself to. A more rigorous code of conduct than the one followed by the society.
In that sense, Batman is the Knight of Faith and the Übermensch. He suspends the Universal for the Particular which is not merely the Aesthetic. He breaks the rules that dictate the society for the good of the society. A petty criminal breaks the rules for his own purpose — that is the aesthetic. Most people follow the rules — that is the ethical. But the Batman breaks the rules but conforms to a higher, absolute standard —and that is the Particular. In this sense, he his making the double movement of morality. He is exercising his Will to Power. He is above the criminals and crooks he beats up because he holds himself to a higher standard than the society. His internal moral compass is much more rigid than the one we follow. He is able to follow his rules more rigorously than we follow our ethical rules. Thus we reward him by placing him closer to the Knight of Faith and the Übermensch than the criminals he spends his time chasing.
There we have — three different ideas from different times upholding different values. But they share a common theme —they show how to be above the Universal while still being moral. That is their lesson, if there is indeed such a thing. Each prove their worth in their own way fighting the constant turmoil all by themselves. That’s the way it has to be because no one can teach you the way to greatness. You have to learn it all by yourself. You have to reinvent the wheel with nothing more than your own strength. You can imitate them in what to do and what not to do but you have to figure out the how and the why on your own. It’s the most difficult task in the world — a never ending uphill journey. But they showed that it is not impossible. You have to pawn your life for it but in the end it may well be worth it.
