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How Justice is Related to Fairness

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Justice is the definition of fairness. Fairness is something that someone can receive or give to someone else. Justice can be interpreted in many ways, not everyone has the same opinion on things for example, the Joker believes in chaos and he believes that chaos is the definition of fairness. Harvey Dent in the other hand believes more in chance and luck, that is why he’s always caring his lucky coin to interpret that, the coin is the thing that decides whether or not he will do something, and towards the end of the movie, he uses the coin to decide whether or not someone dies, that is his way of being fair. Batman, now is a bit more difficult considering how he fights for crime, so everything can be the same for its citizens, but if you were to find a definition of justice for him, it would probably be that he is utilitarian, Batman views saving the majority of people and killing a few be fair, even if he unintentionally kills them.

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Batman’s philosophy has to do with order and not being a killer. Earlier in the script we learn that Batman or Bruce Wayne does not like killing people, we really never had a reason to why he believed in this, but he constantly said it throughout the script or movie. “This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I said I wanted to inspire people.” I argued that Batman did not kill in order for him to still have that same inspiration with the citizens of Gotham. I thought about Batman’s ego, and how killing someone could potentially ruin it for him. If Batman were to kill, the citizens would view Batman differently, and if new superheroes were to come in, they could later take Batman’s spot, and Batman would be forgotten forever. If Batman wants to inspire people, he will have to do it by the actions he makes, and most importantly the decisions he decides to make.

“You need us! There’s only one of you- it’s war out here.” This was what the fake Batman’s replied to Batman. You could take this as an example of inspiration, the fake Batman’s took inspiration of Batman, maybe not the way Batman wanted to, but technically they still took inspiration from him. They tried to copy his disguise and they tried to fight crime. Batman is selfish in a way, if you were to think about it, he wants to inspire people, but he wants to be the only hero that could help Gotham. People may think, why would Batman do such a thing? Killings. If there were to be massacres of citizens disguised as Batman, he would take the blame for what happened, or if those fake Batman’s killed someone, Batman would also take the blame for being a bad inspiration towards the people of Gotham. This could be a reason to why Batman doesn’t kill, and why prefers to work by himself, and not with other people, plus if more havoc were to happen this would also counter his philosophy on order, because he expects Gotham to be peaceful and safe from any type of villain.

I feel like this argument does lack in some things, first of all, when Batman tries to be an inspiration, we see fake Batman’s popping up with weapons that could kill another person. Imagine, there was war between the people of Gotham and crime lords, then the whole city would get messed up, when talking about this is also somewhat Batman’s fault because if you think about it he is trying to inspire people, and he should do it the right way, to whereas citizens instead of killing, they could protest, or do something in order to make Gotham a better place.

Order was another thing Batman was based on, if he wants there to be order, there has to be a stable, peaceful city, and if Batman wants that to happen he will have to know how to use his inspiration with the citizens of Gotham. If someone does not know how to use their inspiration, then there would be no good side to it, there would only be worse consequences. Everybody thinks differently, and everyone could take someone else’s inspiration differently, just like someone could go protesting for freedom, and making marches, someone else could go and rebel and kill for their freedom, and what’s the worst outcome there, the killings or the protests???

Many may argue that there could be killings in protests, and it’s true, there could be deaths, but when you see someone with weapons shooting at people, and then in other side you citizens with their signs up protesting, the probability of someone dying could go into the hands of those that are rebelling. Same thing here with Batman, just that, instead of fighting for freedom, they fight crime. Another lack was the fact that Batman himself does not kill, but if you think about it Batman let 5 people die, in order to catch the Joker, he knew that if he were to let those people connected to Dent die, he would later have his shot in capturing the Joker, and that is exactly what happened, but there was a twist that no one expected would happen. This was a quote from when Batman and Joker were conversing in the jail, “ I wanted to see what you’d do. And you didn’t disappoint…. You let five people die.” There was also another quote, “ Killing is making a choice…” Considering these two quotes, if you were to really think about it, killing someone is a choice that you make, and if Batman decided to go for Joker instead of saving the five people that died, isn’t that already Batman destroying his one rule. Someone can argue that Batman unintentionally killed them, but in the end they still got killed, whether or not Batman was there, and who’s fault is it???

The Batman’s for sure, because this choice was put into his hands, and he decided which to choose, and if you were to see through Joker’s eyes, then yes he did kill all of them. This argument has a lot of strengths, but In my opinion I feel like there are more flaws because some of the points being made leave me questioning things. For example, Batman not killing people, at first I agreed that It wasn’t true that he killed those people, but after analyzing, and reading more in the script, I started questioning all this things, and the outcome of all this things, was that I disagreed with Batman’s philosophy. If you don’t really understand the whole Batman philosophy, then I believe that you would agree with his philosophy, but if you contrast him with other characters, and if you read his character more in depth, then you will start noticing things that maybe you didn’t notice at first, I think it depends on how the readers understand the philosophy.

Harvey Dent’s philosophy relies on chance and morality. Harvey started of as a White Knight, he was the hero that everyone expected him to be, he actually did a lot of things the Batman could not do. He was also a very self-aware person, he seemed not to care for the consequences of his actions, he knew that everything he did was with a purpose, a good purpose. Flipping a coin was what Harvey loved to do, he flipped a coin for Rachel, and even though he did fall in love with here, the whole relationship was based on a coin flip. “Well, I guess you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” This quote would explain morality, and how that was something that potentially affected Dent in the future. We all know that Dent became Two-Face, even if it was because of sadness or resentment, Dent always seemed to do crazy things in order for him to achieve what he wanted to get, which is the total opposite of Batman, because after Batman had his parents killed, he sought to fight for freedom, compared to Dent, he based his morality on a coin flip, that would then make him become a good inspirational guy to a man that is hurt, and is now killing based on what the results of a coin flip are.

“You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time. But you were wrong. The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased. Unprejudiced. Fair.” This quote basically answers the question about his philosophy, and it also connects to what he thinks is fair, that’s why I also included chance in the intro, because Harvey believes that chance is the way to be fair. Honestly, for Harvey Dent’s philosophy I can’t really find a specific flaw, that makes me question whether or not he is wrong. You can’t really contrast the fact of Dent using a coin as a symbol of chance. That is just the way he liked living, it was part of his lifestyle. Him becoming Two-Face can also not be contrasted due to the fact that he had reasons of why he became that type of person, losing someone you love is not as easy as someone thinks, and we also have to put consideration that every human being takes losses differently, some go crazy, some just go on with their life, Harvey was just one of those people that became crazy. The strengths in this argument would probably have to be everything Harvey does is for a purpose that makes sense, and if I were have to find a flaw is when becoming two- face, the fact that he became that person, due to a coin toss, is crazy, but I still think that, even though that was a stupid move, he still reasons why to do it.

“Have you ever had to talk to the person you love most? To tell them it's going to be alright, when you know that it's not?” This quote shows us how deeply affected Harvey was with the death of Rachel. Joker’s philosophy revolves around chaos, he thinks that this is a way to be fair, that’s why it’s also part of my intro. Joker first says this when he talks with Harvey Dent in the hospital. “Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I’m an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It’s fair!” This quote from The Dark Knight shows that Joker is an anarchist, and what does an anarchist believe? They believe in the most extreme way of freedom. Which is the complete opposite of what Batman believes because Batman believes in order and not killing, while in the other hand, Joker kills to get what he wants, and he also doesn’t believe in order, you can prove this from the quote presented above, “ Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order.”

I also think Joker is an anarchist because Joker is strange and when he talks to other people he tells them, “I believe, whatever doesn’t kill you, simply makes you…..stranger.” I think he says in order to make everyone else strange just like him, because if Joker is strange, and he is an anarchist, then he is gonna want other people to join him and make them be strange. Take for example, the man that had the phone inside his stomach, “The boss said he would make the voices go away… he said he would go inside and replace them with bright lights... like Christmas (laughter).”

This quote shows how Joker convinced a man to do what he wanted, and made him stranger because you can’t convince a person to just have an incision without knowing what you were gonna get put inside. Him wearing make-up, makes me think that he wants to be more intimidating, and he wants to make the people be scared of him, and he uses that as an advantage to then make them do whatever he wants, and make them stranger, so he is a manipulative person. I think that this argument is weak because we don’t really have context of the Joker, all he does is talk about his childhood with other people he tries to intimidate, for example, when he talks to Rachel in the penthouse he says this, “Come here. Hey! Look at me. So I had a wife, beautiful, like you, who tells me I worry too much. Who tells me I ought to smile more. Who gambles and gets in deep with the sharks… look at me! One day, they carve her face. And we have no money for surgeries. She can’t take it. I just want to see her smile again, hmm? I just want her to know that I don’t care about the scars. So… I stick a razor in my mouth and do this… “, and when he talks to Gambol, he tells him this, “Wanna know how I got these scars? My father was a drinker and a friend. And one night he goes off crazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself. He doesn’t like that. Not. One. Bit. So - me watching - he takes the knife to her, laughing while he does it! Turns to me, and he says, “Why so serious, son?” Comes at me with the knife…. “Why so serious?” He sticks the blade in my mouth… “Let’s put a smile on that face!” And… why so serious.” So we don’t really know which version of the story to believe. Considering this, we can’t really find a purpose to why Joker does all of this havoc. Does he do it because he is just crazy? Or does he do it in order to prove something?

The strengths in this argument would probably be the two stories he tells because then we could try to prove which one is more accurate, and then we could connect it to see what or why he is doing all of this. For example, when he puts a razor in his mouth to make a smile, this could connect to making everyone stranger like him, maybe he used this as an inspiration to do what he does now, this example could be a possibility of why Joker does all this things, but like I said it’s a possibility, it’s not something we have quotes to prove on what we are potentially trying to say.

I personally think that Justice is the same thing as fairness. When thinking about the law, Justice makes sure that the law is fair in the sense that it will apply equally, and in the same way, to everybody. Justice also makes the law fair in the sense that the benefits, protections, or consequences of the law are corresponding to how a person acts. For example, justice guarantees that damages for a breach of contract are connected to the harm that has been done, justice also assures that penalties for murder will be harsh, including the death penalty, but the law won’t put the death penalty for jaywalking. Another thing, I feel like we as people want to control our environment, our personal affairs, other people, everything. We want not only to bring order and predictability to our world, but we also want to control it ourselves. However, we live in a complex society with many other people who want it the same way. So we know that, aside from becoming some bloodthirsty so called “dictators”, we will need to give up control of some of the things that affect our lives. That’s where “justice” enters the picture. Justice convinces us that the things that are not in our control will be fair in the ways described above, but also that we will be able to predict, what will happen when we do, or don’t do something. Speed, and you may get a speed ticket. Deposit money with a bank, and they are required to pay the interest. Enter a contract, and you commit yourself to do what the contract says, and can expect the other party to do the same. Go to work, get a paycheck; and so on. So, I want to rule the world. I want to make all the decisions. But I can’t. So “justice” makes sure that nobody else can, either (equality). It makes sure that laws are both reasonable and consistent. It provides some predictability for things that are beyond our control, so that we can plan our lives and live with some peace of mind.

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