Culture, traditions, society and believes use to update with the time. Our way of thinking changes with the time irrespective of the good or bad. Joker is one of the character of pop culture which changed the cultures altogether. Now people started thinking more about individualism. They started thinking about their own particular custom narrative. But the question is How Joker influenced cultures? Let's find out.
Finding Freedom In Chaos
The biggest influence Joker had on people is that he has no rules and limitations. In 2008, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Rises we have seen him as a anarchist. He loved chaos so much that even in Interrogation room he said that:
The only sensible way to live in this world is to live without rules.
He never wanted money or fame. He just wanted to see madness of people in lawlessness.
But 2019's Joker is the victim of the society. Nothing good had happened to him. Bullied, ignored and misused. Todd Phillips showed this Joker as a victim rather than a villain.
But why someone chooses chaos with knowing that it may cost his life?
Every Joker's story is different from the other. Christopher Nolan's Joker has a different story of an anarchist and Todd Phillips' Joker has a different story of a victim. Different Jokers have different meanings for different individuals. They love the joker for his bravery and truthfulness. They think Joker never has a plan but he had. He is so unpredictable that people started loving him.
What's the relatable thing which Influence people to like him? To understand this a Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung said:
It is frighting about that a man has a shadow side to himself, consisting not just a little weakness and foibles, but of a positively demonic dynism.
Same the concept of good and evil. Everyone try to control their emotions but deep inside, almost everyone, want chaos. This stage is called Lachesism.
The movie "Fight Club" is best example of lachesism. If you focus a little bit then you will understand this thing that why we like zombie or disaster movies. Anyways, will explain Lachesism in another detailed article. Now back to the topic.
In Joker when life brings chaos infront of him then he sees freedom and power in disaster. But if we look closely then we will be able to understand that disaster has been added forcefully in his life by the society. Otherwise if he had love, got a girlfriend or people just used to laugh on his jokes then he will not be the same. He would be a nice guy then. In FightClub movie the protagonist knowingly wants chaos. But in Joker society brings chaos to the Arthur Fleck.
People think that chaos always bring disaster. That's not true. Chaos have good and bad both perspectives because the night Joker is born, batman was born too.
To some people their life brings them to chaos and some other want chaos to be in their life so that they can be more perfect after that. But in lachesism people want this without being died. Either life brings you chaos like Joker or you knowingly want to jump in chaos, in both cases it feels lachesism. Because after encounter with the chaos their hunger never ends. They want more chaos to feel freedom and power. This is the thing criminals took wrong about Joker.
A lot of people influenced by joker started doing wrong things in real life.
For example, James Holmes who did a mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado Theater. From that day on, no joker movie has been released in that theater. Even at the time of 2019's Joker government banned Joker's cosplay while going to theaters.
Atleast 12 killed and 60 injured in Colorado Theater. He was inspired by the Christopher Nolan's Joker. He was arrested for that mass killing but he had a plan like joker. He knew they will go to his apartment so he implanted a bomb 💣 before the incident but after Interrogation he told everything about the bomb and police evacuated the area. But this is not a movie so judge ordered him for life imprisonment.
The next criminal is a 18 years old boy who wanted to rob a pharmacy in Joker style but got arrested by the police.
He was inspired by Jared Leto's Joker as this incident happened in 2016. And guess what? He did this just for YouTube views.
The next Joker inspired criminal is somewhat older. A 65 years old to be exact.
In 2013 police officers arrested a 65 years old man who was driving a car like a mad man. He was doing rush driving and later on police officers discovered that he was drunk. Fortunately no casualties happened.
Other than that we have many stories of criminals who was inspired by fictional characters. So advice to all movie fans that just don't do illegal things just by being inspired by fictional characters.
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Someone who wants to be criminal, will be regardless of the trigger, inspiration or a method... It's still interesting to find all these information in one article. Did you research it yourself?