The Worship of Chaos

This is a blog I wrote on my blog and am transposing it here.

Remember the scene from The Dark Knight when the Joker, played brilliantly by the late Heath Ledger burns all that money? His associates are aghast. They don't get what the Joker gets. Because what he is after is not really about money, it's not even about power. It represents just how truly reckless and a lover of chaos this symbolic character was.. so reckless in fact, that even what represents power to him was not important. If we dig deeper, what we come to find was that this figure actually worships Chaos.. as if it were an entity, a thing. Chaos - which has neither rhyme nor reason, and causes despair and destruction, is the true nature of the so-called 'dark side' and the 'Devil.' Furthermore, this character can further represent the deep hidden rage of the collective unconscious of the 'power elite' perhaps.. where at bottom, they are chaotic reckless children.. yet highly dangerous at the same time.. actually, what could be more dangerous than a reckless, chaotic, child full of endless rage and a sense of entitlement? This is reminiscent of the Greek myth of Saturn, one of the highest of the high of the Olympian Gods, master of Time and Space, Titan of the Skies was he, who, afraid that his children would end up destroying him, devoured them as soon as they were born. The highly rich and elite of the world are taught to be by their very upbringing and also the fact that they can basically buy anything, including power and prestige. Yet, if at one point, one of them wishes to usurp the father, they would most likely be devoured. In the Dark Knight (symbolic again), we feel a sense of sympathy somehow for this character, the Joker, which is actually ironic, since he doesn't joke. We can somehow see his vulnerability, although with every step, he burns it away like this cash.. isn't that funny, however? In light of economic realities today, which did not exist at the time of this movie, at least not in this capacity, isn't that ironic, that this reckless, chaotic man-child burns away all the cash..? Because again, that is not what is important, it is a tool, it is what is done with it that counts, the chaos and destruction it causes, whether it is given or taken away..

You can see the original post and blog here:

http://pompandpageantry.blogspot.com/2010/08/love-of-chaos.html