More than a Superhero Movie...Moviegoers are participating in a mass seminar on the nature of evil. The Dark Knight, a film in the Batman franchise by director Christopher Nolan, features a character of pure evil: The Joker, as played brilliantly by the late Heath Ledger. The Joker bears some study in this film, which explores the nature of evil and what men and women must do to combat it.
     First, we have to come to understand the nature of The Joker’s evil. He is not made evil by greed, or by the lust for power. Evil, for its own sake, the drug The Joker is hooked on. Picture Hitler without the trappings of state power. As Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred observes, “Some men just like to watch the world burn.”
     Second, we discover that The Joker’s evil has a kind of twisted integrity. As one National Review columnist put it, he cannot be reasoned with, bought off, bullied or intimidated. That makes him incredibly frightening and dangerous. Like the serial killer Ted Bundy, The Joker is a master manipulator on a mission to prove that while he can be purely evil, the men who oppose him cannot remain purely good.
    The Joker has a valid point. Hitler, who was purely evil, was not brought down by sweet reason and acts of kindness. He could not be reasoned with, appeased, bargained with, bullied or intimidated. He wanted, from the very beginning, to start a war that would immolate millions upon millions of human beings, and he got his wish. To stop him from burning down the entire world we had to lower ourselves to his level, and to all the dirty work that war entails. We destroyed Hitler, but we came away with unclean hands.
     That is the lesson of the movie; that to destroy evil one must make hard decisions and carry them through, even if it means descending into the gutter to catch and kill the adversary. This is quite a message for a superhero movie to deliver, but The Dark Knight is no ordinary adaptation of a comic book. It is a harrowing demonstration of how fast things can fall apart if evil is given the slightest chance to succeed.

The Butcher of Darfur...Pure evil backed by the power of the state is, thankfully, a rare commodity in this world. The difference between a Ted Bundy and an Adolf Hitler is not in the degree of evil, but in their access to power. Give pure evil the power and you get Pol Pot, or Joseph Stalin, or Omar Hassan Al Bashir.
     Al-Bashir’s continued existence is a blot on the honor of world civilization. The president of Sudan, it is al-Bashir who planned, initiated and is ordering the massacre of black Africans in Darfur.
     In the London Sunday Times yesterday a doctor –Halima Bashir-- serving the refugees in Darfur told a horrifying story of the depredations of the Janjaweed, the mounted murder squads that have claimed over 400,000 lives of black Sudanese and displaced 2.5 million others so far.
    The doctor was discussing supplies she needed for the village clinic when she noticed a commotion outside. A wailing crowd approached and they carried in their arms the girls from the local school. Their dresses were dirty and bloodied. The people in the crowd screamed that the Janjaweed had attacked the school and raped all the schoolgirls. The youngest was seven, the oldest 13. They had all been gang raped. Their legs and privates were lacerated and bruised. In all Dr. Bashir treated 40 victims.
    A teacher from the school, who was also raped, described the scene to Dr. Halima:

 “It was like a band of wild animals just jumping on us and forcing us to the floor. All around me girls were being raped, regardless of their age. The Janjaweed carried guns, knives, heavy sticks — the ones they use to beat their horses. If any girl tried to resist, they beat her. They were shouting and screaming at us. You know what they were saying? ‘We have come here to kill you! To finish you all! You are black slaves! You are worse than dogs! Either we kill you or we give you Arab children. Then there will be no more black slaves in this country.’ The worst was that they were laughing and yelping with joy as they did those terrible things…. They said, ‘We will let you live so you can tell your mothers and fathers and brothers what we did to you. Tell them from us: if you stay, the same and worse will happen to you all. Next time, we will show no mercy. Leave this land. Sudan is for the Arabs. It is not for black dogs and slaves’.”

     Dr. Halima passed the story on to U.N. representatives. Not long after she was abducted by Janjaweed troops, bound and gagged, severely beaten, then gang raped. She was released and fled to her native village --which was attacked and destroyed by Sudanese helicopters and Janjaweed riders. Her father was killed in the attack.
     This is just one story among thousands of tales of atrocity and murder. The International Criminal Court last week charged al-Bashir with genocide, but it is going to take military action to put an end to the holocaust of black Africans in Darfur. The problem is that no one seems willing to do the job. The logical candidates are the United States Britain and France. Perhaps, with a new administration, the Allies will take action. Or perhaps not.