In defense of history's worst: The Joker's actions in The Dark Knight were justified (Part 2)

The first is that I said there would be 4 rounds, when I have actually set it to 3. As a result, assume Round 3 is gone and Round 4 = Round 3. That leads us to the second mistake; it should read "Pro rebuttals, Con may only say "Thank you for this debate" so there are an even number of rounds. " I have discussed these with my opponent and he has kindly agreed. I will now move on to my rebuttals. Let's first summarise Con's arguments in round 1. He makes three contentions:1) Joker does lots of things we would perceive to be bad.2) Joker sees humans as animals and wants to make everyone like him.3) It doesn't matter if The Joker is right because it makes the world a worse place. I agree with contention 1, it is all factual. This has nothing to do with the debate however, we are arguing whether his actions were justified, not whether they resulted in good things or bad things. I kind of agree with contention 2, but I will elaborate a lot further than Con has on The Joker's motivations, as that is the crux of this debate. Contention 3, the conclusion Con draws is the major flaw in his argument. Whether The Joker has left the world in a better or worse place in your opinion than it was before him is irrelevant, the key idea is whether there was an "acceptable reason for the action taken". Now as 'acceptable' is a highly subjective word, I urge voters to step into Joker's purple suit for a moment and see why he did the things he did. His actions do not have to have had a good result, it doesn't matter if there could've been a better alternative The Joker could've taken. What matters is simply whether or not he had a good reason for doing the things he did. My argument In order to understand The Joker, we must first look at the idea of 'nihilism'. Defintion: Nihilism: the rejection of all religious and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless. The Joker is neither good nor evil. He kills both drug dealers[1] and police[2]. He isn't after money either[3]. So what is The Joker really after? My thesis is that The Joker wants to enlighten everyone in Gotham city, and by extension, mankind. The rest of this argument will be an attempt to prove that thesis. As I have shown earlier, The Joker is not attached to anything. He is not governed by the structures of society. Does this remind you of any belief system? That's right; buddhism. The Joker is a hero in his own way. Batman fights to rid the world of what he perceives as 'evil'; that is, drug dealers, murders, rapists, etc. The Joker fights to rid the world of what he perceives as 'evil': social structures. Why are the structures we have built our society on 'evil'? Because our world was never meant to fit into these moral structures and values. We try to fit this wonderfully chaotic world into what we deem as 'good' and 'bad', but then we make exceptions. We always make exceptions; inconsistency is an inherent trait in the human condition. Although some people follow the rules set by society, there are those that will defy them. They profit from them and can easily manipulate the people who blindly follow these social structures and values of 'right' and 'wrong'. The Joker is trying to free us from these artificial mores and values. If we lose an inherent sense of 'good' and 'evil', there ceases to be conflict. This is the core of nihilism. Life is inherently meaningless, and the acceptance of this is to be enlightened. "The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules. " No one will be able to manipulate another based on these grandiose ideas of 'good'. By introducing the world (Gotham City) to conflict, The Joker highlights the hypocrisies of social values in an attempt for humanity to understand its own nature and thus live a better life. His actions are for the greater good. The Joker is not only the antithesis of 'good', he kills drug dealers too. He is the antithesis of structure, he takes everyone's plans and 'turns them upside down'. Gotham is a world where everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others, just like the allegory of the pigs in Animal Farm - George Orwell. "If I tell the press that tomorrow a gangbanger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will get blown up, nobody panics. But when I say one little old mayor will die, everyone loses their minds! " The only true equality is a world void of values, of the pretentious morality us humans have conjured up. Obviously, the reader may now think of the ferry experiment and say that the people of Gotham have proved themselves to be better than that, simply because neither boat blew up. But consider what actually happened - the "good people" couldn't even reach a decision to make a vote, and when they finally voted to blow up the other ship, no one had the guts to do it. Their morality has made them sick, they chose these superficial values of morality over basic survival instinct. The Joker tried to teach them a lesson - to put them back in touch with their true animalistic nature. The people on the 'good' boat obviously wanted to blow up the other ship, but only when no one was watching. When people didn't have to reveal what they voted for. But when someone has to come up and press the button, no one could, because other people were watching. Hopefully, this argument has led you to believe that Joker's actions were not only justified - his worldview is actually a little bit appealing. Perhaps, just perhaps, you start to see the world a little clearer through his eyes. The artificialness of it, the pretentiousness. Either way, I have sufficiently demonstrated that The Joker's actions were not only justified, it was his only option as one of the few people 'ahead of the curve', one of the few people who saw the world for what it was. He had to awaken the world to its own contradictions. [1] . http://www.youtube.com...;[2] . http://www.youtube.com... [3] . http://www.youtube.com...