Bruce Wayne is now Dick Cheney.
That’s the takeway from the new Batman v Superman TV trailer that aired last night, in which Bruce Wayne says this about Superman: “Count the dead. Thousands of people. What’s next? Millions? He has the power to wipe out the entire human race, and if we believe there’s even a one percent chance that he is our enemy, we have to take it as an absolute certainty. And we have to destroy him.”
This is nasty stuff, lifted right from the Bush Administration, who exploited the fear Americans felt in those days following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center to build a rationale for pre-emptive use of military force. The ideological modus operandi of the early Bush years are summed up perfectly by Bruce Wayne: Suspicion = destruction.
According to Ron Suskind, author of The One Percent Doctrine, the language of the 1% suspicion comes directly from Dick Cheney. Suskind paraphrases it thus: “If there was even a 1 percent chance of terrorists getting a weapon of mass destruction — and there has been a small probability of such an occurrence for some time — the United States must now act as if it were a certainty.”
Said Cheney, “It’s not about our analysis, its about our response.”
And therein lies the point. The point is NOT the actuality of a threat, and responding in a manner that accords to reality-based analysis. The point is the response. If there is suspicion, at all, anywhere, then a destructive response is the point.
It’s Bush, declaring with complete sincerity that our enemies are “Wanted Dead or Alive.” This is why, 15 years after Guantanamo Bay opened, we have prisoners who remain uncharged and with no hope of release. It’s why we have executive powers for use of our military technology that essentially bypasses congress altogether.
This is pure fear mongering, of course. There is no need to act as though a suspicion is a certainty. Suspicion is not evidence. Acting with certainty in the face of mere suspicion is a terrifying abuse of power that has become the de rigeur in the US.
To hear the 1% Doctrine espoused by Bruce Wayne, used to target the actions of Superman and his ability to wipe out the human race in Zack Snyder movie arouses a curious response. On one side, it evidences the continual rise of stakes that Snyder requires in his movie. Batman v. Superman is now, apparently, the fight between a Humanity Destroying Alien and a Billionaire Fascist With Authoritarian Tendencies.
But on the other side, I can’t help but think: Good. I hope that Snyder is in full control of this because hearing the 1% Doctrine espoused still creates anger. When I heard Bruce Wayne say this I was angry. The men who created this ideology used it to do terrible things. If Batman is saying it, now, he cannot be the hero, right? He cannot be the side we are rooting for in the fight between Batman and Superman?
In that fight, the only place for human sympathy is with the casual dead that litter the background of Snyder’s cinematic callousness. Maybe this time, though, that will be the point.
lovepirate77 says
I’m glad other people are picking up on this. Though you have more optimism that Snyder might be making a point with it than I do. I worry he might be pandering to people who think the 1% doctrine is precisely what makes Batman a hero.
I have no faith in Snyder to do so, actually.
But the more we see, the more the advert campaign is painting both Superman and Batman to be shitty. I mean obviously shitty.
If Snyder doesn’t see what even his TV Spots see, then he is much worse off than I thought.
lovepirate77 says
Yeah, it’s been really striking to me just how awful it’s making its heroes out to be. The endless commercials during football this weekend really hammered the point home.