Issue #8: I'm Batman!

Whenever my partner goes away on holiday with friends I settle into a routine which invariably involves watching Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight (Batman) trilogy. I am a sucker for the muddied morality, the darkness and adventure, not to mention the brooding music and the even brooding-ier Christian Bale in the lead role.

I appreciate it in relation to my work because of how well it speaks to the vulnerability and confusion that we all experience from time to time when it comes to figuring out who we are and to choosing an appropriate path for ourselves. It is a classic tale of good versus evil in this respect because it doesn't diminish the idea by reducing it to a binary.

I began to watch the series on the eve of the arrival of a new government here in the UK. Although perhaps not as dashing and dynamic as the mob-busting lawyer Harvey Dent in episode two of the trilogy (the eponymous ‘Dark Knight’), I couldn't resist drawing a parallel between Dent and our own former director of public prosecutions who now has the role of leading the clean up operation after years of governmental cynicism, ineptitude and borderline kleptocracy.

In another more serious parallel, at the close of that second instalment Batman makes himself into a scapegoat to absorb the inevitable outpouring of public anger that will arrive in the twist of Dent’s grief-stricken rampage of revenge as his alter-ego Harvey Two-Face (hopefully where our earlier comparison ends). Batman invites an identity as the outsider because he understands people’s need to have a vessel into which to decant the challenging feelings that sometimes come with being a member of society.

It is a feature of Batman's leadership and a vivid metaphor for our current landscape, a reminder of how quickly we find ourselves demonising the other, whether that is the immigrant or the Reform voter, depending on one’s point of view (and position of power). It is easy to be suckered into divisiveness which is of course what the leaders of populist movements want and which, sadly, those of us with what we like to think of as more balanced views cannot help but collude in from time to time because it is, depressingly, easier than the alternative.

Nolan’s message - the message of Batman - is that ultimately the moral choices of society and the responsibility to pursue them do not rest solely on the shoulders of politicians but in those who elect them and who have power of their own to take action - namely, us. This message is underscored in the Joker’s final set piece at the end of the Dark Knight when two boatloads of people (a perfect allegory for these times) are provided with a trigger that will detonate a bomb on the other boat and are given encouragement to do so.

In this scene (in which neither party chooses to pull the trigger) as in the story as a whole, The Dark Knight offers a message of hope; hope as a product of action. Last week’s general election opened a new and more hopeful phase of life in the UK, which has been tearing itself apart like Europe’s own Gotham City these previous eight years. This last decade has seen much damage, disconnection and growing inequality. We also find ourselves in this country outliers again in terms of riding the political tide, and we cannot afford to be complacent. Succeeding in troublesome times means each of us accepting our role in developing a fairer and more just society for all.

The game is not up.

This is where Batman begins…

Some questions

• Where do you find yourself feeling powerless?
• What small act of support might offer some help?
• What are the small acts of generosity that you can commit to others?
• What do you put in the way of performing them?

An invitation

If you’ve read this far, thank you! Now, here is an invitation:

I am looking for inspiration for future articles and would love to hear from readers what is important to you. It could be a work related topic, a matter of coaching and supervision practice, a point of view, or something more left field that I can thread through my work. If you’d like to suggest something you can do so anonymously here: LINK