"Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men?"

I refuse to begin this blog with a cliche' like "The
Dark Knight" "rocks" or is "awesome" or something
like that. At age forty-nine, I am legally too old to
use such expressions! But I will say that "The Dark
Knight" is a movie for both fanboys and non-fanboys
alike . Indeed, I think one could reasonably call it not
just a movie, but a film. Oh, it has all the requisite action
and special effects that one could expect from a summer
blockbuster (and proves, in the process, that Marvel has
not necessarily cornered the market on terrific superhero
movies), but this latest entry in the "Batman" sage
addresses some important issues and really makes you
think and even perhaps do some soul-searching.


This is not a movie review, per se, so I am spared from
spoiler alerts. I just want to look at one important issue
that the movie raises: the possibility that the most moral
among us may be corrupted by evil under the right
circumstances. To get right down to it, the central
characters in "The Dark Knight" are, of course, Batman/
Bruce Wayne, district attorney Harvey Dent, and the
unpredictable, sociopathic anarchist The Joker (we
never learn his real name, which is probably just as
well. Trickster gods are best left a little mysterious).



Dent, the Batman, and good cop Jim Gordon have
done a fine job of cleaning up crime in Gotham since
the conclusion of "Batman Begins." The mobs are
pretty much laying low, seemingly outfoxed at
every turn by the "dynamic trio." But all that
changes when the Joker arrives on the scene.
The Joker messes with everybody, thugs and cops
alike. He isn't trying to "win" or get wealthy; he
just wants to create chaos. Maybe it would have
been just as easy to call him Loki, but that is
another comic book enterprise altogether!



Oh, the Joker commits crimes, sure, lots of them
and in a very violent, sensational and, yes, gleeful
manner. But the turning point of the film is when he
orchestrates the kidnapping of Dent and his girlfriend,
Rachel Dawes, a fellow prosecutor and former old flame
of Bruce Wayne, and ties them up in separate ware-
houses in different parts of Gotham, warehouses chock
full of barrels contaning volatile liquids rigged to explode.

Batman faces a real conundrum: he cannot save them
both, so he has to make a choice. So Batman rushes to
save the girl, only too find out that the Joker, no surprise
here, sent him to the wrong warehouse. Dawes is blown
away but the intrepid D.A. survives..

However, Dent does not escape unscathed, either in
body or in soul. The barrel to which he is tied
develops a leak and the corrosive chemicals pour
down the left side of his face, leaving him disfigured.
And that's when everything gets really interesting.

See, Dent discovers that some members of Jim
Gordon's squad were actually traitors. They had
been helping the Joker and the mobs and some of
them were involved in the kidnapping. Dent is furious
and, with a little push from the twisted Joker, becomes
a vigilante himself, but without the Batman's scruples.
Taking on the moniker "Two Face" in homage to
his deformed, ghoulish face, Dent begins his own torture
and murder spree in order to avenge the death of his
beloved. In doing so, of course, he becomes the very
kind of person he has been trying to bring to justice
and get off the streets: a thug, a criminal. And that was
the Joker's game all along. He wanted to destroy
Dent's reputation, not just to make things easier
in Gotham for the criminal element, but primarily,
it seems, to prove that it could be done.



Now many, if not most, of us pride ourselves in
being good people. We think we could never
become criminals or do horrible things. We do
not think it conceivable that we could ever shed
our goodness and put on a cloak of evil as easily
as we change our clothes. But Harvey Dent did it
without missing a beat. So why should we consider
ourselves to be invulnerable to corruption?



So let us not ask, "Could I be corrupted by evil?"
A better question would be, "What would it take
to push me over the edge?" If we can answer
that question, then we might be able to formulate
a strategy to help us avoid the fate of Harvey "Two
Face" Dent.

House of Elrond: One Thing to Rule Them All

House of Elrond: One Thing to Rule Them All

One Thing to Rule Them All

It is a thing of great power that can be used to dominate
the entire human race, to force it into subjugation. It appears
to have a mind of its own and seems to be controlled by unseen,
malevolent forces that use it to toy with human beings. Does it
sound like the ring of Sauron? Yes, but Frodo and the gang took
care of that little problem, didn't they? But we still must contend
with an mighty and pitiless force that would control all life on this
planet. We call it " oil."


Oil has us by the short hairs. Oil "drives" the world. It is no
stretch to say that oil rules the developed world with an iron fist
that would make the Dark Lord green with envy. (And oil is black, so
maybe it's a "Dark Lord" too). And, if you haven't noticed, we are
doing very little about it. Hybrids are o.k., but they are not enough.
Furthermore, a lot of things use oil and its by-products besides
automobiles. When are we gonna get a hybrid John Deere, I want
to know? Anyhoo, I believe we could have had viable alternative,
renewable fuel sources for years if the oil companies, government,
and automobile makers had wished to do so. And if we as a
public had demanded it.


Yes, we the consumers are complicit in this crisis as well. We use
oil and gas as if there was no tomorrow. But guess what? Tomorrow
has come. A lot of very smart people believe that we have already
crossed into the scary world of "peak oil." That is, at this point,
oil supplies are only going to continue to diminish in the face of
increased demand and the price will keep on going up and up.
Friends and neighbors, gas is right now as cheap as it's gonna get.
Sit with that sobering throught for a while. This situation leaves oil-
dependent nations madly scrambling for solutions and hoping
there is enough time.


Well, many are concerned about this phenomenon but not enough
people and not nearly enough of the right people. Certainly a lot
of people in positions of power have not become adequately
sensitized to this issue. Indeed, some deny this unpleasant
scenario just like those who bury their heads in the sand about
the human causes of global warming.

And every day, oil prices skyrocket and the common person
is the one who really bears the brunt of it all, while oil CEOs
are laughing all the way to the bank. And it seems like every
week, we hear a different spin on the situation in the news:
"Oil is in short supply." "No, wait, new supplies have just been
discovered!" "Sorry, just kidding." "Oil field workers may strike
in Nigeria and prices may go up.... or not." "The dollar is getting
stronger and oil futures are coming down." "My bad. False alarm."
"OPEC is going to raise production." "OPEC changed its mind."

Is it just me or do you read headlines like these in the news
every week? Makes me feel like a puppet or a piece on a chess
board, being manipulated by shadowy players who remain hidden
from the eyes of ordinary mortals.

In the end, it doesn't matter. Oil's gonna run out, period. Even if
we could "Jurassic Park" a new generation of dinosaurs and
exterminate them (we are actually very talented at that as a race),
we can't wait millions of years for their remains to turn into oil.
Well, I guess we COULD try cryonic suspension, but I imagine
we'd all have a real case of freezer burn after a few million years!
We need renewable resources and it cannot be put off any longer.

We the people must demand it. We must demand that our politicians
and business leaders get serious about alternative fuels. We ignore
the danger to our peril. In The Lord of the Rings, when Sauron
was defeated at the end of the Second Age of Middle Earth, the
free peoples of the world had a chance to destroy his Ruling Ring,
the One Ring of the Rings of Power, and rid the world of his malice
forever. They did not do so and missed the chance and a new
generation had the fun of engineering Sauron's final defeat. Oil
is our Ring of Power. We can end its tyranny now, or we can let
our progeny deal with it. We can only hope they will be as successful
as Frodo and company, but it will be to our everlasting shame if we
act so irresponsibly and force them to fight that battle. Let us have
the courage to fight it ourselves. We have helped to create this monster.
It is only fitting that we should be the ones to destroy it.