What will make you go mad?

All it takes is one bad day

When I watched the 2019 release of Joker I was struck by a man’s descent into insanity. I reflected on good and evil, and what could make someone wicked. I do believe people are innately good. I mean I haven’t seen a baby do a truly vile act. And if people were not generally good, then Michael Scott would not exist.

People regularly do generous acts without any incentive. I don’t believe in karma, so doing good acts does not mean positive things will come back around to you. Things just happen. There is no explanation and I have learnt to take it as it comes. Teachings from my younger stoic days.

The Joker, a fictional character, embodies the concept of neither good nor evil existing. I am no comic book junkie, and so all my viewpoints are of course ignorant. My understanding prior to watching the Joker is a villain who destroys hospitals (credit to the masterful Heath Ledger).

I knew he was Batman’s arch nemesis, and every psychotic superhero needs a therapist. Knowingly or not, the Joker was Batman’s therapist and vice versa. They gave each other purpose in life.

On the surface, the Joker has no motivation apart from ensuing madness upon Gotham. This idea of the Joker interested me. His psychosis was revealing of a man that did things with no real intention. There was no tangible end goal to his mission. With no agenda behind his actions, I found myself thinking what had brought the Joker to this state.

On the Verge of Insanity

I came across the headline of this post from the animated movie Batman: The killing Joke (2016). All it takes is one bad day. In a monologue the Joker describes how, he and the Batman are similar. How society is not too far from where the Joker stands. How just one bad day can change everything. The monologue is fitting, as in the end, the Batman kills the Joker (this is not a spoiler, you should’ve guessed it from the title of the movie). Could it be that the Batman really is no different? I would agree. They are both bat shit crazy.

Regardless, the idea of a single day changing the outcome of your life is fascinating. How much are we in control of our demise? Is this dreadful day avoidable? What does it mean for us as people, a society? When we are late for work or a scheduled event it seems like everything is going wrong and the world is against us.

It is on these days that I remember the Joker’s line. However, I remind myself these inconveniences are trivial, and I soon forget my plot to set the world on fire. But what does it take to drive someone insane?

In the movie we witness a man go down a path that experiences a bad day, everyday. His life is miserable, and there is no help for him. His world is already insane. He believes they just don’t know it yet — until the end of the movie.

For the Joker, the tipping point is a process, that has culminated in a single bad day, causing everything to set in motion. Cue the interview scene.

What will be your bad day?

The Joker was a mentally ill loner, and many of us do not fall under that description. Nevertheless, the frustrations and neglect we feel wherever we go fosters unimaginable thoughts. If all it takes is one bad day, where does that leave us? On the edge? On the brim of something going tragically wrong and changing the trajectory of our life?

These are just thoughts I had from a movie’s line, but I think the concept that I am alluding to is the power of moments. The impactful force of accumulated small moments that have lasting effects on how we live our lives. It’s these instances that we build our life around, and influence future decisions.

Everything we do is informed by our experiences and our personality shapes how we react to bad events. Some instances are extremely awful, but our sanity grounds us to not inflict atrocious acts. Most of us are in control of how we respond, others may need assistance such as therapy or medical care. As long as we are in control of our actions, we can decide how we react.

And if you do lose your sanity for just a moment, just don’t maniacally attempt to blow up half the city you live in. Or worse a pet shelter.