Staring into the abyss, the abyss stares back

Analyzing villans from Star Wars, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Lion King

Heath Ledger’s Joker from The Dark Knight knew something about Batman, and he knew it about you too. “As you know, madness is like gravity...all it takes is a little push,” he says dangling upside down, captured and finally defeated. The whole movie is the Joker saying what we know to be true, which is that villainy and anarchy are just extensions of ourselves, dark versions of reality that we’ve walled off. Batman holds another truth, which is that people also have a tremendous capacity for good…that we’re not doomed to slip into the abyss of darkness. We have a choice.

I helped the brilliant folks at Learn Liberty and The Invisible Lens in producing a video about the psychology of totalitarianism as seen through popular villains…Darth Vader, Claude Frollo of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Scar in The Lion King.

Could you watch the video? It’s the deep dive on villains and individual liberty I’ve always wanted to do, and I’m very excited to have This Is The Way collaborating with The Invisible Lens.

This is the way.

"When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you"

- Friedrich Nietzsche.