I love it when you make me think, Erik. America does hate itself right now. I've noticed this month that all of us seem to be coming to terms with the fact that this country, as we knew it, is over. The Olympics are starting in China, and fuck me if they don't look like a blast. It's a death ceremony for the West.

I do think, though, that this country is on the verge of discovering something incredible about itself: That despite all the shameful secrets the nation has in its 20th century closet, we might be capable of overcoming our worst selves and creating a brighter, more honest future.

We're going to be poor and honest. Imagine...the thing we feared all along, another Great Depression prolonged over time and with no prospect of uptick, may even bring out our nobility!

And thanks for making me think differently about Batman, too. I couldn't help feeling we didn't find out enough about the joker because they simply never got the footage, but you're right: He exists. Although "setting up the next edition of the corporate franchise" is distinctly jokery, as a motivation to make a movie. And I did rather wonder if the writers got that joke, or whether they were simply laughing all the way to the bank...

We watched Tim Burton's Batman after seeing this one, and I have to say, Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the Joker's origin story had me more gripped than Ledger's portrayal of the character's malevolence. But a perfect performance, I think, might combine the two. Nicholson's joker is camp. Ledger's, I don't know, under-confident? A joker for our age.

My first reaction when I saw Dark Knight (and this article) was to get pissy about the misuse of the word "anarchy" (It means without rulers, not rules. Someone saying "do what I want or I'll blow you up" is not anarchy). But then, thinking a little deeper about the subject, I was reminded of something else. Whedon's "Dr. Horrible" also had the main character drop the A-word.

That got me thinking, Dr. Horrible and Dark Knight really kind of have the same story. Sure, one movie stars a lovable loser and the other a raging psychopath, but both movies tell the story of a guy trying to stick it to the defender of The Modern Western World. I think people want to see that. I think we see The Joker, like Horrible, as a kind of Anti-Hero. We may not agree with his tactics, but we agree with his need to see this world burn, to stick it to the Corporate Tool.

It's interesting that this kind of violent nihilism is showing up in pop-culture of all places as an alternative to modern society, and that people are actually buying it. It make me wounder where we're really at as a society at this point, and where we could possibly go from here.