Rise of a Sadistic Clown type of Psychopath
Table of Contents
i.God the Ultimate Movie Director
ii.Idolatry 101 – Crash Course Idolatry Theory
ii.1.The double fundamental error lying at the heart of idolatry . . .
ii.2.Negative vs Positive, Concrete vs Abstract, Explicit vs Implicit and Potential vs Actualized
0.Qualitative Idolatry Analysis of Joker (2019)
1.Beatdown in alley	1.1.In terms of idolatry…
2.Feeling better when locked up in hospital
3.Taken for a bus ride	3.1.In terms of idolatry…
4.Reverie of idolatry at mom’s apartment	4.1.In terms of idolatry…
5.Getting an instrument of destructive power	5.1.In terms of idolatry…
6.Meeting Sophie in the awful elevator of their awful building
7.Mother expressing lack of faith in son’s comedy career	7.1.In terms of idolatry…
8.Accidentally discharging gun at home
9.Stalking Sophie and taking notes at pogo’s Comedy Club
10.If you’re happy and you know it, stomp your feet . . .	10.1.In terms of idolatry…
11.Send in the Clowns	11.1.In terms of idolatry…
12.Catharsis in public bathroom, finding self-confidence, solace with Sophie
13.Punching out at Ha-Ha’s	13.1.In terms of idolatry…
14.The prelude to “nothing but clowns” wreaking havoc in down-town Gotham
14.1.In the first terms of idolatry — Wayne, the wedge driver
14.2.In the second terms of idolatry — Wayne, the flame fanning fire fighter
15.In front of an indifferent Social Worker, stressing the undying need to be noticed
16.Premiere at pogo’s Comedy Club, hanging out with Sophie	16.1.In terms of idolatry…
17.Son of Thomas Wayne?	17.1.In terms of idolatry…
18.Confrontation at Wayne Manor
19.Mother lands in hospital	19.1.In terms of idolatry…
20.Humiliated by Murray for everyone to see
20.1.In terms of idolatry . . . Murray humiliates Arthur by televised retaliation
20.2.In terms of idolatry . . . Arthur retaliates by killing Murray in his mind
21.Collective resentment building in the city reaching boiling point	21.1.In terms of idolatry…
22.Confronting Thomas Wayne inside of Wayne Hall	22.1.In terms of idolatry…
23.Invited by Murray and finding out the truth about himself
23.1.The meaning of Arthur’s childhood abuse
23.2.Pathological laughing, repression and Penny’s psychology	23.3.In terms of idolatry . . .
24.Laughing loudly at the joke that is his life	24.1.In terms of idolatry…
25.Killing mother in hospital	25.1.In terms of idolatry…
26.Killing Randall at home	26.1.In terms of idolatry…
27.Completion of transformation into Joker
27.1.Joker the tragic clown and the agent provocateur alternative reality
28.i.Final Showdown with Murray Franklin — The dress-room	26.1.In terms of idolatry…
28.ii.Final Showdown with Murray Franklin — The pièce de résistance
28.ii.1.The meaning of killing Murray on his own live show	28.ii.2.In terms of idolatry…
29.i.Ascending from a Cradle of Flames and Chaos — Mentally murdering Wayne	29.i.1.In terms of idolatry…
29.ii.Ascending from a Cradle of Flames and Chaos — Murdering Wayne in actual fact	29.ii.1.In terms of idolatry…
29.iii.Ascending from a Cradle of Flames and Chaos — Crowd of clowns openly idolizing Joker	29.iii.1.In terms of idolatry…
30.Summary Analysis: Arthur’s Negative Transmutation

23.Invited by Murray and finding out the truth about himself

When he returns home later that night, an emotional Arthur–naked from the waist up–can be seen emptying out his refrigerator and unhesitatingly stepping into it when done, sure to close the door shut from the inside. All the while, he has his answering machine play out a recording made earlier that day — it’s from one of the two detectives, Garrity: telling him that they came over to the apartment today, but when finding no-one present, left a message instead, one in which they ask for his cooperation in answering “a few more questions“.

That next morning, Arthur receives another phone-call, this time from a show-booker representing no less a personality than Murray Franklin himself. Without a seeming care in the world, she innocently tells him that, after broadcasting the recording of his fateful gig at pogo’s Comedy Club, the show received an “amazing response“ from their viewership, which promptly inspired Murray to invite the shining star of the stunning performance to come on the show and make a guest-appearance. A few seconds later, after this news has sunken in, the once-aspiring stand-up comic–itching to get even–accepts and they set up a date.

Before suffering a bout of indirect yet televised humiliation, Arthur would have had real reason to jump for joy at the occasion of being invited to come on the show of his big idol. Since that big hero has turned into a big nemesis in the meantime, however, that situation has changed drastically. Indeed, the public-image-molesting sort of pill he has to swallow is even more bitter now that it turns out that Murray’s little joking episode at his expense has been so fruitful that an evidently large number of people have proven able to remember his momentous aired appearance by making the effort to call the show and try to have the ridiculed clown make a follow-up live appearance, so that they–the entire audience, live and TV–get to have an opportunity to once again laugh at him, right in his face even — if part of the live audience.

At least, such type of scenario–in which he will get the dubious honor to act, in front of everyone, as a walking-talking butt-of-a-joke–is how it would appear to Arthur; his worries seem to hold water that effectively Murray’s initiated potential idolatry practices, have spilled over, mutated, metastasized, into more lasting or robust actualized counterparts — in which God knows how many people have taken to heart and mind, Murray’s televised depressingly-disparaging and dreadfully-deflationary image impression of him. And so, yes, he will come on the older other clown’s show alright, but only if this time the younger clown will get to have the chance to enjoy himself at now the older clown’s expense. His reasoning seemingly being, effectively: You hurt my precious little image, my worshipful little name & legacy, then I’ll hurt your precious maybe-not-so-little image, your worshipful maybe-not-so-little name & legacy. It’s called tit for tat. . . or perhaps more like, TIT! for tat.

Arthur can be seen sitting in a bus taking him to Arkham State Hospital. He walks in and heads over to the Documents & Records Office, determined to obtain the file detailing his mother’s alleged admission happening in the early fifties. After a while, the clerk helping him returns from the basement carrying with him a box containing records from that period.

Clerk: “Sorry about that, my man. All records ten years old are in the basement. You’re talking some thirty years ago,– I had to do some serious digging.“
The clerk opens the file box. Starts digging though it.
Arthur: “Can I ask you a question? How does someone wind up in here? Have they all, all the people, committed crimes?“
Clerk: (going through the files) “Yeah, some have. Some are just crazy, pose dangers to themselves or others. Some just got nowhere else to go. Don’t know what to do, you know.“
Arthur: (nods; looks down) “Yeah, I hear ya brother. Sometimes I don’t know what to do. Last time I ended up taking it out on some people. I thought it was gonna bother me, but it really hasn’t.“
The clerk finally looks back at him–
Clerk: “What’s that?“
Arthur: “I fucked up.“ (talking through teeth) “I did some bad shit.“ (chuckles) “And I don’t really wanna talk about it. It’s just so hard to try and be happy all the time.“
Clerk: (taken aback) “Listen, I’m just an administrative assistant, like a clerk. I file paperwork. I don’t really know what to tell you, but you should see somebody– they have programs, city services, stuff like that.“
Arthur: (backtracking) “Oh yeah. They cut all those.“
The clerk just stares at Arthur–
Clerk: (realizing) “Wait, I know where I’ve seen you,– You were on Murray Franklin the other night, weren’t you?“
Arthur: “No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” (23.1)
Clerk: (shrugs, goes back to looking through the files) “Sorry, Murray just killed some poor guy on TV,–“
The clerk shakes his head to himself, finally finds what he was looking for.
Clerk: (surprised) “Alright. Here it is, Fleck. Penny Fleck.” (nods, skim-reading) “Uh-huh. Diagnosed by Dr. Benjamin Stoner… The patient suffers from delusional psychosis and narcissistic personality disorder… Was found guilty of endangering the welfare of her own child–“
The clerk stops reading out loud, eyes going wide as he skims further ahead. Arthur just looks at the guy, waiting to see what he’s gonna say.
Arthur: (bracing) “What?“
Clerk: (wary) “You said she’s your mother?“
Arthur just nods.
Clerk: (closes the file) “I’m sorry, man. Like I said, I can’t release these records without the proper forms. I could get in trouble. Look, if you want to bring your mom in here to sign, that would be much easier, but I can’t let this go without her signature. Okay? I’m sorry.“

“Arthur just stands there, thinking it all over for a moment. Then reaches in under the metal cage and snatches the file–The clerk grabs it as well. They play tug-of-war with the file, it’s awkward and goes on way too long. Out-of-nowhere Arthur slams his own head violently against the metal grate, surprising the guy, allowing him to pull the file away– Arthur takes off running down the hall with it. The clerk watches for a beat, but does nothing.“

“Arthur running down the hallway, files in his hands. Frantic. Unaware he is not being chased. Turns a corner and runs down another long hallway. Gets to a stairwell door and runs in.“ Dashing down a few flights all helter-skelter, he suddenly stops on a midway landing to read from the file. There in the stairwell he finds out that Wayne had told him the truth, that he was adopted after all; the person going around pretending to be his mother had been lying all those years about who she really was to him. He glances over some old newspaper cut-outs that are about him and his “mother”, which all detail abuse and neglect; learning that he was abused as a child by one of her boyfriends; and she let it all happen, including her own abuse by that same boyfriend — with the doctor treating her, visualized in a flash-back sort of scene, stating–as recorded in the clippings–that young Arthur was found tied to a radiator in her filthy apartment, malnourished, with multiple bruises across his body and severe trauma to his head; to which the pretend mother can be seen responding by saying, “I never heard him crying. Not once. He’s always been such a happy little boy.” (23.2)

In response to this avalanche of life-upending personal information, suddenly jacked up by an overwhelming flood of painful inner anxiety, Arthur suffers a laughing fit–in a reflexive yet superficial attempt to get rid of such highly disconcerting (egodystonic) sort of nervous tension–but it is apparent that he is covering up a lot of inner existential pain and grief as well; and so, more than anything, in a literal sense, is laughing so that he may not cry (and indeed finishes his fit in more of a crying state than one of laughter).

23.1 The meaning of Arthur’s childhood abuse

By somehow managing to blind herself to its actuality, Penny never seems to have openly objected to the abuse. Whenever her adopted young child was subjected to abuse, she somehow must have been able to ignore what her eyes and ears were telling her. By way of cognitively filtering out and selectively dismissing incoming sensory information of an actually quite alarming and extraordinary nature, she somehow must have been able to fool herself into believing that nothing out of the ordinary was going on, failing to register externally-supplied distress type of signals–like crying or screaming–which otherwise would inform her that the besieged boy was in a clear state of arbitrarily dire distress.

Instead, just like Arthur himself, Penny seems to have resorted to repression as her favored ego-defense mechanism in the way with which she dealt with the actualization of abuse victimizing the very child she nevertheless was expected to protect. Effectively left morally blind, Penny–rather than being able to act as a vigilant and responsible guardian–appears to have been unable to recognize her adopted son when presenting himself to her in ways which she failed to find bearable to the senses.

Indeed, she seems–at least during that particular mentally-troubled period of her life–to only have been able to recognize him to full extent when presenting himself while radiating happiness. She didn’t call him Happy for no reason, after all — capable of seeing him, with a bit of bad luck, only through the selective and restrictive lens of expressive happiness (whether such happiness be genuine or counterfeit in origin), incapable of recognizing him if appearing to her in a state of unhappiness; the more unhappy he was, the less she seems to have been able to recognize him. Insisting on her adopted son to focus on what she all throughout his life seems to have drilled into him as being his unswerving life-mission, to spread joy and laughter in the world around him, Arthur was likely given little opportunity to reflect on and process his own abuse; and by way of employing repression, just like Penny, never seems to have become truly conscious of his abuse — a glaring deficit, a gaping hole, in childhood-pertaining self-awareness as to which he implicitly admitted its sore existence in front of the Social Worker earlier.

When it comes to what could possibly have inspired the boyfriend to commit the abuse which he did, this is impossible to say with accuracy of course and goes well beyond the scope of the movie (unfortunately!). But we may nonetheless come up with a plausible scenario based on what we do know. Suppose that the boyfriend would have had the sort of psychic constitution which left him vulnerable to humiliation, a sensitivity for shame, that he had had a problem with being on the receiving end of shame (due to having a mental constitution with, among other things, a Narcissistic component — compatible with Penny’s own such leanings). If we keep in mind young Arthur’s indoctrinated penchant to present himself to the people around him in a state of merriment, what if this boyfriend–at some occasion, through whatever triggering circumstances–came to have the impression that Arthur was making fun of him, that this young kid seemingly went around ridiculing him; and that he just couldn’t handle it, being put in a seeming state of personal embarrassment, by a mere child no less.

As such, the guy sooner-or-later may have seen himself (entirely) vindicated to berate young Arthur for his apparent insolent and degrading sort of behavior. However, by way of compulsively hanging on to his penchant for “spreading joy and laughter“, Arthur may have been left unable to change his behavior, thus ending up again-and-again seemingly humiliating the shame-sensitive boyfriend. As the resentment of the boyfriend toward a cheeky Arthur grew as a result, things between them could very well have escalated and at some stage the boyfriend began to abuse Arthur; and all the while that same boyfriend may have managed to rationalize away his abusive behavior, seeing it as only being a justified and proportional sort of punishment for having had to put up with what then might very well have struck him as an insufferably annoying (wee bit sadistic) little kid.

To the extent that he–throughout his relationship with Penny–remained entirely unrepentant and unapologetic of his inflicted abuse, an immediately tragic message which the abuser boyfriend couldn’t help but send young Arthur, as well as Penny, was the toxic idea that flagrantly and brutally violating boundaries of other people by way of inflicting arbitrary physical abuse, might just be a justified thing to do, an all-fine-and-dandy appropriate form of punishment under certain triggering circumstances, especially perhaps if suffering humiliation, if being made the butt-of-a-joke, if made fun of (the way the boyfriend might have felt made fun of by a young Arthur goofing and frolicking around).

In addition, both the mother and son–due to being avid users of mind-numbing repression as their favored ego-defense mechanism–never seem to have been able to make any meaningful conscious effort to reflect on the moral ramifications of the abuse. What is especially relevant is that Arthur seems to never have become truly conscious of the most basic of principles underlying Morality 101, the idea that flagrantly and brutally violating boundaries of other people, including in particular resorting to arbitrary physical abuse, is usually an immoral thing to do and which is only warranted under exceptional playing-all-meek-and-nice-overriding sort of circumstances of abrupt and overwhelming personal emergency and peril.

Most tragically and ironically, Penny would precisely have had a just cause to go and violate the boundaries of her boyfriend, brutally if need be, when he was busy either abusing her or Arthur. After all, self-defense or defense of those under your wing of protection (like children), constitutes a sound reason for intervening with overwhelming physical power, fire power if need be. And yet, she did nothing; basically standing by idly while her boyfriend abused her and her kid. As such, by her effectively lethargic indifference, by her apparent guilt-absorbing laissez-faire sort of masochistic attitude, she could not help but implicitly signal to all involved parties–boyfriend, herself and Arthur–that the abuser was in the right when executing his abuse.

Arthur was therefore left prone to succumb to the ever-simmering-below-the-surface sort of temptation to believe that inflicting physical abuse might not be such a terrible thing to do under the right kind of trying circumstances, if–for example–he would be convinced that his possible victim(s) were only deserving of their (pending) punishment, deserving to be subjected to offense-redeeming expressions of physical penance — the sort of punishments which Penny’s old boyfriend might very well have seen fitting for application to a young Arthur, such a “pain-in-the-ass” sort of kid, one that “makes your blood boil”.

Inspired quite possibly by taking example from Penny’s abusive boyfriend, following thereby in the existential footsteps of his childhood abuser, if Arthur would thus have gained for himself a mental means to rationalize away the infliction of his possible abuse on other people, however, he regrettably also opened up himself to the at-once dreadful risk of developing into a sadist. In order to be able to decently sleep at night, sadists may be expected to do rather well (if not outrightly excel) at projecting guilt (away from themselves and) onto their victims, all with the aim of justifying their infliction of abuse, egosyntonically reinterpreted as merely justified expressions of punishment, viewing their victims not so much as such but rather as (despicable) culprits only deserving of their punishment, physical or not, only deserving to be purged by passionate violence from their guilty unsavory motives and atone for their arbitrarily-grave transgressive behavior.

As for Penny’s boyfriend is concerned, I think the biopic movie called This Boy’s Life (1993) provides for a decent example. Played also–as it happens–by Robert De Niro, Dwight seems to fit the bill: shame-sensitive (Narcissistic), coarse, violent and morally retarded, yet in the beginning of his romantic relationship with the woman lead character, presents himself with exemplary charm and courtesy. The trouble starts when Dwight finds out that Toby, the teenage son of his new girlfriend, made fun of him behind his back. A power struggle between Dwight and Toby builds and eventually escalates to the point at which Dwight almost ends up strangling Toby to death. Dwight could have been Penny’s boyfriend.

23.2 Pathological laughing, repression and Penny’s psychology

When it comes to his capacity to understand himself (or other people, for that matter), the pathological nature of his laughing response constitutes a most unfortunate handicap. Steeped deeply in automatically inappropriate ridicule, easily mistaken to convey mockery (easily excluding any trace of sympathy), his excessively-applied yet involuntary laughing response serves to relieve inner psychic tension that should not necessarily be relieved that readily and easily, including the otherwise uncomfortable and disconcerting sort of tension which might be due to a burdened conscience. For when relieved from that sort of tension, if only temporarily, he risks being dissuaded from trying to find the real reason or reasons as to why said potentially alarming sort of tension was generated from within to start with.

Laughing in such a neurotic sort of dubious way seems to function more than anything as an ego-defense mechanism: by draping something in (a thick layer of) ridicule, it tends to render redundant the need to take things to heart and mind, forgoing the need to take it seriously (the mere joke it would be, something funny), thus helping to repress whatever it happens to be that elicited the laughing response, including all (egodystonic) manner of personal unpleasantness. Seeking refuge in ventilating neurotic laughter thus serves to enable repressing effectively unbearably uncomfortable emotional baggage tied to whatever difficult personal event or experience, especially if of a quickly-getting burdensome conscientious kind.

As such, Arthur was left with a profound handicap as to his capacity to understand himself as well as his mother; and so he would have the greatest of difficulties to realize that his own (if counterfeit) mother resorted to repression herself whenever either she or her adopted son suffered abuse. Arthur is retrospectively unable to understand his mother, and that includes her manifested parental incompetence. Instead, Arthur now is sooner tempted to condemn his adoptive mother for her evident failure to be a good guardian, for her failure to prevent at least his abuse from occurring. Indeed, he is left in an awfully rough spot to be able to forgive her, because she left him all by his helpless tiny self in an awfully rough spot first. Whereas Penny used repression first to effectively allow the suffering of Arthur, there might just come a time when Arthur will see himself entirely vindicated to use it to effectively allow the suffering of Penny in a similar type of abuse-situation, thus coming to fulfill a sort of Karmic quid-pro-quo reciprocity (or Karmic tit for tat).

Arthur basically admits to not experiencing conscience problems for killing the three Wall Street guys, which means that the functional capacity of his conscience must be dwindling substantially and that concomitantly he sees himself increasingly justified–consistent with a burgeoning sadistic mindset–in his nevertheless immoral conduct, arguably much like seeing himself as an eternal victim seeking justified redemption, forever working to get even, more specifically like a victim of an inherently unjust sort of system entitled to seek compensation for sustained suffering (for all those miserable long, long years).

What might make his murders even less of a conscience burden, indeed, more palatable still, is the comfort he may draw from the support he indirectly gets from all those of Gotham’s residents who show to identify with him after-the-fact: all those protesters who now go around wearing clown masks touting the killer clown as some kind of hero, their choice rebel crusader bravely fighting against what they all imply to believe is an inherently evil and oppressive edifice of wealth and power, at which leadership positions are clothed by a small exclusive club of people who hold sway over Gotham like gods accountable to none; not shying away from invoking terror and exploitation, championed by self-styled figureheads like Thomas Wayne — all going at the expense of the working class poor, the rejected, the defective, the rabble, the little people, the cannon fodder, the useless eaters, . . .

Penny turns out to have suffered from clinical Narcissism, a diagnosis consistent with her apparent status-seeking penchant to gravitate toward men of power, male potential mates who would offer her the opportunity to bask in their glory, getting to soak up some of the praise and acclaim those types of men themselves command, getting to share in those soothingly succulent showers of praise, thus being able to feed her own Narcissism; all the while, as a welcome bonus, getting to be physically removed from all those people she now shows to have a problem with: poor people who are her factual socioeconomic peers, persistently painful reminders of her own self by doing no more than merely being in her verifiable vicinity, thus faithfully serving to mirror her own Narcissism-deflating poverty-stricken pitiful personal plight.

It could very well be that this is why she ended up having the violent and abusive boyfriend which she (at least) once did back in the fifties. While blinded by her own perhaps eagerly-touted Narcissistic victory for having had the fortune to find one hell of a man, she quite possibly might have misread his seemingly attractive superficially-revealed character as an exceptional man of power being something that would be good for her too; that he would be perfectly capable of protecting her–ironically enough–precisely from whatever personal unpleasantness she would feel burdened by, or whatever sort of danger she felt threatened by; misinterpreting her pending boyfriend in the sense that his (undeniably) sadistic tendencies possibly already manifesting–his penchant to shame people, his penchant to articulate power of an intimidating or punitive kind–would never ever be used against her.

When it turned out that Penny was unable to recognize young Arthur while presenting himself to her in ways opposite of “happy”, it might be a sign of a deeper more general psychic defect (albeit one that is consistent with her Narcissistic disposition to recognize her own mirror reflection above all else): that Penny suffered from either an inability or impediment to see people other than in the ways or image impressions she wanted to see them — thus leaving her more-or-less defenseless when it came to the eventuality of falling for the wrong type of guys, as she would then–whenever they did enter into her life—either be incapable of seeing their true colors shining through the veneer of pretense or be incapable of seeing that those true colors, those quite possibly wonderfully-appealing and mesmerizing colors of personal status and exceptional power, might unfortunately very well herald a victimization of her own self.

23.3 In terms of idolatry . . .

(23.1| Arthur once again lies when feeling the need to explicitly deny the truth in order to avoid the shame that he implies to anticipate coming down on him if only–in entirely naked fashion–confirming to the clerk having been on that one fateful Murray Franklin Show; and likewise–in that same naked vein–admitting to have suffered the humiliation and degradation which he did because of it. Even though Arthur saves himself from the unattractive prospect of openly and frankly owning up to it, the clerk–by dryly declaring that Murray “just killed some poor guy on TV“–is sure to nevertheless casually rub it into Arthur’s face that the venerated host had gone and did a number on him, on his reputation as a comedian trying to make it, ruthlessly annihilating his prospects to reach for the stars — or so it would appear to an Arthur particularly sensitive about his image and somehow painfully hampered from being able to put his back into trying to improve his comedic skills (owing to an apparent psychic blockage type of learning-disability which may be due to his unprocessed traumas, in conjunction with a yet-to-be-recognized underlying spiritual condition of a self-sabotaging nature). Being noticed by another person for the one painfully wrong reason, what to Arthur is an unbearably egodystonic sort of reason, a painful deflationary image-offending affirmation coming from fellow Gothamers like this one clerk in front of him, only stand to further solidify his hatred for Murray (the big big evil-doer bringing down hell upon him, or so it would seem to Arthur).

Arthur’s act of deception may be captured by the following script:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Deceptive kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Arthur; Victims = Arthur&Clerk; Audience = Arthur&Clerk;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry:[X] I was not on the Murray Franklin Show; [X] I have no idea what Clerk is going on about;
{–} Clerk-idolatry:[M] I am wrong when recognizing Arthur to have been on the Murray Franklin Show;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Lying to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied to by Arthur/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied about by Arthur/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied to by Arthur/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied about by Arthur/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward everyone whom he involves in his deception — Clerk and especially toward Arthur himself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, by lying to the other’s face, Arthur obviously puts an otherwise Golden Rule-compliant relationship with the clerk on the line. On the idolatrous altars catering to his deception, from his own end, he sacrifices some of the quality of their future possible relationship. In addition, by stealing the file, or at least seizing it and keeping it (momentarily) in his unauthorized possession, Arthur threatens to sacrifice even more of their relationship, since he might cause the clerk to run into trouble with his employer, ending up fearing for his job. However, he could still save the day (somewhat) if he would just return the file afterward, or at least make sure it ends up again in the clerk’s possession (with an apology-note tied to it).

In terms of actualization and conscience, if we make the reasonable assumption that Arthur knows he is lying, and unless he comes clean to the clerk before taking off again, he will have to rationalize away the fact that he is trying to deceive the other. In other words, Arthur may be expected to actualize his own practices by rationalization, though obviously not out of respect for his authentic conscience; but would do so in line with his inauthentic shame-avoiding conscience; he obviously lies in order to dodge the shame that might come his way if admitting the embarrassing truth to the clerk. At least for now, the clerk seems gullible enough to buy into Arthur’s lie though, and therefore seems quite willing to actualize the clown’s practices by gullibility. |23.1)

(23.2| Every time Penny’s boyfriend went to (grievously) abuse young Arthur, his immoral action may be represented in script-form as follows:

i. Physical Abuse of the Body kind: Level = grievous Moral Crime; Perp = Boyfriend; Victim = Arthur; Audience = Boyfriend&Penny&Arthur;

1. Incoming-stage: Boyfriend incurs authentic guilt toward Arthur for physically abusing him in further-to-be-specified (but severe) ways;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Boyfriend initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Boyfriend-idolatry: Superior by Bodily Abusing Victim/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Boyfriend-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Boyfriend/ Bodily Abusing Victim/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Getting Bodily Abused by Boyfriend/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to others of Audience, audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Boyfriend initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Boyfriend-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Bodily Abuse Victim/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Boyfriend-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Boyfriend/ Bodily Abusing Victim/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Bodily Abused by Boyfriend/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Boyfriend incurs authentic guilt toward all involved in his Bodily Abuse — Penny, more so toward Arthur and especially toward Boyfriend himself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, each time the boyfriend went to abuse young Arthur–unless he would come to his senses, apologize and make amends for the suffering he caused–the abuser boyfriend obviously made it more difficult from his end to have a future Golden Rule-compliant relationship with his victim and the victim’s guardian; he came to sacrifice quality of these two relationships from his own end; he incurred guilt toward Arthur and Penny, and so only more tension stood to creep into the relationships from his end, thus instinctively expecting revenge or reproach coming from his victim as well as his victim’s guardian, which stood to inspire only more (defensive) hostility from his end, potentially precipitating only more abusive punishment as the progressively paranoid abuser would keep projecting guilt away from himself and unto young Arthur as well as Penny, of whom he arguably increasingly perceived the boy to be sadistic in his ongoing efforts–neurotically coaxed by Penny–to be “annoyingly” happy and smile “suspiciously” also at the boyfriend.

By resorting to repression in response to each passing abuse-episode, Arthur as well as Penny seemingly tried hard to ignore all that the abuse meant to them; they went to sacrifice some of their mental sanity and were left a little bit less able to live in truth. In addition, consistent with his penchant to repress awareness of personal unpleasantness, it could also be that young Arthur–in his still developing vulnerable mind, apparently left at his own devices by a mother failing in her protective maternal function–came to accept the grounds for the abuse by effectively absorbing the guilt which the (sadistic) abuser implicitly projected unto him by way of unapologetically inflicting the abuse, consistent with what would then be a masochistically-oriented attitude (possibly following in the footsteps of an already masochistically-minded Penny). We have already seen this sort of attitude manifest when Arthur let himself getting beat up by those (sadistic) kids in the beginning of the story, as if to say: mea culpa; beat me up; I’ll have it; I deserve it.

In terms of actualization, an unrepentant boyfriend might have seen himself entirely justified to abuse both his girlfriend and her son; seeing it not as abuse as such but merely justified punishment, only serving to correct the kind of behavior which he ultimately had deemed impermissible and intolerable. The boyfriend would then likely be more than willing to actualize his own practices. However, to the extent that neither one of them openly objected, both Penny and young Arthur likewise gave their tacit approval simply by way of receiving the abuse in silence and without manifesting resistance.

In terms of conscience, what the boyfriend did obviously clashes with the Golden Rule and is therefore hard to explain in terms of his authentic conscience. Relative to his possibly existing power-seeking inauthentic conscience, however, the boyfriend might have been inclined to believe that he did not do so badly at all; his episodes of violence and abuse served to establish power over his victims. Every time he successfully went to abuse either Penny or Arthur, he showed having power over them; that his victims were his inferiors instead of his superiors (acknowledging the latter contingency would be his greatest nightmare, an absolute no-no to someone who idolizes power). |23.2)

24.Laughing loudly at the joke that is his life

When returning home, soaked from the rain, shaken to the core of his being, in a barely responsive state, he finds his way not to his own apartment but rather shuffles over to Sophie’s, as if in a trance (obviously not a pleasant one) — and when finding her door open, unhesitatingly seizes the liberty to stray inside, freely seating himself on her couch in the living room. A few seconds later Sophie emerges from what appears to be her daughter’s bedroom and enters the living room, only to find a completely unannounced and uninvited visitor in the disheveled zombie-like state he is in.

Sophie: (startles) “Oh my god! What are you doing in here?“
Arthur just keeps staring awkwardly to the floor right in front of him.
Sophie: “You’re in the wrong apartment. . . Your name’s Arthur, right? You live down the hall.“
He nods in the most marginal of senses.
Sophie: “I really need you to leave. My little girl’s sleeping in the other room. . . . Please.“
Arthur: (mumbles) “I had a bad day.“
Sophie: “Can I call someone. Is your mother home?“

He raises his head slowly as if waking up from a deep comatose sleep, slowly turns his upper torso so he can see Sophie standing several feet behind him, slowly brings his right hand to his head while looking at her with pain and desperation in his eyes and makes it into the shape of a gun, a gesture she recognizes only all-too-well, leaving her gasping for air in shock; realizing that–unlike the time she flashed the same gesture down in the elevator–the more-or-less lighthearted tongue-and-cheek context no longer applies.

Now would be the time for Sophie to pursue compassion for Arthur and yet fails to do so. Why? One possibility is that he, in keeping with any dubious possible social skills picked up due to his own childhood traumas, had gone to violate her boundaries so flagrantly by entering her apartment without prior permission, and she did not tolerate that. I was under the impression that they had become pretty close though; maybe not — but then again, entering apartments without say-so is not really nice, friends or not (and even more so when presenting himself in the inaccessible if alarming way he does).

Keeping in mind his irresponsive state down in the hospital while she was there to comfort him for his mother, it could very well be that she since had come to the realization that there was something seriously wrong with Arthur, that while being in the deplorable mental condition he was in, he was not suitable romantic partner material. Perhaps she also had come to sense that he might just be a tad more interested in making a name for himself – whether one of fame or infamy; that he, in fact, more than anything was preoccupied with getting to be recognized as–whether for good or bad reasons–an object of adulation and adoration; since such state of being, after all, gave him the clearest indication of existing, of feeling alive. It could very well be that Sophie had begun to sense that having him for a partner would mean that his tenacious depressed state, tied to his fatalistic image-oriented obsession, was eventually going to drag her down as well.

A few moments later, the door of Sophie’s apartment swings open and Arthur rushes clean out without stopping or flashing the faintest glance back — instead, looking down in fixed yet-no-particular direction right about in front of him, more grim and gloomy looking than ever, void of any hint of emotion. It’s left unanswered as to what happened to Sophie and her daughter, but I think it’s safe to say that there no longer is any romance hanging in the air between the two practical neighbors.

Later that night, he is sitting alone on the couch in his mother’s apartment, “laughing. The TV is on but he’s not watching it. He just continues to laugh, rolling onto his side from the joke that his life seems to be.” (24.1)

By his persistent pathological laughing response, Arthur shows to want to reject–and vehemently so–what is really happening to him. He seeks to ridicule the substance of his own life, which by necessity also includes the life of his (non-biological, factually adoptive) mother, as it of course is inextricably linked to his own. By trying to laugh it all off, however, he risks forgoing the nevertheless crucial need to examine his life, and carefully so, especially his formative years as a child, the things he experienced as a child, the traumas he suffered in particular, and trying to understand them including his particular responses to them using his own meditative intelligence, his own investigative faculty of reason — although under the possible auspices of an effective psychiatrist or psychoanalyst, especially useful since his emotional connection to his traumas are tucked away into the recesses of his unconscious through repression.

And so, by way of his penchant for reflexively-reactive neurotic laughter, he would then willfully remain at a loss to understand how such adverse and trying personal events went on to shape his character early on in life; thus denying himself a form of self-understanding which could otherwise–in turn–also help him understand Penny’s own repressive responses to her traumas as well as her disturbed possibly-masochistic mindset causing her to neglect him, especially during episodes of abuse, and therefore left her incapable of protecting him in effective manner.

By resorting to unfettered bouts of ridiculing laughter, automatically serving to relegate the object of amusement to the realm of knee-slapping absurdity, Arthur–when succumbing to the sadomasochistic temptation to assume an inordinate amount of justifiability in his factually maladaptive laughing neurosis–risks setting himself up as a disturbed and self-righteous sort of judge. As such, he risks assuming the role of a sadistic saboteur when ruling other people, including in particular his mother, to be ridiculous, not deserving to be taken seriously at all; and he likewise risks assuming the role of a masochistic self-saboteur when happening to rule also his own life to deserve nothing but ridicule, likewise not to be taken seriously at all, and therefore likewise not at all worthy of (painstaking) investigation and scrutiny.

In order to understand himself as well as his mother and their shared history, Arthur needs to be able to access his inner reservoirs of love that would mobilize and direct his mind aimed at sympathetic understanding of his own person and his mother, using what would then be available patience and a functional inner drive to comprehend especially his own psyche. Unfortunately, by mindlessly laughing his ass off instead, he now rather offhandedly squanders away his potential for understanding, while replacing it with a twisted egosyntonic hatred draped in misplaced and reflexively judgmental sadomasochistic ridicule.

And by having thoroughly ridiculed his mother in his mind, having utterly mentally devalued her, having effectively terminated any sort of affection he might have had for her, the step to terminating her in real life is all-of-a-sudden not that large any more. Indeed, by causing him the pain and heartache all throughout his life that he now holds her responsible for, Arthur may sooner have reason to expect feeling relief than sorrow if she would just go away . . . permanently.

24.1 In terms of idolatry . . .

(24.1| Arthur’s seemingly protracted laughing episode may be interpreted as an exercise of ridicule serving to prejudicially dismiss his own life as well as that of his mother. The corresponding script reads:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = grievous Moral Crime; Perp = Arthur; Victims = Arthur&Penny; Audience = Arthur;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{–} Victims-idolatry:[M] Being ridiculous; not worthy of being taken seriously or sympathetically (at all);
{+} Arthur-idolatry:[M] The opposite of being ridiculous; worthy of being taken seriously and sympathetically;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging Victims/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Prejudge Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Prejudged by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Arthur exposes PrimePidol audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge Victims/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Prejudging Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his nonverbal act of ridiculing Prejudgment — Penny and especially toward Arthur himself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, his laughing fit leaves him with ever more difficulty to relate to himself and Penny in a loving sort of way, in a Golden Rule-compliant way. He makes it harder for himself to effectively care for Penny as well as himself when implying them both to be ridiculous. He therefore sacrifices self-love and self-respect as well as love and respect for Penny. And so now he moves himself into a position at which he just doesn’t care anymore, feeling indifferent as to the fate of himself as well as Penny, both relegated to the realm of redundancy, of carefree comedy, too funny to be taken seriously (as warm-blooded human beings).

A dissociative Arthur thus ends up identifying with that part of his personality which he in the beginning of the story still resisted to identify with; now embracing it with ever more cause and conviction, while distancing himself with ever more bitter passion from the other more authentic part of himself. The dissociation-promoting nature of his self-sabotaging action is also apparent from the preceding script: on the one hand he prejudges himself and Penny to be ridiculous, but on the other hand he also prejudges himself as the opposite of ridiculous since he, after all, is doing the ridiculing himself. It’s as if one part of his own person (his inauthentic self), is engaged in condemning another part of himself (his authentic self).

In terms of actualization, I expect Arthur to readily embrace and actualize his own practices on the basis that he wants to prejudge his life as being ridiculous so as to be able to distance himself away from what in actual fact is his authentic self (self-abnegation); and replace it with a quickly growing hate-fueled loyalty to his ominous inauthentic self, his toxic alter-ego.

In terms of conscience, what he is doing obviously does not jive with his authentic conscience, as dismissively ridiculing himself and his mother does not show love or care for himself or his mother. Relative to his inauthentic praise-seeking conscience, however, he might not be doing so badly; for by rejecting his authentic life, the sort of life which proved incapable of bearing much fruit when it came to the art of earning praise for his person, and trading service to his authentic life with a devotion to his inauthentic self, one which is indirectly lauded by and graced with a seemingly ever greater number of supportive protesters out there, he might just be well on route to succeed tapping into an ever wider and deeper source of praise (even though that sort of praise is due to infamy). |24.1)

25.Killing Penny in hospital

The next morning, Arthur is visiting his adoptive mother in hospital — carelessly smoking a cigarette while she’s lying in bed a mere few feet away, in a now-conscious yet just-the-same barely-responsive weakened state, with an oxygen tube stuck underneath her nose to boot, mind you.

Arthur: “Penny. Penny Fleck. I always hated that name. . . You used to tell me, that my laugh was the condition that there was something wrong with me. There isn’t. It’s the real me.“
Penny: “H-h-happy–“
Arthur: “Happy? . . . I haven’t been happy one minute of my entire fucking life.“
Puts out his cigarette with his foot, casually stands up and makes the few steps necessary to stand right beside her.
Arthur: “You know what’s funny? You know what really makes me laugh?“
He reaches behind her, grabs one of her pillows as he leans down closer, face-to-face with her, having a look of death on his face.
Arthur: “I used to think my life was a tragedy, but now I realize it’s a fucking comedy.“

He then puts the pillow over her face, and presses it down with force, making Penny–while gasping, murmuring and struggling in vain–suffocate to death. (25.1)

Arthur kills Penny without confronting her with the sort of questions which would otherwise be obvious: why had she adopted him? — why did she never tell him anything about it? — why did she fail him as a parental figure in other ways? Instead of mercy and curiosity and any semblance of sympathy coming from Arthur, there is nothing but a hateful passion to destroy, a harsh shaming-eager attitude consistent with his utter contempt drenched in ridicule for Penny but also for his own person.

Also when he claims to not having been happy throughout his entire life, he may of course be telling the simple truth; but–consistent with his ever-stronger identification with his dark hateful false self–he may also be bitterly twisting the truth: that he had been happy–after all–when he was little, but that his traumas in combination with his repressive response to them made him forget his happier childhood period from before his traumas. 

By killing his mother, or more accurately, the person pretending to be his mother, Arthur exacts revenge for having suffered all those years due to her ongoing campaign of deception and offensive parental incompetence. Indeed, Arthur–to large extent–owes it to her for turning into the disturbed person he is today. She allowed his childhood victimization to happen, standing by idly while her boyfriend abused him when he was too little to protect himself; and then she also consistently lied about who she was, never telling him she adopted him, never gave him any possibly-available information about his real biological parents. She furthermore recently gave him what soon turned out to be false hope, the hope of being the son of someone who was widely recognized as somebody; and then also, inspired by her parental disinformation, suffered the further tragedies of making a fool of himself in front of that same somebody, twice, once by proxy (in front of Alfred the valet and young Bruce).

And all the while, all throughout his entire miserable fucking life, she liked to address him by the nickname of Happy, thus systematically insinuating to always wanting him to put a smile on his goddam face for the sake of whom he was with, but especially to please her — a subtle form of manipulative tyranny (of a Positive Person-idolizing kind) which was all-the-more aggravating for the little lad as it quickly smacked of mockery if happening to feel the painful opposite of happy. And then, if she hadn’t punished and psychically abused the poor guy enough throughout his life, also dryly managing to pass a for him at once cruel vote of no confidence as to his stand-up comedy aspirations — implying him to just not be able to cut it, not being funny enough. Since he, by default–courtesy of his Narcissism–was left dependent on being noticed by other people to feel alive, this constitutes a particularly harsh verdict coming from his imitation mama — who might have been able to pass her judgment of her adopted son so readily and so carelessly precisely because her fixation on her own Narcissistic needs left her at a terrible (blind) handicap to be able to recognize that her adopted son also had his own profound Narcissistic needs to cater to.

Even though she of course didn’t explicitly order her adopted son to kill her, and while it was clearly wrong of him to kill her, by having had a facilitating hand in bringing about the tragedies of his life, by having had a hand in bringing about his corruption as a person, Penny did facilitate Arthur’s murder of her and so she herself is partly responsible for her own violent and tragic death.

By showing to no longer believe that his easily-triggered tendency to laugh is symptomatic of an underlying case of psychopathology, Arthur now shows to identify with his mental illness to such profound extent that he accepts it as being a real undetachable part of himself — the transformation to his notoriety-craving “Joker” alter-ego is therefore nearing completion. He implies to no longer believe that his pronounced partiality for lubricious laughter is a sign of social ineptitude at best and offensive maladaptation at worst, but instead now shows to consider it more of a personal asset; even though laughing at awkward and inappropriate moments–through its shaming-radiant flavor–betrays almost by necessity an underlying sadistic attitude. In other words, Arthur shows to have since come to terms with his blossoming predatory tendencies, at peace with his pathological penchant to belittle and disparage whatever or whomever he feels like targeting, that–owing to his progressed state of personal corruption–he is content (or wants to be content) with being that scorn-shooting sadist, at ease (if bitterly) with unconsciously confusing–and proudly so–his sadistic and new but false self for his true authentic self.

25.1 In terms of idolatry . . .

(25.1| Arthur’s murder of his adoptive mother may be described in script-form as follows:

i. Physical Abuse of the Body kind: Level = grievous Moral Crime; Perp = Arthur; Victim = Penny; Audience = Arthur&Penny;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward Penny for suffocating her to death;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Bodily Abusing Penny/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Bodily Abusing Penny/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Penny-idolatry: Inferior by Getting Bodily Abused by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Since neither sees the face of the other, each exposes PrimePidol only audially to themselves and the other;

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Bodily Abuse Penny/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Bodily Abusing Penny/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Penny-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Bodily Abused by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward all involved in his Bodily Abuse — Penny and especially himself;

4. In terms of actualization, Arthur is now so far gone that he probably readily actualizes his own practices, indeed showing to have no conscience pangs whatsoever as he goes.

What will be going through Penny’s mind though, as she is suddenly plunged into a death struggle, from one moment to the next confronted with the experience of having the life being rapidly drained out from her? Why is Arthur trying to kill her? While being subjected to the immense overwhelming anxiety that abrupt suffocation brings with it, will she go on to realize and own up to the guilt burden toward Arthur, accumulated all throughout the time she had him for an adopted son? If she–to the extent that she still has command over sufficient cognitive clarity–was able to recognize her own share of guilt in now having her adopted son trying to kill her (not inconsistent with a possible underlying masochistic attitude), it may then be said that she–up until the time when she was violently thrown into the hereafter–joined her killer in the actualization of the practices serving to rationalize her own murder.

In terms of sacrifice, it’s obvious that Arthur makes a sure human sacrifice, forcing his victim to part with the remainder of her life. In addition, Arthur comes to sacrifice the reality of all possible affectionate relationships which the victim may have had with whomever, including with the murderer. As such, Arthur is directly responsible for causing all the grief and pain which the violent death of Penny invokes. 

In terms of conscience, needless to say, Arthur’s murder of Penny is hard to explain in terms of authentic conscience; but since he has turned his back on his authentic self, he likewise turned his back on his authentic conscience. Instead, an inauthentic Arthur would naturally be guided by his inauthentic conscience, one that in this particular case is connected to a practice of power-seeking. By snuffing out the life of Penny, he shows to use punitive (redemptory) power to shame to literal death the one person in his life whom he holds responsible for having caused so much (retrospective) pain and sorrow and indeed shame. |25.1)

26.Killing Randall at home

A remarkably upbeat-appearing Arthur is busy preparing for his pending appearance on the Murray Franklin Show by rehearsing his entrance based on inspiring previously-broadcast video recordings of the show. He has dressed up fairly smartly for the occasion: white dress shirt and bordeaux-red waistcoat on, pants to go with the waistcoat, hair slicked back like the best-dressed one of the three killed Wall Street guys. Arthur carefully studies the demeanor of the guests, how they carry themselves, how they present themselves, and then goes out of his way to imitate them.

When–as part of his routine–he practices an imaginary dialogue with Murray, however, and offers to tell a joke to the imaginary host together with his imaginary audience, to the eager imaginary anticipation of them (of which their imaginary yet notable auditory enthusiasm seems but an eerily seamless carry-over from the actual recordings he his studying), he goes to make a most rudimentary of knock-knock jokes merely consisting of him pulling out his .38 and simulating shooting himself through the head — to which, arguably most disconcerting, his imaginary audience then breaks out in laughter and applause, having a necessarily sadistic ring to it.

Could this be an indication that Arthur expects his audience to as of now by default be sadistically stacked against him? — a notion which seems perfectly consistent with the way he showed to feel treated by Murray on air: that people as of then would see his face, the face he showed at the gogo’s Comedy Club (free from camouflaging clown make-up), and only respond by erupting in crushing ridiculing laughter, his greatest deflationary Narcissistic nightmare. And so, while serving a dedicated thematic practice of Shame-avoiding Self-idolatry, serving the deemed paramount broad goal of avoiding any hint of shame that could possibly be brought down upon his person – consistently presenting himself as someone deserving no personal blame – free of personal flaws whatsoever, what else could he do but cover up his real face? — what he now implies to fear is his real and authentic yet shame-soiled naked face.

That next day, the big day of his appearance on the Murray Franklin Show, he first dyes his hair green, resembling the color of his old clown wig — only this time of a deeper, darker shade. Seeing that it is good, commanding a suspiciously celebratory mood, he dances around–wearing only his knickers–to the enchanting tune of Frank Sinatra’s classic called That’s Life. Sitting at his mother’s dresser in front of her vanity now; applying white grease paint to his face with a paintbrush, sure to also give his tongue a few swipes for good measure; after crumbling–with a thoroughly contemptuous look on his face–an old picture of his happily-smiling counterfeit mother (thus symbolically destroying all of his [happy] memories of her), the doorbell rings. He grabs a pair of scissors from a small drawer, stands up and goes to answer the door.

Arthur unlocks the locks, keeping the security chain latched, and cracks open the door,– Sees Randall. Looks down, and sees Gary next to him. Undoes the chain and opens the door for them– Randall and Gary get a look at Arthur’s face, his dyed green hair still wet, streaking white grease-paint smeared over his face.
Gary: “Hey Arthur, how’s it going?“
Arthur: “Oh hey guys. Come on in.“
Gary: “You get a new gig?“
Arthur: “No.“
Arthur shakes his head no, steps aside so they can come in, palming the scissors in his hand–
Randall: “You must be goin’ down to that rally at City Hall. I hear it’s gonna be nuts.“
Arthur: “Oh, is that today?“
Randall looks at him and laughs–
Randall: “Yeah. What’s with all the make-up then?“
Arthur shuts the door behind them. Locks the chain-lock.
Arthur: (dryly) “My mom died. I’m celebrating.“
Randall: (unperturbed) “Right, we heard. That’s why we came by, figured you could use some cheering up.“
Arthur stares at Randall.
Arthur: “Oh, that’s sweet. But no, I feel good. I stopped taking my medication. I feel a lot better now.“
Randall: “Oh, okay. Well, good for you.“ (sighs) “Listen, I don’t know if you heard, but the cops have been coming around the shop– talking to all the guys about those subway murders. And um–“
Gary: (interrupting) “They didn’t talk to me.“
Randall: (enlightening) “That’s because the suspect was a regular-sized person. If it was a fucking midget, you’d be in jail right now.“
Arthur shoots his idiosyncratic artificial laugh, heavy on the sneer side this time, and arguably even heavier on the eerie sort of ominous type of side.
Randall: (back to Arthur, sincere) “Anyway, Hoyt said they talked to you and now they’re looking for me, and I just wanna know what you said. Make sure our stories line up, seeing us how you’re my boy, and you know what I mean?“
Arthur: “Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you, Randall. Thank you so much–“

In a perfectly-executed predatory flowing action, Arthur leaps forward to Randall and–like a hungry vampire eagerly jumping its helpless prey–with overwhelming force thrusts the pair of scissors as deep as he can into the unsuspecting and unguarded neck of the perfidious other professional prankster. “Blood spurts. Randall screams.“ “Arthur pulls them out and jams them into Randall’s eye before he can react. The sound is sickening. Gary’s screaming in the background–Randall blindly fights back, screaming in pain, flailing his arms, his own blood blinding him–Arthur grabs Randall by the head — all of his pent up rage and frustration pouring out of him — and slams his head against the wall. Again. And again. And again. Arthur lets go of Randall’s head and Randall drops to the ground. Arthur leans back against the wall, out of breath, kind of slides down the wall to the floor–” (26.1)

After having caught his breath and calmed the fuck down, he directs his attention to a Gary as paralyzed by shock as ever, “huddled in the corner, trembling with fear–“. In the sort of tone which already signals a completely detached emotional involvement with the nevertheless very real murder he just committed, an apparently utterly relieved – relaxed and disarmed Arthur nonchalantly changes the channel by asking the now unmistakably immiserated mini man, “Do you watch the Murray Franklin Show? I’m gonna be on tonight. . . It fucking crazy innit? — me on the telly.”

Gary does not move or respond, however, which causes Arthur–in a fit of compassion (a clear 180 with respect to his revealed razor-sharp attitude vis-a-vis Randall)–to assure the other, “It’s okay, Gary. You can go. . . I’m not going to hurt you.” When a still-wailing shook-up Gary tentatively tries to walk passed the other in order to get to the door, the grand portal of liberation, a suspiciously sprightly Arthur can’t resist the temptation to frighten the poor midget by suddenly yet playfully sticking out his hand in the other’s direction while screaming, “Waah!“, as if scaring–yet in a good-naturedly condescending way–an apprehensive little toddler. But when the jumpy dwarf does reach the door, he finds himself unable to exit because the locked chain lock is set too high; and so the abashed bantam bugger sees himself forced to call in the help of the former clown colleague barely-finished brutally assassinating a mutual clown colleague. Full of understanding, Arthur gets up, walks over to the door, but before opening it and watching the skittery pygmy being sure to take off in a hurry, endearingly leans over to kiss him on the forehead, adding the comforting words that the man of short stature would be the only one out there who was ever nice to his crazy-cracker clown-killing colleague.

Am I the only one who found it remarkable that when Arthur dryly confessed to be celebrating his mother’s death, that neither Gary or Randall found such admission something inherently worrisome and worthy of a follow-up inquiry from their end? Neither of the two clown visitors seemingly batted an eye from their host’s offhanded admission that indicated at the very least a suspicious lack of affect for his mother. Indeed, Randall only showed complete ignorance to that effect when he uttered the sort of casual response which leads one to believe that he was partial to the exact opposite picture that Arthur showed to promote of himself, that the killer clown would precisely be in mourning over his mother — indicating that at least Randall either was not, or did not want to be, open to the possibility of Arthur developing a bit of a corrupt soul.

The exchange is reminiscent of a scene of another classic, American Psycho, in which the main character of the movie, Patrick Bateman–while impersonating one of his colleagues, Marcus Halberstram–is having dinner with another one of his colleagues, Paul Allen. At one point Patrick makes the rather meaningful confession to have a liking for dissecting girls and that he would be utterly insane to boot; making his giddy and intoxicated dinner partner only respond in a completely detached fashion: first complimenting the other for his tan, mentioning something about having a tanning bed at home himself and that furthermore “Marcus” should look into it.

Both scenes feature characters displaying phenomenal superficiality in manners and ditto shallow social involvement, as if they all have raised to virtual godhood status that either – what the people they are with would be doing is categorically none of their business; or, alternatively – that their companions do not deserve to be taken seriously (at all), that they are only constantly goofing around, constantly trying to make fun of everything and everyone; and so even when red flags are shooting up like no tomorrow, this genial yet shallow social courtesy and etiquette religiously professed by them, shall be abandoned only when hell freezes over.

However, and this only recently fully dawned on me, it may be entirely possible that Arthur is not the only one having something to hide. After all, Randall’s self-confessed motive for coming over to Arthur’s place included a desire to make sure their stories line up. If you always speak the truth, then whyever should you worry about making sure your own story lines up with those of other people? Randall already showed a willingness to lie in order to avoid getting caught doing something naughty (voluntarily supplying Arthur with a gun). If he indeed has something to hide himself, Randall might then be inclined to gloss over Arthur possibly also having something to hide, if for no other reason than that Randall would most of all be worried about himself, chiefly concerned with making sure his own ass is covered (thoroughly and before all else).

26.1 In terms of idolatry . . .

(26.1| By killing Randall, Arthur avenges himself for having been betrayed and lied about by someone who nevertheless had no apparent problems going around pretending to be his friend, his “boy“. After all, thanks in large part to Randall, Arthur lost his job over at Ha-Ha’s: Randall provided him with the gun that got him fired and then–in front of their mutual colleagues as well as their boss–went to boldly deny having supplied him with it. It is also thanks to Randall that Arthur was able to “defend” himself by killing the three Wall Street guys and, as such, in indirect yet significant practical fashion enabled his transformation into his evil clown alter-ego — which is rapidly hurtling down the way to frightening and full manifestation. And so, since there was no credible motive for self-defense, even though it was clearly wrong for him to kill Randall, the latter did owe it to himself in part, since he let the other clown down while nevertheless having a clear facilitating hand in Arthur committing the series of serious moral infractions which he did and which are transforming him into the make-up wearing monster he is quickly turning into.

Arthur’s brutal murder of Randall may be captured by the following script:

i. Physical Abuse of the Body kind: Level = grievous Moral Crime; Perp = Arthur; Victim = Randall; Audience = Arthur&Randall&Gary;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward Randall for stabbing him in the neck with a pair of scissors, stabbing him in the eye with a pair of scissors, and slamming his head to a wall repetitively until death set in;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Bodily Abusing Randall/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Bodily Abusing Randall/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Randall-idolatry: Inferior by Getting Bodily Abused by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the others of Audience, audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Bodily Abuse Randall/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Bodily Abusing Randall/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Randall-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Bodily Abused by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward all involved in his Bodily Abuse — Gary, but more so toward Randall and especially toward Arthur himself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, Arthur again makes a sure human sacrifice, forcing his victim to part with the remainder of his life, making him sacrifice what otherwise would have remained of his time and stay on this plane of existence, while still being able to enjoy disposing over his physical vessel called body during the since-expired current one of his virtually-infinitely-long string of consecutively-lived lifetimes. In addition, Arthur comes to sacrifice the reality of all possible affectionate relationships which the victim may have had with whomever, including with the murderer — if superficially so. As such, Arthur is directly responsible for causing all the grief and pain issuing forth from the premature and violent death of Randall. 

The same set of questions pertaining to Penny in the final stage of her life, also apply to Randall. What will be going through his mind, as he is suddenly plunged into a death struggle? Will he be wondering why Arthur is trying to kill him? One question that will probably not be on his mind, due to not being a Hindu or Buddhist, one that is still very relevant from an existential vantage point, is: How will such a violent ending affect the victim’s next life? If he will experience hardship due to it in his next life, then Arthur is responsible for this too, although the blame is shared with Randall himself for facilitating Arthur’s murder of him.

In terms of conscience and actualization, the same applies as with Penny’s murder; his growing hatred together with his progressive identification with his toxic inauthentic alter-ego, stands to blind him ever more from seeing that what he is doing is wrong. His actions defy explanation relative to his dwindling authentic conscience; but make a whole lot more sense relative to his inauthentic conscience connected to Power-seeking Self-idolatry. As such, as a perpetual victim seeing himself entitled to pursue perpetual redemption drenched in blood, Arthur is expected to have no trouble actualizing his own practices. |26.1)

27.Completion of transformation into Joker

Late in the afternoon, Arthur leaves his apartment and steps into the elevator. His transformation into Joker is complete in every which way. “Green hair slicked back like one of the Wall Street assholes he killed . . . White grease paint smeared over his face… red nose painted on. . . blue peaks over and under his eyes. . .“; his mother’s red lipstick crudely outlining an asymmetrical and grotesque sort of smile, obviously symbolizing a crooked smile (belonging to a crooked man, or better yet, a gritty man determined to get even). . . “Under the harsh flickering fluorescent lights, he looks like an insane version of his mask.“

Now joyfully dancing his way down the usual long street-side staircase, without a seeming care in the world, “doing his own Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson stair dance“ to music which only he can hear — that being the instrumental version of Gary Glitter’s song called Rock & Roll. When nearing the bottom of the stairs, however, he suddenly hears his name being cried out. Detectives Burke and Garrity are standing at the top of the stairs, communicating–in necessarily shouting manner–wanting to have a word with him.

In spite of his–nevertheless, on the whole, probably effectively misdirecting–clownish disguise, he is being recognized by the one type of people–those representing the law–he has every reason of wanting to avoid. One of his biggest fears would be, of course, that the detectives had checked with his former employer as to the grounds for his employee’s dismissal; and came to the conclusion that the clown had been lying to them — if so, then his possession of a gun has become all the more suspicious, easily going on to be incriminating.

In addition, it doesn’t help that his apartment is now storing one dead Randall, a rather meaty sort of corpse that may be expected to begin developing an ever more pungent smell in a mere few hours time. Likewise, it’s of little help when it comes to maintaining peace of mind, that there now is on the loose a live witness to Randall’s brutal assassination in the form of a midget clown; one who probably can’t help himself from sooner-rather-than-later spilling the–for the killer clown–decidedly unpleasant sort of beans in front of whomever. Also his mother’s sudden demise over at the hospital, might just threaten to start ringing some bells, not least because Arthur had carelessly let Randall and Gary know to not just not be in mourning over Penny’s death but to even be in a celebratory mood. In other words, there were enough compelling reasons for him to now dread confrontations with any and all representatives of the law.

Suddenly jolted back to reality from his diverting trip into blissful musical fantasy, a startled Arthur leaps down the staircase and sets it to a mad running — making the two detectives readily give chase. But by running away from the detectives (“like his hair is on fire“), he leaves no doubt as to having something fishy – something funny – to hide; and so–unless he could conjure up, out of thin air, some credible excuse for his manifested suspiciously-evasive behavior–once he started running, he knew he had stepped over the point of no return — thus automatically, in his mind, redefining the detectives as his practical enemies, which begs to come down to him reinterpreting their relationship along a worsening sadistic (predatory) direction: and so now, what’s bad for the detectives, has become good for him.

At breakneck speed dashing headlong down the streets littered with piles of garbage bags scattered to the sides everywhere, crashing into an entirely unforeseen approaching cab daring to cross his path, making him tumble and roll down the street; lucky to have broken no bones, Arthur can then be seen rushing up the stairs of a local subway station; the two detectives–refusing to let go of their slippery potential interrogee–not far in his wake. He bolts into a train filled to the brim with protesters heading down-town to City Hall, many of them wearing clown masks. The passionately shouting two detectives manage to also jump onboard right before the doors close — and the train takes off.

“Joker moves through the loud train pushing through the rowdy protesters“, “into the next car, all of them packed“. “Joker glances back at Burke and Garrity pulling out their badges on chains around their necks. Smith & Wesson service
revolvers by their sides. Shouting at the crowd, identifying themselves as cops. Joker hears some on the train shouting back in anger at the police, keeps moving…” “The two cops push through the car, scanning all the ‘clown’ faces… So many look like Joker. They just shove protesters out of the way, shouting at them all the while. A few more voices rising up in protest– Joker feels Burke and Garrity behind him getting closer.“

In a further attempt to enhance his already conveniently camouflaging disguise, Joker eagerly grabs the mask off of the face of some random stranger standing nearby. The suddenly slighted sport responds sharpishly by pushing Arthur into someone else, the latter whom–in a reflexive fit of poorly-placed vindictiveness–comes back swinging at the sport pushing Joker. It turns out to be the spark that ignites the whole volatile powder keg that has assembled inside of the train, in jittery jumpy human form. While a cheeky Joker gets to safely put on the mask he just nipped, the fight he helped erupt between the two guys rapidly spills over into a brawl that soon has the whole fucking train descend into a violent state of all out chaos, a development he is gratefully able to exploit as it obviously serves as a potent distraction from his own ominous presence, his by implication already indicated not entirely innocent presence.

The two detectives all-of-a-sudden find themselves getting plunged into an increasingly hostile environment, and when one of them accidentally discharges his side-arm during a hapless struggle with one of the protesters, fatally wounding him, all hell breaks loose; and the two officers of the law end up–courtesy of a now insanely furious crowd–virtually being vomited out of the train unto an arrival platform of the next station; where they virtually are lynched on the spot, all while a sadistically laughing Joker, witnessing with shuddery-suspicious satisfaction all of this near-fatal carnage play out right in front of his dubiously dolled-up nose, manages to get away entirely scot-free.

The capricious crowd of crooked clowns, by conveniently taking care of his newfound two enemies, thus ended up effectively and spontaneously proving to be Joker’s allies; tacitly and not-yet-consciously solidifying in a now practical and actualized sense the bonding between him—the pending Cutthroat Clown Commander—and them—the abrasive and radical band of loosely-affiliated clownish protesters; a type of camaraderie which, until that point in time, had been purely philosophical and abstract.

27.1 Joker the tragic clown and the agent provocateur alternative reality

In a symbolically meaningful shot, Joker can then be seen walking down an underground subway corridor, away from the scene of unrest, while police officers rush by in opposing direction — tasked with trying to restore order and quell the type of unrest which Joker sparked into being. He strides with a confident swagger, determined, looking calm and collected while casually smoking a cigarette; and yet you can also see that underneath one of his eyes, his make-up is streaking, leaving a blue vertical mark on his face; thus showing that–unless it was supposed to be due to sweating–the tragic clown also had shed at least one tear (somewhere along the way from home). Joker is still human after all.

This anecdote about the explosive development in the train may count as a metaphor for the type of real-life scenario in which toxic people show to be able to thrive in a toxic environment; as their own toxic actions stand to escape detection by being drowned out by a toxic attention-misdirecting background — one that, in the particular context of this scene from Joker, is made up of an obscuring camouflaging crowd in which the toxicity manifests as raw brawling violence.

I suppose that’s why people with psychopathic tendencies are able to thrive best in an otherwise unhealthy type of environment at which their psychopathic qualities are not recognized as indeed psychopathic; but–indeed–may rather well found to precisely be: (((badass))) and (((heroic))) — essential traits even, all deemed particularly useful and empowering when it comes to weathering the proverbial storm, whatever dreadful storm of life that may be.

Note also that Wayne himself–in this opportunistic respect–is not a whole lot different from Joker, as he too was able to begin exploiting the chaos ensuing from the triple-murder subway tragedy. For without such a sumptuous crisis, he would not be able to point the finger of accusation at the killer and the allegedly troublesome broad community of poor people allegedly supporting the killer on first principle basis — due to merely being one of their own, a fellow poor “clown”. Wayne and Joker both show to be able to thrive in a toxic background, whether of a political or environmental nature.

Even though they are depicted as mutually antagonistic and philosophical enemies of one another, since they both benefit from the same political reality, Gotham in flames, they might as well not have been. Indeed, what if Arthur and Wayne secretly were allies? It would not be such a stretch to imagine an alternative reality in which Wayne, for example, would already be the established mayor of Gotham; but because of the ambitious authoritarian he would be, wants to transform his city into a new version in which he only stands to have more tight political control, more power, as in a kind of police state. However, let’s say that he would be unlikely to just go and willy-nilly increase police presence on the streets without drawing criticism from his political enemies as well as the people. He needs to have a just cause, or at least the kind of cause which appears just (at first glance). And this is where controlled enemies show their virtue.

What if he would have a clearly identifiable reason to point the finger of blame to? — a reason in the form of a powerful villain wreaking havoc in the city, the sort of villain who nevertheless would secretly be in ultimate cahoots with him. By having a Joker running around causing proverbial fires everywhere, Wayne will be presented on a silver platter with excellent excuses to play that proverbial fireman by sending to the streets however many “firemen” deemed necessary to put out those fires.

This wouldn’t be such a wild scenario to entertain, all-the-more-so if Arthur would really be related to Wayne by blood, by being Wayne’s secret bastard son in actual fact. He’s already in disguise, and could therefore easily serve in the capacity of being Wayne’s paper enemy.

And when his job his done, when Gotham has been thoroughly transformed into a police state by way this stealthy dialectical process playing out in a crime-political back-and-forth problem-reaction-solution kind of context, he could easily retire by simply removing his disguising make-up, undergo some cosmetic surgery if need be, and likewise if need be live out the rest of his life in guaranteed peace at some remote out-of-sight place, like one of those cute little exotic islands where nobody knows him (his name), no-one could bother him, let alone recognize him for having played his part in a protracted false flag operation type of deal, having acted under secret alliance with what had been his official enemy, like some sort of agent provocateur.

What a trippy sort of alternative reality that would be, would it not? (likewise movie material, peut-être?)

28.i Final Showdown with Murray Franklin — The dress-room

Joker has found his way into a dressing room of the Franklin Theater down-town Gotham, sitting all by himself at a long dressing table in front of a large professional vanity, having cleaned himself up, make-up redone, smoking a cigarette while watching the news on TV; which just so happens to detail what in actual fact are–to large but not exclusive extent–the fruits of his own villainous labor: the chaos he ignited in the train on his way over, leading to a shooting incident causing a virtual lynching party at the expense of two police detectives; precipitating only a further escalation of the broad and diffuse system-hating societal chaos now gripping the heart of the city by the balls (which he, incidentally, also sparked into being by killing those three Wall Street guys); consequently violently pouring over into the current City Hall rally; at which currently can be seen, on television, serious ongoing clashes with assembled police forces desperately trying to either maintain or restore order.

Someone knocks on the door and Murray and his producer Gene open the dressing room– Joker gets up off the chair and goes to shake Murray’s hand. Murray pauses when he sees Joker’s face.
Arthur Joker: (shakes Murray’s hand; effusively) “Murray,–“
Gene Ufland: “It’s Mr. Franklin, buddy.“
Murray Franklin: “Oh come on, Gene. That’s all bullshit.“
Arthur Joker: “Thank you, Murray. I feel like I know you,– I’ve been watching you forever.“
Murray nods not listening, he’s heard this before.
Murray Franklin: “Thank you. . . What’s with the face? Are you part of the protests?“
Arthur Joker: (disingenuous; feigning innocence) “No, I don’t believe in any of that. I don’t believe in anything. I just thought it would be good for my act.” (28.1.i)
Gene Ufland: (upset) “Your act? Didn’t you hear what happened on the subway? Some clown got killed.“
Joker looks like he’s about to bust out laughing. All of that news is playing out on the TV behind him. He takes a deep breath. Swallows the laugh.
Arthur Joker: (lying through teeth) “No. I hadn’t heard.“ (28.1.ii)
Gene Ufland: (turns to Murray) “See, this is what I’m telling you. The audience is gonna go crazy if you put this guy on. Maybe for a bit, but not a whole segment.“
Murray Franklin: “Gene. It’s gonna work. It’s gonna work. We’re gonna go with it.“
Gene rubs his temples, he doesn’t like this, but Murray is the boss.
Arthur Joker: (laughs appreciatively) “Thank you, Murray.“
Murray Franklin: (flashes his bemused smile; condescending) “Couple rules though,– No cursing, no off-color material, we do a clean show, okay?“
Arthur Joker: (cracks half-a-smile) “Uh-huh.“
Murray Franklin: “You’ll be on after Dr. Sally.“
Arthur Joker: “I love Dr. Sally.“
Murray Franklin: “Good. Someone will come and get you. Okay?“
Arthur Joker: “Thanks Murray.“
Murray is already walking away when Joker calls out.
Arthur Joker: “Hey Murray,– one small thing? When you bring me out, can you introduce me as ‘Joker’?“
Murray and Gene look back at him
Gene Ufland: “What’s wrong with your real name?“
Arthur Joker: (to Murray) “That’s what you called me on the show, Murray. A joker. D’you Remember?“
Murray Franklin: (to Gene) “Did I?“
Gene Ufland: “I have no idea.“
Murray Franklin: (turns back to Joker) “Well, if you say so, kid. Joker it is. It’s good.“

Gene and Murray leave a content-looking Arthur in the dressing-room. He turns toward the large vanity that in red lipstick letters has written his perennial propagandistic slogan, drilled into him by his full-blown counterfeit mother: Put On a HAPPY FACE — and which, almost by necessity, has since attained a full-blown counterfeit ring to it, a cynical and sadistically-ridiculing ring instead of an authentic and innocently-sincere one. Joker sits down on a chair in front of the vanity, pulls out his gun, holds it under his chin, with the muzzle touching the underside of his kisser, a dull metallic sound follows, resembling the trigger being pulled — no blast though, nothing, no rounds inside. . . yet.

A moment later, we can see Joker standing and waiting behind the stage curtain for his cue to come on. He is smoking a cigarette while listening intently, if spitefully, to what Murray has to say leading up to the vindictive clown’s introduction unto the stage. And sure enough, Murray once again goes to make fun of Arthur, resorting to a cheap gossipy kind — with Dr Sally asking Murray if their pending guest happens to have sexual problems, only to inspire an impertinent Murray to answer with that the younger clown seemingly has a lot of problems; and once again Murray has Arthur’s fateful clip played on the show — thus making sure that in the mind of the image-anxious clown, showing his natural face all out in the open, especially on the televised show for all to see, has now become even more of an impossibility.

All the while that his video is being played – followed by Murray’s introduction of him, Joker seems busy mentally preparing himself, trying to get into character–if of a most ominous kind–through moving in the same meditatively cathartic way as he did the other night in that public bathroom right after killing those three Wall Street guys — an exercise of the mind which seems to have its merits, as he already had shown to himself to come out of it radiating unusual self-confidence and remarkable fortitude of will.

28.i.1 In terms of idolatry . . .

What’s with the face?

As already argued, for the sake of shame-avoidance, Arthur implies to fear being shamed while going around showing his real natural face. Since he is a party clown by profession, it was only a most natural choice for him to go and disguise as one, to assume an alter-ego based on a clown-like disguise. Arthur’s answer to Murray’s question clearly is drenched in deception. Technically it was true that he was not yet part of the protests in actual sense, and yet at the same time, philosophically – ideologically he was; having acted as one of their great original catalysts by killing those three Wall Street guys. Indeed, in a metaphoric way, Arthur had ignited the fire of communal destabilization now threatening to consume (down-town) Gotham — while cheeky old Wayne, self-righteous and conceited Thomas Wayne, the other great catalyst, was standing there right beside him, sure to fan the flames into catastrophic heights.

(28.1| By presenting himself in front of Gene and Murray in a purposefully disingenuous fashion as someone who were to believe in nothing, not being somehow connected to and involved with the protests at all, someone who in a fit of pure angelic innocence decided to wear clown make-up and a fitting loud-colored suit just for the hell of it, Arthur is presenting to everyone present a crafted image-impression of himself (self-elevating in a sanctifying way) which obviously is at odds with the sobering and demystifying truth as to his person (one that’s steeped top-to-bottom in instrumental deception fueled by a passionate yearning for revenge).

The cunning clown may therefore be said to float a little deception using especially his body, conveniently dolled-up for the occasion — generating the following truncated script: 

i. Psychic Abuse of the Deceptive kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Arthur; Victim = Arthur; Audience = Arthur&Murray&Gene;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+}Arthur-idolatry:[X] Do not believe in the protests, [X] don’t believe in anything; [X] dressed up as a clown thinking it was good for his act; [X] hadn’t heard “some clown got killed“ on the subway;
Abstract Arthur-Pidol is distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Lying to Audience/ about Arthur/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied to by Arthur/ Lying about Arthur/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied about by Arthur/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Lie to Audience/ about Arthur/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the others of Audience, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Lie to Audience/ about Arthur/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied to by Arthur/ Lying about Arthur/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied about by Arthur/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Lie to Audience/ about Arthur/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward everyone whom he involves in his deception — Gene, Murray and especially toward Arthur himself; |28.1)

28.ii Final Showdown with Murray Franklin — The pièce de résistance

Murray: “Okay, you may have seen that clip of our next guest. Now before he comes out, I just wanna say, that we’re all heart-broken about what’s going on in the city tonight, but this is how he wanted to come out and honestly I think we could all use a good laugh. So please welcome, Joker!“
Carried aloft by the show’s live jazz orchestra, Joker comes on surprisingly stylish and remarkably sure of himself, making two little flawlessly-executed pirouettes as he goes, genially shaking Murray’s hand, walking over to Dr Sally and unabashedly nearly knocks her off of her little feet by kissing her right on the mouth. With the audience–subtly encouraged by the host–laughing either good-naturedly, mockingly or somewhere in between, after for a moment standing there in the middle of the desk-portion of the stage, sure to savor and appraise the novel sort of scenery in which he takes sudden center stage, the honorable guest of the hour seats himself on the chair next to Murray’s desk.
Murray: “Well, that was quite an entrance.“ (insincerely; checks out his guest) “You okay?“
Joker: (glances at the studio audience; awkward) “Yeah. This is exactly how I imagined it.“
Murray: “Well, that makes one of us.“
The audience laughs.
Murray: “Can you tell us about this look. When we spoke earlier, you mentioned that this look is not a political statement. Is that right?“
Joker: (insincere) “That’s right, Murray. I’m not political. Imma just tryna make people laugh.“
Murray: (smiles) “And how’s that goin’ for ya?“
The studio audience laughs again. Joker responds by shooting his quintessential artificial laugh with a touch of hysteria on top of an arguably greater dose of retaliatory ridicule (which already hints at an anticipation to get to enjoy the audience swallowing their own ridiculous ridicule, . . . soon).
Murray Franklin: (trying not to laugh) “I know you’re a comedian. Have you been working on any new material? You wanna tell us a joke?“
The audience claps, egging Joker on to tell a joke.
Joker: (obliging) “Yeah? Okay.“
Joker reaches into his jacket pocket and– Pulls out his worn notebook.
Murray: (mockingly) “He’s got a book. A book of jokes.“
The audience cracks up yet again. Arthur leisurely studies his book until he comes across a suitable joke, or what he thinks is suitable anyway.
Murray: (mockingly) “Take your time. We got all night.“
The audience laughs once more.
Joker: (reading) “Okay, okay. Here’s one. . . Knock-knock.“
Murray: (mockingly) “And you had to look that up?“
Studio audience laughs and applauds.
Joker: (nods; reads it again) “I want to get it right. . .” (take two) “Knock knock.“
Murray makes a face like, “Okay, I’ll go along with this.”
Murray: “Who’s there?“
Joker looks up from his notebook– Sees the audience looking back at him, waiting for the punchline. Decides to finish the joke–
Joker: “It’s the police, ma’am. Your son has been hit by a drunk driver. He’s dead.“
Arthur chuckles at his own joke, but the audience releases an indignant groan to the ventilation of the sort of joke that could only be found amusing in a Schadenfreude type of sadistic sense.
Dr. Sally Friedman: (eager)“Oh, no, no,– You can not joke about that.“
Murray: (shakes his head; irritated) “Yeah, that’s not funny, Arthur. That’s not the kind of humor we do on this show.“
Murray glances over at Gene in the wings. He gives him the “wrap it up” sign.
Joker: (just keeps going, on a roll) “Okay, yeah, I’m Sorry. It’s just, you know, it’s been a rough few weeks, Murray.“ (laughs; pause) “Ever since I“ (looks around in no specific direction) “killed those three Wall Street guys.“
The audience can’t tell if he’s joking or not. Murray can’t either.
Murray: (looks at him confused) “Okay. I’m waiting for the punchline.“
Joker: (sober and solemn) “There is no punchline. It’s not a joke.“
Gene Ufland motions for Murray to kill the interview. Murray shakes his head to himself. This is a big “get,” it could be great television.
Murray: (turns back to Joker; with gravitas) “You’re serious, aren’t you? You’re telling us you killed those three young men on the subway. Why should we believe you?“
Joker: (shrugs) “I got nothing left to lose. Nothing can hurt me anymore.” (chuckles to himself) “My life is nothing but a comedy.“
Murray: “Let me get this straight, you think killing those guys is funny?“
Joker: (sincere) “I do. And I’m tired of pretending it’s not. Comedy is subjective, Murray. Isn’t that what they say? All of you, the system that knows so much, you decide what’s right or wrong, the same way that you decide what’s funny, or not.“
Murray: “Okay, I think, I might understand that you did this to start a movement, to become a symbol.“
Joker: “C’mon, Murray, do I look like the kind of clown that could start a movement? I killed those guys because they were awful. Everybody is awful these days. It’s enough to make anyone crazy.” (28.2.i)
Murray: “Okay. So that’s it, you’re crazy. That’s your defense for killing three young men?“
Joker: (joking cynically) “No. They couldn’t carry a tune to save their lives.“
Some audible groans and boohs from the audience.
Joker: (disgusted) “Oh, why is everyone so upset about these guys? If it was me dying on the sidewalk, you’d walk right over me. I pass you every day and you don‘t notice me. But these guys, well because Thomas Wayne went and cried about them on TV?” (28.2.ii)
Murray: “You have a problem with Thomas Wayne, too?“
Joker: (rising inner fire of fury) “Yes. I do. Have you seen what it’s like out there, Murray? Do you ever actually leave the studio? Everybody just yells and screams at each other! Nobody’s civil anymore! Nobody thinks what it’s like to be the other guy. You think men like Thomas Wayne ever think what it’s like to be someone like me? To be somebody but themselves, they don’t. They think that we’ll just sit there and take it like good little boys! That we won’t werewolf and go wild!!” (28.2.iii)
Murray: (sober and unperturbed) “You finished? I mean, there’s so much self-pity, Arthur. You sound like you’re making excuses for killing those young men. Not everybody, and I’ll tell you this, not everyone is awful.“
Joker: (vindictive and determined) “You’re awful, Murray.” (28.2.iv)
Murray: (innocence personified) “Me? I’m awful? Oh yeah? How am I awful?“
Joker: (gritting through teeth) “Playing my video, inviting me on the show,–” (spiteful and accusatory) “You just wanted to make fun of me. You’re just like the rest of them.“
Murray: (on the spot; defensive) “You don’t know the first thing about me, pal. Look what happened because of what you did, what it led to. There are riots out there–” (28.3.i)
Joker demonstrably holds up his hand, lightens up, smiles and starts to laugh — as if to say, yep you got me there alright, guilty as charged, mea culpa.
Murray: “–Two policemen are in critical condition, and you’re laughing, you’re laughing. Someone was killed today because of what you did.” (28.3.ii)
Joker: “I know. . . How about another joke, Murray?“
Murray: “No, I think we’ve had enough of your jokes–“
Joker: (ominous and menacing) “What do you get when you cross a mentally-ill loner with a society that abandoned him and treats him like trash?!!“
Murray: (cocksure; to Gene) “Call the police, Gene.“
Joker: (boiling point) “I’ll tell you what you get. You get what you fucking deserve!!“

In one unhesitant fluid motion, Joker pulls out his .38, points it at Murray’s head, pulls the trigger and executes his former idol right on the bloody spot, right on his own miserable fucking show. (28.4) As Murray’s fatally-wounded recoiling body slams head-first to the back of his chair, big fat blood-and-brain-matter spatters splatter all over the logo-carrying wall behind him — a few end up spraying Joker’s own face. The audience panics and erupts in terrified screaming. Dr. Sally turns toward Barry O’Donnell (the announcer guy sitting next to her), who reaches over and shield her with his arms.

Joker remains seated initially, since entered into a state of exuberance and exhilaration, psyched up by blood-lust, amped up to the max, laughing in apparent suspiciously-carefree amusement even though–if you look carefully–tears are welling up in his eyes as well (as if he, somewhere deep down inside is still hanging on to his humanity, being perhaps a wee bit sorry for having had to kill the one person, his surrogate father figure, he used to idolize; and furthermore also realizing that he now has burned all of his goddam bridges — there’s no going back anymore, the bloody cat is out of the televised bag).

Joker stands up, shoots one more round into Murray’s already expired body for good measure, casually drops the gun on his late former hero’s desk, makes a triumphant little dance, hops–like a careless kid having innocent fun–over to the nearest camera trained on the scene, grabs it by the handles using both hands, stares straight into the lens and declares in perfectly manic evil-clown-like voice, “Good night, and always remember, that’s life!” — thus making the transmission end abruptly.

28.ii.1 The meaning of killing Murray on his own live show

By killing Murray, Arthur exacts revenge for–what he sadly seems convinced are–the former idol his perfectly effective and successful efforts to devastate, destroy from top to bottom, the clown’s prospects of becoming a professional stand-up comic; sanguine vengeance for having suffered what he implies to feel was the absolutely callous undeniable destruction of his reputation with respect to the aspiring comedian he once hoped to become.

Since he was obviously not acting in dire need for physical self-defense, it is clear that Arthur was wrong in shooting Murray dead (especially doing so all out in the dramatic open on public television); and yet Murray is partially culpable himself for suffering fatal head-trauma live on air. Of course, one may argue that old joking Murray had not meant to destroy the guy, had not intended to smash to smithereens the other’s chances of making it in the world of comedy; and yet while it is true that–on the one hand–whenever someone, thanks to Murray, suffers a fate akin to Arthur, that they–as such–should try to lighten up, not take things that seriously, that severely; and while it is certainly commendable for whatever victim to be able to lightheartedly rationalize away whatever cheap shots would have been leveled by (the likes of) Murray; on the other hand, it would be unreasonable to expect that everyone victim of old fart-knocking Murray’s knee-slapping hoots would respond in such noble and sportsman-like a fashion. And so Murray does owe it to himself to some yet-to-be-determined extent that one of his televised put-down victims precisely might end up taking things the wrong way and come back blasting, itching to get even using–for example–a few of his tagging-along explosive little leaden friends.

What Murray does not seem to have realized was that Arthur saw himself very much dependent on the extent by which he was recognized by other people — only just now, when lamenting that he passes by people everyday and yet they “don’t notice“ him, stressing once again the for him vital egosyntonic importance to be sensed by fellow Gothamers: it makes him feel alive, he confessed as much earlier to his social worker. In other words, since he was vitally dependent on the ascension of his public image, Arthur was left very sensitive and finicky about its definition and the ways it was advertised.

When Penny earlier had casually passed a vote of no confidence as to Arthur’s viability for becoming a stand-up comic, she might be held to account for being blinded by her own Narcissism to recognize that other people close to her might have delicate Narcissistic needs comparable to her own. And Murray had done the same sort of thing, offhandedly judging Arthur to be a pathetic joke of a clown, thus nonchalantly delivering what to his victim was a fatal blow to his dearly beloved image (of an ideally-successful stand-up comedian).

And yet Murray had gone further than Penny, a lot further in fact, by way of using television as his choice means to broadcast the sensitive image impressions based on Arthur across an untold large number of Gotham’s households. Arthur, facilitated by his image-driven obsession coupled with a vulnerable psychic constitution, had ended up the victim of such a subjective yet potent weapon. By covering the entire surface area of Gotham, courtesy of his show being televised, Murray had–in Arthur’s mind–effectively inflicted an image-destroying destruction comparable to the image-counterpart of an atomic bomb. And this figuratively atomic bomb grade of attack on the vitality of his mentally stored self-image, had translated into a most grievous of Narcissism deflationary injuries, causing Arthur to sustain something which in clinical circles is called a Narcissistic Injury and one of the highest possible calibers imaginable.

In a most brutally-open televised fashion, with a bit of bad luck in front of all of Gotham, Murray had seriously wounded Arthur’s image, nuked it, and it was as if he therefore had virtually gone to wound him in flesh-and-blood person; he was left with psychic trauma which may very well have made him suffer physically as well (psychosomatically), the way–for example–some may end up feeling sick to the stomach in response to a sustained personal yet non-physical slight; and because of having been brought to–what would then be–a state of immense personal suffering, found himself unable to forgive the one who effectively had assaulted him in such a seemingly vile, unjust and painful sort of way. In Arthur’s eyes, Murray had committed the grave offense of incinerating his public image, a most grave offense indeed; feeling no less than an attempt on his very life, a dangerous virtual near-death blow to his very capacity to feel alive — feeling it no longer possible that the people of Gotham henceforth would positively and appreciatively notice him when meeting him face-to-face: in the street, on stage, or wherever.

By killing Murray in retaliation, Arthur went to physically shame his victim in the most severe of ways: he sought to forever sully and shame the legacy of Murray by making sure to etch into the minds of as many viewers as possible just how exactly Murray came to suffer such a grotesquely-humiliating bloody end; thus serving to eternally taint the memory of the once widely-celebrated and flamboyantly-vibrant superstar host — who was since brutally murdered for all to see, permanently flung into a vicious vat of tar and feathers, eagerly slaughtered like a filthy pig, gladly offed like a rabid dog, carelessly tossed in the trash like yesterday’s bloody news; at least such would sort of be the degrading revamped image impression of Murray which Arthur by his lethal action implied to hope to inspire into the minds of as many people of Gotham as possible.

In simple terms, in effect–on the one hand–Arthur is saying that, yes, he had been the victim of Murray’s degrading televised ridicule, suffered so greatly because of it–in fact–that Murray might as well have killed him in real life – live on television; but–on the other hand–that he also since had made a significant effort to redeem his tragic fate, by making sure that Murray came to a similarly tragic end himself, in a likewise televised shameful manner. In other words still, to Arthur it was as if Murray had nuked his public image as up-and-coming comedian (an, ideally, arbitrarily popular and lauded one), and therefore effectively had nuked his private corresponding self-image; which caused him tremendous inner pain and hardship (courtesy of his wounded Narcissism), and so now he saw himself entirely vindicated to deal a similar kind of blow to Murray; and by killing him–on his own televised live show, nuking his public image in a welter of blood–he aimed to do just that.

To Arthur–intoxicated by a thirst for self-righteous revenge–it may even seem that he had been rather good on Murray by ending his life so abruptly, by instantly putting him out of misery. Quite unlike Arthur, who may have started suffering, at Murray’s inspirational hand, the minute he was witness to the host’s apparent nuclear butchering of his name live on television, Murray was spared from suffering even one single second — couldn’t even be brought to a state of suffering, because his central nervous system lost the general capacity to register suffering of whatever kind in a mere split second of time. Hence, Arthur might see himself perfectly justified to ease his conscience by telling himself that at least he hadn’t caused his victim any kind of suffering, and since his victim seemingly caused him such extensive prior suffering, the killer clown might even have reason to consider himself the more noble of the two.

Note also, at least according to my own little theoretical augmentation to the story plot, that Arthur is following in the exact same behavioral footsteps of his own childhood abuser. The boyfriend of his mother, the atrocious bully he went around acting, felt as if Arthur was making fun of him (for however long), and at one point retaliated by inflicting on Arthur the horrific abuse which he did. By repressing memories of and emotional connection to these traumatic events, preferring instead to laugh his ass off after finding out about his childhood abuse ordeals, basically covering up–indeed, burying–memories of his whole life in thick layers of ridicule, the poor self-sabotaging guy squandered away all hope of ever being able to really understand his own person, especially as to the traumas which had such crucial life-altering influence on the development of his character.

As such, when he ended up the victim of what he considered was a truly monstrous episode of ridicule coming from old merrily-smiling Maestro Murray, a Narcissistically-wounded Arthur lacked the mental resources to rein himself in, unable to tend to his gaping wound with soothing self-love, unable to forgive his abuser, and therefore unable to prevent himself from ultimately seeking solace in the same sort of retaliation which his own childhood abuser had resorted to in dealing with his own alleged case of victimhood inflicted by young Arthur, the latter who either may have been innocently goofing and frolicking around or who perhaps was making fun with a (slightly) more sinister motive in order to wry that reciprocal smile also from mommy’s boyfriend (which one of the two options goes, depends on the extent to which young Arthur’s Narcissism was already blossoming at that period in his life, i.e. the extent to which he was left yearning for praise as a reward for his ceaseless efforts at levity, payback for his loyal dedication to raise spirits, savoring the reception of those wonderfully-soothing reciprocal smiles from all those people he sought to please).

The inferred train of thinking by the abuser boyfriend then being something along the lines: “Oh, you want me to smile for you, you annoying little shit? Okay, I’ll smile for your joking little ass. . . I’ll be smiling alright. In fact, I’ll be smiling the biggest smile ever, while I make you pay for making fun of me.” And a sleepwalking Arthur couldn’t help but go down the same blood-red road of shame-redeeming vengeance.

No longer seeing himself able to ever enjoy being positively noticed by the people of Gotham, feeling essentially fatally-injured in his Narcissism aiming for famous recognition in a positive way, there was little left for Arthur to now try being noticed in a necessarily negative sense, in ways which serve to bring notoriety to his person (since turned full-blown homicidal gangster). Although Murray is not exclusively responsible for this particularly painful and unfortunate pathological development in Arthur’s life, he nevertheless is culpable to a yet-to-be-determined extent, just like some other people somehow intimately connected to Arthur, not least of whom is his selectively-blind now-late counterfeit own mother, as well as of course her fateful abuser former boyfriend.

28.ii.2 In terms of idolatry . . .

(28.2| Instead of even beginning to explain what really happened on the subway train that decisive night, Arthur sketches a very prejudicial and crude picture of his social world and the pitiful eternal circumstances surrounding his own person. He says nothing about how the Wall Street guys were attacking him and that he shot and killed them in an admittedly overblown form of self-defense (telling the truth would therefore incriminate also his own person and that’s the kind of picture he seemingly does not want to promote of himself). He fails to give any contextual explanation as to what caused him to end up on the floor of the train being stomped at aggressively by three obnoxious and intoxicated guys.

Instead, Arthur gives a very generalizing picture of his world that serves most of all to cast him in a pure light of perpetual victimhood and innocence: people are awful and awful people automatically do awful things and he’s but a pure victim of their awfulness; everyone ignores and neglects him in daily life as if for-all-practical-purposes he doesn’t exist; everyone is uncivil and constantly screams and yells at everyone else; no-one is compassionate anymore — especially Thomas Wayne, who in particular would be thinking that the victimhood-likes of Arthur will just forever sit around like good little masochists by doing nothing against being constantly victimized by the endless bullying of other people;

Arthur’s show of self-exonerating prejudice may be modeled in truncated script-form as follows:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Arthur; Victims* = Arthur&WS#1.2.3&Everybody*&Wayne&Murray; Audience = Arthur&Murray&Gene&DrSally&Barry&LiveAudience28&TVAudience28;

The sets LiveAudience28 versus TVAudience28 comprise the members of Murray’s live audience versus the total of Murray’s televised viewership, respectively; and with both sets pertaining to this chapter, 28;

The set Everybody* may be said to be an irregular or subjective set (hence the wildcard *-extension), meaning that its members are not fixed as usual but rather vary from Audience member to Audience member; it is meant to signify the total number of people that some member of Audience happens to know, and this of course varies from person to person. Since Everybody* is an irregular set, Victims* which contains Everybody*, is likewise an irregular or subjective set.

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{–} Arthur-idolatry:[X] Noticed by nobody in everyday life;
{–} WS#1.2.3-idolatry:[X] Killed because of being awful;
{–} Everybody*-idolatry:[X] Being awful; [X] Yells and screams at other people; [X] No longer civil; [M] No sense of compassion;
{–} Wayne-idolatry:[M] Supremely egocentric; [M] Incapable of thinking of other people;[M] Thinking that the likes of Arthur will just sit still and take it like good little (masochistic) boys, that they won’t werewolf and go wild in retaliation;
{–} Murray-idolatry:[X] Being awful, [M] in particular with respect to Arthur for playing his tape live on air, trying to make fun of him in front of all of Gotham;
{+} Arthur-idolatry: [M] Pure victim of the awfulness and incivility of other people; [M] Innocent and entitled to compensation for sustained grievances;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging Victims*/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Prejudge Victims*/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur&Murray-idolatry: Inferior by Being Prejudged by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Arthur/Murray exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to [Audience minus Arthur/Murray], audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge Victims*/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Prejudging Victims*/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Victims*-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

If we define the compound or pool set Victims to be the union of all Victims* sets (pooled over all Audience members), we may state that in summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his act of Prejudgment — [Audience&Victims minus Arthur&Murray&Wayne], more so toward Murray&Wayne and especially toward Arthur himself; |28.2)

(28.3| In response to Arthur’s tirade and barrage of blanket accusations, also including Murray himself, the host likewise himself resorts to a little show of prejudice which also seeks to displace away from himself any blame that might be attachable to his person; and instead goes to place the blame for what is happening to Gotham City at the exclusive address of Arthur. Murray sadly leaves out any possibility that there might be other actors involved in creating the crisis now gripping the city, people like Wayne for example (or, indirectly, Murray himself ironically enough).

In turn, Murray’s own act of prejudice may be captured in script-form as:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Murray; Victim = Arthur; Audience = Arthur&Murray&Gene&DrSally&Barry&LiveAudience28&TVAudience28;

1. Incoming-stage: Murray initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{–} Arthur-idolatry:[M] Solely responsible for the riots; [M] Solely responsible for two policemen being in critical condition; [X] Solely responsible for someone getting killed today; [M] I am awful, especially for laughing about it all;
{+} Murray-idolatry: [M] I am not at all (that) awful; [M] At least my supposed awfulness pales in comparison to the awfulness manifested by Arthur, a sadistic and radical Arthur;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Murray initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Murray-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Murray-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Murray/ to Prejudge Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Prejudged by Murray/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Murray/Arthur exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to [Audience minus Murray/Arthur], audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Murray initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Murray-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Murray-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Murray/ Prejudging Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Murray/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Murray incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his act of Prejudgment — [Audience minus Arthur&Murray] and especially toward Arthur and Murray himself;

4. In terms of actualization, Murray probably did not see anything wrong in expressing his prejudice, not seeing it as such in all likelihood; and so Murray together with all those who support him, his fans and all those who reflexively resent the clown, will likely actualize his practices (by calling it justice, instead of injustice). In stark contrast, those who do side with the clown, will tend to reject Murray’s image impressions casting Arthur in a bad light and Murray in a good light. Arthur’s supporters will likely be partial to different image impressions: that the clown was responsible for the riots and perhaps also for sending two detectives in the hospital, but that such developments were not awful, not deserving to condemned at all; rather they supposedly would be something commendable, reasons to flaunt pride over (if the two detectives had died, they would have been nothing but trophy kills) since they are to be viewed as birth pangs of a burgeoning revolution, inherently just and vitally needed.

In terms of conscience, by prejudging Arthur so readily and reflexively in front of the people of Gotham, an adversarial Murray cannot be said to act in line with his authentic conscience; but in terms of his praise-seeking and power-seeking sort of inauthentic conscience, his actions make more sense — as he implicitly tries to draw sympathy toward his own person, in a direct sense from his live audience and an indirect sense from his TV audience, all at the expense of his colorful object of prejudgment.

In terms of sacrifice, just like Wayne did in front of television before him, Murray’s act of prejudgment also serves to foment division in Gotham: backed up by his fans and supporters, he puts himself in opposition to the camp of the clown. Had he survived his encounter with the clown, Murray would do best to as of that moment watch his back when walking the streets of Gotham, especially when being out all alone (in the darkness of night). By his heedless act of prejudgment at the clown’s expense, he suddenly revealed himself as an enemy of the Joker and all those who support the Joker; thereby painting a virtual bullseye on his own back for all those folks whom Wayne had earlier designated as nothing but clowns. In other words, in the hypothetical situation he would have come out of it all in one piece, due to making a considerable effort from his own end to sacrifice the prospects of having normal Golden Rule-compliant relationships with Joker and his thuggish band of sympathizers, Murray put first and foremost his own safety on the line. |28.3)

(28.4| By expressing his prejudicial plea serving to excuse himself and paint himself as a victim, Arthur set himself up as someone entitled for redemption, entitled to be compensated for sustained losses, grave losses. Since he holds Murray chiefly responsible for having landed in what to Arthur is an unbearable predicament, with the prospects of becoming a successful stage comic rudely flushed down the drain (or so he would vehemently think), he has maneuvered himself into what to him is nothing but a justified position to launch his bloody retaliation.

By earlier playing Arthur’s tape, Murray had initiated a for the other reckless potential practice of Abstract Negative Person-idolatry with the reluctant and no-longer-smiling clown for its object of worship; and because of such severe act of treachery, the slighted object then saw himself entirely vindicated to retaliate by first initiating a private and self-actualized practice of Abstract Negative Murray-idolatry; and after mentally sufficiently softening-up the target by effectively killing the TV host in his mind (mentally tortured to death), the path had been cleared for the initiation of a likewise viewed perfectly-vindicated follow-up bloody potential practice of this time Concrete PrimePidol–targeted Negative Murray-idolatry; and through his killing act, blemishing the victim’s PrimePidol in a most grotesque of ways, while remaining perfectly unrepentant of it all, went to also initiate the usual dual abuse-rationalizing abstract practices: an accompanying potential practice of Abstract Negative Murray-idolatry, with attributes revolving around shame, guilt and deserving to be lethally punished; as well as a potential practice of Abstract Positive Joker-idolatry, with attributes revolving around righteousness and entitlement of lethally punish.

In more comprehensive script-format, Arthur’s execution of Murray may be rendered as:

i. Physical Abuse of the Body kind: Level = grievous Moral Crime; Perp = Arthur; Victim = Murray; Audience = Arthur&Murray&Gene&DrSally&Barry&LiveAudience28&TVAudience28;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward Murray for shooting him in the head, thus killing him;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Bodily Abusing Murray/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Bodily Abusing Murray/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Murray-idolatry: Inferior by Getting Bodily Abused by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the others of Audience, audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Bodily Abuse Murray/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Bodily Abusing Murray/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Murray-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Bodily Abused by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward all involved in his Bodily Abuse — Audience minus Arthur&Murray, more so toward Murray and especially toward Arthur himself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, by sacrificing the life of the popular TV host (in a deluge of bloody violence), the totality of sacrifices which Arthur forces into being are obviously substantial. First off, Arthur once again makes a sure human sacrifice, forcing the victim to part with the remainder of his life. As a result, Arthur comes to sacrifice the reality of all possible affectionate relationships which the victim had with whomever. Being the popular TV host he was, Murray seems to have had a lot of fans, and so now all those fans are suddenly brought to a state of mourning, suddenly deprived of the recurring opportunity–like Arthur himself once did–to enjoy watching Murray goof and joke around on television. The TV station is suddenly deprived of one of their valuable human assets, and all of his colleagues, fellow workers, have to process the loss of their colleague, or boss; also a significant source of income is either wiped away or threatened with its continuance if no decent replacement for Murray can be found.

In terms of actualization, while it is doubtful that any members of the now-panicking audience would (in general) be anywhere near willing to actualize Arthur’s practices; indeed, rather than seeing him as some kind of hero on a righteous path of personal redemption, they will sooner see him as a dangerous lunatic, someone who should either belong in a good-old-fashioned prison cell or be wearing a straitjacket while locked-up in a soft-walled room. In stark contrast, the situation is obviously a lot different for all those Gothamers who are sympathizers of Arthur, all those clown-mask-wearing protesting and rioting poor folks, belonging to a wider class of allegedly defective people labeled as “nothing but clowns“ by their nemesis. It is not such a stretch to imagine that all those protesters/rioters who were rooting for the deemed heroic killer clown, will be willing to actualize Arthur’s practices seeking to permanently tank, or at least soil, the name and legacy belonging to an enemy of their big role-model, even, savior.

Indeed, seeing their worshipful idol manifest himself in all bloody glory live on television, killing one of his own main enemies right in the middle of the most magnificent of available spotlights and limelights, might serve to add only more glamor, prestige and awe to the already legendary killer clown; and might very well go on to inspire his grateful supporters to–for example–set out, already that very same night, on rampages and looting sprees serving to wreck down-town Gotham; and, as such, show just how inspired and fired-up they were feeling after having had the exclusive once-in-a-life-time kind of honor to witness their outstanding hero’s exemplary not-to-be-messed-with brutal (((badass))) action captured on <live> television.

In terms of conscience, it should be obvious that Arthur’s lethal action as well as his wanton act of prejudgment building up to his execution of Murray, are hard to explain in terms of his authentic conscience; but in terms of his praise-seeking and power-seeking inauthentic conscience it makes a whole lot more sense, since his bold actions only serve to paint him as a daring hero in front of his supporters, the sort of hero who managed to force his victimizer to get his comeuppance; and so Joker may look toward the egosyntonically blissful event of receiving plenty of praise and support for them. |28.4)

29.i Ascending from a Cradle of Flames and Chaos — Mentally Murdering Wayne

Following his arrest, Joker lands in the back of a police car, being transported from the Murray Franklin Studio to what probably is the nearest precinct down-town. He looks out of his window and once again a blue vertical streak can be seen underneath one of his eyes; while manifesting ever-more-manic sadistic delight, he must have shed a tear as well, as if a part of himself was still desperately trying to hold on to his more authentic human and compassionate side. Alas, to the detriment of humanity, the sight of all this concrete jungle sort of mayhem and destruction is too rewarding, too tempting, too intoxicating, as he gets to savor the culmination of what to crucial extent is his own toxic work, his cataclysmic own Magnum Opus: the whole city center engulfed in flames, plundering people running around wildly while wearing wayward wisecracker masks, causing havoc everywhere, random cars lit on fire, chaos and violence all over the place.

When he starts laughing at the sheer sight of it all, the police officer driving the vehicle scolds him, assuring the sarcastically crooked clown what he already knew (or what he wanted to believe): that – “the whole fucking city’s on fire” – because of what he did. Just when an amused Joker retorts with – “I know. Isn’t it beautiful?“, the squad car suddenly–out of nowhere–gets rammed by a van gone haywire, ironically an ambulance no less.

Although he is eager to claim credit for it, Joker is guilty of boasting when he implicitly affirms to be exclusively responsible for turning the whole goddam district of down-town Gotham into the infernal grand-scale madhouse which it now is. It was Thomas Wayne who had–after all–declared on television, for all to see, that all those folks who were to have failed making “something“ of their lives, would be “nothing but clowns“, the sort of people whom–he claimed–were scared and cowardly and whom–he implied–were deserving of nothing short of wholesale relegation to the lowest possible rung of public esteem; and that furthermore only Wayne supposedly was going to be able to save them, “lift them out of poverty“, “make their lives better“, thus casually implying them to be hopelessly pathetic on top of being inherently ridiculous, hence profoundly humiliating them collectively twice over; leaving them–after all smoke had cleared, the proverbial bodies counted–therefore well motivated to come back swinging, itching to get even with Wayne and everything he stood for: the whole corrupt system, the crooked establishment, especially its rich-ass power-hungry branch high as a fucking kite on wanton hubris and cosmic-grade megalomania.

While it is true that Joker–by killing three of Wayne’s employees and igniting chaos on the train earlier that day–deserves to own up to his significant share in creating all of the inflammatory insanity now enveloping Gotham and threatening to swallow it whole (destined to only sink down deep into one big crookedly-smiling chaotic and all-consuming black hole of dystopic oblivion), Wayne himself–as already argued but which can’t be stressed enough–likewise deserves to be held responsible for throwing proverbial fuel on the inferno ravaging Gotham, for rather manically fanning the flames of the ferocious and virulent fire ignited by Arthur.

29.i.1 In terms of idolatry . . .

Wayne–and, by logical extension, everyone of his rich peers who (proudly) stood by his side–had effectively sought to harm the collective reputation of Gotham’s broad populace of poor people, he had made them all look bad, and–in order to mentally nullify the psychic impact of Wayne’s image-molesting assault–likely many of those poor folks in response to having been slighted, had resorted to the initiation of countervailing potential practices of Abstract Negative Wayne-idolatry; as well as accompanying potential practices of Abstract Negative Group-idolatry with Wayne’s entire peer-group for object — in which the relevant attributes obviously served to bring shame and guilt to both objects.

In addition, the protesters and rioters showed to have no compunction to idolize what then was the mysterious Killer Clown, as well as their own peer group (e.g., see the rally in front of Wayne Hall, section 22); coming down to the initiation of potential practices of Abstract Positive Person-idolatry with the Killer Clown for object; as well as Abstract Positive Group-idolatry based on their own peer-group — in which the relevant attributes now served to bring praise and commendation to both objects;

As was evident by the scale and popularity of the protests as well as by the passion displayed, such potential practices may safely be assumed to have been actualized by scores of people, many if not most of them belonging to the poor class.

In terms of sacrifice, the masked marauders who went to actualize the negative practices serving to demonize Wayne and his peer-group of rich people, as well as actualizing the positive practices serving to glorify the Killer Clown and his peer-group of poor people, by tending to frown and look down upon the former group while tending to play nice and kiss up to the latter group, those anonymized folks made it harder for themselves to interact with members from either group in a more neutral and balanced sort of Golden Rule-compliant fashion. They therefore ended up sacrificing (whatever measure of) reasonability and rationality in their potential relationships with members of either group.

In particular with respect to members of the hated rich-people group, those masked protesters and rioters effectively went to sacrifice the natural mental hurdles which should be thought of as being normally placed in the way of them proceeding to willy-nilly assault and possibly kill them; for without those obstacles of compassion and recognition of human fellowship, there was literally nothing in the way for them to go ahead and abuse members of the other camp (the camp of the enemy); and–whenever they did manage to do so–save themselves from having to feel bad about it afterward, as they “ideally” would have no resultant conscience troubles at all.

Indeed–by resorting to the actualization of the above idolatry practices–when having mentally killed Wayne along with his peer group of fellow rich people altogether, the path had been cleared for any of those slighted poor people–now out for blood atonement, dying to get even–to go and try to inflict as many casualties as possible among Wayne’s recognized peers, preferably kills, and preferably still, take out the Big Boss Thomas Wayne himself if only given half-a-chance. Any such murders–in the eyes of your garden-variety masked marauder–would then not be seen as misdeeds at all, let alone grave ones, but rather they would be viewed as sure trophy kills; objects of pride and joy only to be flaunted around for precisely the blood-soiled expired state such objects ended up in; the same sort of way you stuff the head of a killed deer and hang it with pride and fuzzy feelings above your fireplace, or the way yesteryear “Indians” used to take scalps of killed members of enemy tribes, or scalps plucked from the evil invading white “cowboy” men they managed to slay.

Welcome to the lovely world of idolatry, lavishly soaked in sacrificial blood for your pride and joy convenience, albeit being a tad on the delusional side.

29.ii Ascending from a Cradle of Flames and Chaos — Murdering Wayne in actual fact

As an immediate result of the collision, Joker flies like a rag doll against the opposing inside end of the police car, instantly knocked unconscious. The officer driver might not have been killed on impact right away, but is nevertheless within seconds thoroughly taken care of when a rapidly approaching cab also crashes into the police car from the front and to the side of the driver’s seat; half-drives over the wrecked police car, tumbles over and slides up-side down to a screeching halt about one hundred feet further down the street. Three guys wearing clown-masks get out of the ambulance, walk over to where Joker is lying motionlessly, gently pull his unresponsive body out of the wreck through a shattered side window, and carefully place him on the front hood.

In the meantime, not far from here, Thomas Wayne and his family emerge from a cinema right in the middle of all of the volatile execrable chaos. While trying to get away into safety unscathed, they fail to notice winding up getting stalked by another guy wearing a clown-mask, who before long catches up with them and confronts Wayne, pulls out a gun, tells the fire-fanning VIP–showing to have received obvious inspiration from Joker’s homicidal example, broadcast by television maybe an hour ago–that he is only about to get what he fucking deserves, points his fire-arm at the fancy financial executive, pulls the trigger and we see Thomas Wayne drop down to the ground, dead. The masked killer then turns to the mother, also promptly shoots her into the hereafter and is sure to grab at her pearly necklace as her expiring body is falling to the ground. (29.1) All the while, young Bruce is standing there motionlessly, dead-smack in the middle of all the unfolding carnage, in apparent shock as both of his parents are executed in mere seconds, right in front of his tweenage nose as if his presence can’t possible pose any impediment to the coldblooded killer.

Although the killer was wrong in killing Wayne and his wife (especially in front of their son), if Wayne had not tried to prop himself up by demonizing an entire demographic, if he hadn’t made sure that the entire class of Gotham’s poor people turned into his veritable enemy, then he and his wife would probably not have ended up victimized the way they did; not winding up the indirect victims of his own heedless and vain show of self-glorification leading to a city engulfed in flames and peril; a concrete jungle of carnage and mayhem brought into being by hordes of people going nuts precisely in large part because of his own poisonous verbal cajoling, which ironically and paradoxically–on the surface–was aimed at expressly improving the city, seeking to turn it into a better, safer and more livable place.

Well, you know what they say about that road to hell being paved with intentions of a particular bent, right?

29.ii.1 In terms of idolatry . . .

(29.1| By killing Wayne, the clown-masked killer (Klown) was sure to leave the impression to anyone either catching wind of this tidbit of news coming in from whatever television station, radio station, or newspaper: that Wayne had paid with his life for his damnable efforts to try to make himself and his peer-group look good at the expense of the already legendary killer clown together with all the poor people of Gotham, trying to make them all look bad.

By murdering Wayne and his wife Martha, the killer had initiated a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol–targeted Negative Wayne&Martha-idolatry, having as attributes detailing the execution of the murders. In addition, the killer–presumed to be unrepentant–had implicitly initiated the usual accompanying dual potential practice of Abstract Negative Wayne&Martha-idolatry, having as attributes the usual guilt and deserving to be killed; also initiating an accompanying potential practice of Abstract Positive Klown-idolatry; in conjunction with a potential practice of Abstract Positive Group-idolatry with the entire recalcitrant clown collective for object — both practices having as attributes the usual labels of righteousness, superiority and entitlement to kill (trophy killing), and pillage and plunder, in general.

All of the above practices serve to offset–and ideally altogether cancel out–the victim’s earlier conceited and self-serving television-mediated efforts to float potential practices of:

• Abstract Positive Group-idolatry, with the city’s rich class for object;
• Abstract Negative Group-idolatry, with the city’s poor class for object;
• Abstract Positive Person-idolatry, based on the deceased victim, once smitten with a Very Important Person type of Narcissism;

The double murder committed by the unknown masked killer referred to as Klown, is accounted for more comprehensively by the following script:

i. Physical Abuse of the Body kind: Level = grievous Moral Crime; Perp = Klown; Victims = Wayne&Martha; Audience = Klown&Wayne&Martha&Bruce;

1. Incoming-stage: Klown incurs authentic guilt toward Wayne&Martha for shooting both of them dead;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Klown initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Klown-idolatry: Superior by Bodily Abusing Victims/ in front of Audience/ – Using Body/;
{–} Klown-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Body/ by Klown/ Bodily Abusing Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Inferior by Getting Bodily Abused by Klown/ in front of Audience/ – Using Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the others of Audience, audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Klown initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Klown-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Bodily Abuse Victims/ in front of Audience/ – Using Body/;
{–} Klown-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Body/ by Klown/ Bodily Abusing Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Bodily Abused by Klown/ in front of Audience/ – Using Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Klown incurs authentic guilt toward all involved in his Bodily Abuse — Bruce, more so toward Wayne&Martha and especially toward Klown himself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, it may be said that the killer had made a sure human sacrifice on the symbolic altars belonging to the several practices of idolatry he could go around boasting to serve. First off, it may be said that he sacrificed the life of Wayne (and also his wife) to better his own thematic practice of Self-idolatry in combination with the related practice of Person-idolatry that was based on his own person, the latter practice would give him the chance to be hailed as a bloody hero (a copycat of Joker) by his clown peers.

But then again, since he was masked, he did not show his identity and so no-one could really verify if he in fact had committed the double-murders, regardless of how much he might later go around touting ownership of the killings. However, he does obviously represent the wider group of clowns. And so, it would make more sense to assert that he had made a human sacrifice on the altar servicing the practice of Group-idolatry with his own clown peer-group for object — he killed Wayne for the redeeming glory of the entire terror team of clowns (and also the stature of the general broad class of Gotham’s poor people).

In addition, by killing Wayne and his wife, by making this double human sacrifice, he suddenly deprived young Bruce of his parents. And so the killer is responsible for all of the grief which young Bruce now has to process. Furthermore, the killer also comes to sacrifice all other affectionate relationships which all the other people had with either one of Wayne and or his wife; Wayne’s company is suddenly left without a boss, leaving scores of mourning employees. etc.

In terms of actualization, the killer and all those who support him, all the masked marauders frantically busing trying to turn Gotham upside down, are only expected to actualize Klown’s practices. In sharp contrast, Wayne’s supporters are expected to much sooner brand Klown as another one of those psychopaths, like Joker, and are expected to be rather unwilling to actualize his murderous practices.

In terms of conscience, Klown while following in the behavioral footsteps of Joker, is expected to likewise have suspended his affinity with his authentic conscience and to instead have acted on impulse consistent with his own inauthentic power-seeking conscience. |29.1)

29.iii Ascending from a Cradle of Flames and Chaos — Crowd of clowns openly idolizing Joker

While this double murder is taking place, Joker is again coming to, coughs up some blood and gradually rises to his feet on the hood, only to discover that a large energetic crowd had since assembled all around him; finally coming face-to-face with their choice living legend, many of them wearing clown masks and all enthusiastically rooting for him, and as such quite unequivocally showing to recognize him as their new natural leader. (29.2)

As if rebirthed in a cradle of fire and mayhem, like a make-up-wearing evil-clown counterpart of a phoenix rising from the ashes brought about by a sanguine abundance of chaos and destruction, a bloodied and still somewhat dazed-looking Joker tentatively starts looking around; sees that it is good, once more does a slow cathartic dance of personal vindication – victory and glory; feels his bloodied mouth with his hand, pulls also the other one near, uses both hands to twist it into a malevolent smile eerily soaked in blood; triumphantly raises his arms to the sides as if to signal readiness and willingness to act as their new leader; and thereby, by necessity, could be sure to remind himself that he clearly had been lying when–maybe an hour ago in Murray’s studio–he had implicitly and rhetorically denied being the “kind of clown that could start a movement“.

29.iii.1 In terms of idolatry . . .

(29.2| Arthur–fully manifesting his Joker alter-ego–has suddenly been designated the ultimate object of positive idolatry for the wildly-cheering crowd that has surrounded him. He has been tacitly and unofficially yet unequivocally and unanimously appointed the hero of heroes, the ultimate champion of the clown-mask-wearing hordes of destitution yearning for redemption, dying for someone to come along who will set the record straight once-and-for-all: that they are not to be messed with, that they damn well deserve respect; and if they don’t get it voluntarily, they will make sure to get it by force, brute force.

The fact that his gathered flock of newfound devotees are actually clamoring for a stone-cold (serial) killer is not only not a problem for them, it is a very source of gratitude and admiration. After all, Joker had killed, yes, but they were only his enemies, those–what in their eyes are–miserable sort of folks who at once deserve to be despised, to be killed; since his enemies are their enemies. And so, the murders committed by Joker conveniently stand to only be rebranded by the crowd as sure trophy kills — nothing to be ashamed of at all; indeed, things to be proud of, sure bragging items on the résumé of a reactionary, moreover, revolutionary.

By propping up Joker to celestial heights of attributed importance, either ignoring his flaws or reinterpreting them precisely as strengths, the crowd may be said to initiate a potential and already crowd-actualized practice of Concrete PrimePidol–targeted Positive Joker-idolatry; in combination with the initiation of a potential and already crowd-actualized practice of Abstract Positive Joker-idolatry, with attributes revolving around personal heroism, righteousness, entitlement to lead the clown crowd for the clown revolt, sanctioned to lead the way to raise ever more hell — all for the deemed noble goal to redeem the damned, the outcasts, the rejected defectives; and also, to some general extent, to redeem the poor people of Gotham as a whole.

In more comprehensive script-format, the open exercise of Positive Person-idolatry based on Joker may be described as:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Positive Idolization (Rooting) kind: Level = Moral Error; Perps = Clowns; Audience = Joker&Clowns;

The set Clowns comprises of all the people surrounding Joker that are now rooting for him. Each of those Clowns, referred to as Clown, may be held to account for:

1. Incoming-stage: Clown initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Joker-idolatry:[M] Being a Hero and Righteous; Destined and Entitled to Lead the Revolutionary Clown Revolt, Raising Redemptory Ruckus & Hell;
Abstract Joker-Pidol is distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Clown initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Clown-idolatry: Superior by Rooting for Joker/ in front of Audience/ – Using Body/;
{–} Clown-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Body/ by Clown/ to Root for Joker/ in front of Audience/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Clown initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Clown-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Root for Joker/ in front of Audience/ – Using Body/;
{–} Clown-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Body/ to Root for Joker/ in front of Audience/ – Using Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Clown incurs authentic guilt toward everyone whom he involves in his or her act of Rooting — the rest of the Clowns, more so toward Joker and especially toward Clown him- or herself;

4. The extent to which these potential practices centered around positive idolization of Joker will be actualized by even more people than those making up the current clown clan assembled around Joker, depends on the prevailing societal circumstances pertaining to Gotham, including socioeconomic status of the people at hand. Of course there are always those types of folks–the non-hotheaded non-revolutionaries–who just want to be able to go to work, go about their business as usual, put food on the table, go to ballgames in leisure time, concerts, discos, have barbecues, and hang out entirely peacefully with friends and family, watch television or go to the movies and be otherwise left alone.

But if the city remains in the thrall of its present crisis, if the poor people continue to see themselves justified to hold the traditional ruling class responsible for what is now taking place, if the disastrous conflict between the rich and the poor will not cool down but precisely only escalate with also however many members of the rich class not shying away from eagerly and openly pointing the broad and blanket finger of blame at the poor people, then it is not hard to imagine that only more of the poor will go and join the ranks of the current crowd already engaged in maintaining–and proudly so–the idolatry practices which serve to prop up as their leader the Killer Clown called Joker; as well as raising to celestial heights of attributed importance the leader’s own native group, the general class of poor people of Gotham.

In terms of sacrifice, by designating Joker as their leader as well as touting their own group, the crowd of clowns now going bloody bananas ends up sacrificing quite a bit on the altars catering to their professed practices of idolatry. First, as a result of granting themselves license to plunder, pillage, pulverize and terrorize, they sacrifice an untold measure of the quality of the relationships they potentially might have with all those of Gotham’s citizens, especially police and other law-enforcement representatives of the rich ruling class, who now are going to oppose them, trying to either arrest them and or disband their outfit altogether. It would be unreasonable to expect a whole lot of room for Golden Rule-compliant friendliness during confrontations between the recalcitrant clown collective versus law enforcement officers or members of the upper class ruling establishment which they (also) represent.

Secondly, all the people the clowns end up killing–in combination with all of the affectionate relationships which their murder victims enjoyed with whomever–or all the property the masked marauders either go on to steal or destroy while acting under the command of Joker, also should count as sure sacrifices made on the altars devoted to the clown-centric system of idolatry they may be said to maintain. But it deserves to be stressed once more that Wayne and his sympathizers should be held responsible themselves for facilitating Gotham now threatening to burn down to a cinder.

As long as the clowns idolize their leader – the hero they were yearning for, and their leader idolizes the clown group back in seamless quid-pro-quo reciprocity, the one group (allegedly) worth having him for a leader; as long as such system of mutual idolatry is able to be maintained, the cohesion of the group may be guaranteed — i.e. until the time comes at which they are overwhelmed and neutralized by police authorities (or perhaps with a bit of help from the military in case things really get out of hand).

As such, the crowd is able to morally blind itself to the consequences of their own predatory behavior, i.e. they will always be able to rationalize and justify their abusive and destructive behavior if they are able to justify themselves by shifting the blame for their own immoral actions away from their own group (and place it squarely at the feet of the ruling class). Especially if it is done on orders of the leader they worship, they might afford themselves the reckless liberty to forgo on the otherwise vital need to critically examine the moral contents of their predatory actions. Simply put, if their divine leader tells them it is good, then it is good, it must be good, otherwise their leader would not have told them so — no questions asked, shut up and do as you’re told. |29.2)

This system of mutual idolatry between Joker and the clowns ensures group-cohesion; as long as Joker is more-or-less good to them and they are good and loyal to Joker, they are able to stick together as a team. This is why, in my opinion, The Dark Knight (2008) got it wrong in its portrayal of an utterly ruthless and irrational Joker; who–in its opening scenes, while pulling off one of their scores–turns out to beforehand have ordered certain of his subordinates to kill their companion subordinates on completion of their particular task; and then Joker also himself goes around killing the last remaining subordinates, all so that he gets to have the monetary spoils all to himself.

And yet that same Joker turned out to have no reservations to later burn down a whole mound of money, representing God knows how many millions of dollars. While I do like this movie, especially the Joker role, it does not seem realistic that a leader–even a gangster leader–would be able to retain loyalty of his men if treating them not just with an utter lack of respect but with lethal disrespect, only liable to be offed like rabid dogs if it is convenient — life is cheap, dirt cheap, if you are Joker’s gangsters. Also, burning down a whole edifice made of money, worth millions upon millions, all in order to prove some banal dick-waving gangster point, is just too unrealistic; if for no other reason than that money equals power and power is precisely what any gangster worth their salt is seeking to obtain and hold on to.

30.Summary Analysis: Arthur’s Negative Transmutation

Still to be done.

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Rise of a Sadistic Clown type of Psychopath
Table of Contents
i.God the Ultimate Movie Director
ii.Idolatry 101 – Crash Course Idolatry Theory
ii.1.The double fundamental error lying at the heart of idolatry . . .
ii.2.Negative vs Positive, Concrete vs Abstract, Explicit vs Implicit and Potential vs Actualized
0.Qualitative Idolatry Analysis of Joker (2019)
1.Beatdown in alley	1.1.In terms of idolatry…
2.Feeling better when locked up in hospital
3.Taken for a bus ride	3.1.In terms of idolatry…
4.Reverie of idolatry at mom’s apartment	4.1.In terms of idolatry…
5.Getting an instrument of destructive power	5.1.In terms of idolatry…
6.Meeting Sophie in the awful elevator of their awful building
7.Mother expressing lack of faith in son’s comedy career	7.1.In terms of idolatry…
8.Accidentally discharging gun at home
9.Stalking Sophie and taking notes at pogo’s Comedy Club
10.If you’re happy and you know it, stomp your feet . . .	10.1.In terms of idolatry…
11.Send in the Clowns	11.1.In terms of idolatry…
12.Catharsis in public bathroom, finding self-confidence, solace with Sophie
13.Punching out at Ha-Ha’s	13.1.In terms of idolatry…
14.The prelude to “nothing but clowns” wreaking havoc in down-town Gotham
14.1.In the first terms of idolatry — Wayne, the wedge driver
14.2.In the second terms of idolatry — Wayne, the flame fanning fire fighter
15.In front of an indifferent Social Worker, stressing the undying need to be noticed
16.Premiere at pogo’s Comedy Club, hanging out with Sophie	16.1.In terms of idolatry…
17.Son of Thomas Wayne?	17.1.In terms of idolatry…
18.Confrontation at Wayne Manor
19.Mother lands in hospital	19.1.In terms of idolatry…
20.Humiliated by Murray for everyone to see
20.1.In terms of idolatry . . . Murray humiliates Arthur by televised retaliation
20.2.In terms of idolatry . . . Arthur retaliates by killing Murray in his mind
21.Collective resentment building in the city reaching boiling point	21.1.In terms of idolatry…
22.Confronting Thomas Wayne inside of Wayne Hall	22.1.In terms of idolatry…
23.Invited by Murray and finding out the truth about himself
23.1.The meaning of Arthur’s childhood abuse
23.2.Pathological laughing, repression and Penny’s psychology	23.3.In terms of idolatry . . .
24.Laughing loudly at the joke that is his life	24.1.In terms of idolatry…
25.Killing mother in hospital	25.1.In terms of idolatry…
26.Killing Randall at home	26.1.In terms of idolatry…
27.Completion of transformation into Joker
27.1.Joker the tragic clown and the agent provocateur alternative reality
28.i.Final Showdown with Murray Franklin — The dress-room	26.1.In terms of idolatry…
28.ii.Final Showdown with Murray Franklin — The pièce de résistance
28.ii.1.The meaning of killing Murray on his own live show	28.ii.2.In terms of idolatry…
29.i.Ascending from a Cradle of Flames and Chaos — Mentally murdering Wayne	29.i.1.In terms of idolatry…
29.ii.Ascending from a Cradle of Flames and Chaos — Murdering Wayne in actual fact	29.ii.1.In terms of idolatry…
29.iii.Ascending from a Cradle of Flames and Chaos — Crowd of clowns openly idolizing Joker	29.iii.1.In terms of idolatry…
30.Summary Analysis: Arthur’s Negative Transmutation

13.Punching out at Ha-Ha’s

On the verge of saying goodbye to the employees of Ha-Ha’s who have assembled at the change room, Arthur can be seen emptying out his locker for the last time, picking up his belongings; and is about to leave his now former working place when Gary, the midget clown, expresses sympathy for the other’s loss of employment.

Gary: “Hey Art, I heard what happened– I’m sorry, mate.“
Randall: “Yeah, doesn’t seem fair — getting fired like that.“
Arthur looks hard at Randall for a moment, just slowly nods, and continues on to his locker. He starts to clean it out, stuffing all of his clown gear into an old brown paper shopping bag. Hears them talking about him behind his back, about why he got fired, laughing at him–
Ha-Ha Clown #1: “Did you really bring a gun to the kid’s hospital, Artie? What the fuck would you do that for?“
Arthur doesn’t answer them, just continues emptying his locker, a bag of balloons, a magic wand, some trick flowers–
Chippendales: (low-blow) “Is that part of your new act, Arthur? If your dancing doesn’t do the trick, you’re just gonna shoot yourself?“
More laughter. Arthur turns and looks at all of them, nods at Randall–
Arthur: “Why don’t you ask Randall about it? It was his gun.“
Randall: (feigns ignorance) “What?“
Arthur: (theatrical) “I still owe you for that, don’t I?“
Randall: (indignant; disingenuous) “What the fuck are you talking about? Stop talking outta your ass, Art!” (13.1)

Arthur was already walking away from the dress-room through the adjacent corridor when he returns, having suddenly realized–if theatrically–that he forgot to do something, some specific thing which–it is suggested–he otherwise would do as a matter of routine. While mischievously declaring, with a clownish smile on his face, “Oh no! I forgot to punch out!“, he goes to literally punch the punch-out box suspended on a wall next to the entrance. After a few deliberate and forceful hits, the thing becomes unhinged and crashes down to the floor, which makes him laugh out loudly, all the while sure to show his lit up face (with a touch of pride) to the rest of the room silently beholding the dubiously amusing spectacle play out.

The fired-up freshly-fired buffoon then exits the room in suspiciously high spirits by descending the stairs leading up to the corridor next to the dress-room, careful not to forget–however–using spray-paint to cross out the words “forget to“ on the sign hanging mid-way over the staircase that says, “Don’t forget to smile!“ A cheeky Arthur then gleefully kicks open the entrance door leading to the street and disappears outside, into the bright and sunny day, never to be seen again.

Note that by Randall now explicitly lying about the gun, his gun, it is plausible to assume that he had also lied previously to Hoyt about that same gun — thus ruling out permutations 1a+2b) and 1b+2b) in the earlier scheme of section 10. This would therefore be the second time that Randall lied to all present about the gun, his original gun. Between the two of them, it wasn’t Arthur who had been lying, but Randall. Again, the latter shows to have a penchant for deceit if feeling the need to avoid the shame that is nonetheless his to have — Randall will drop you like a hot potato (at least if your name is Arthur Fleck) if only it’s ass-covering time already.

However, it is still also entirely possible that–in such respect–Arthur might just not be a whole lot different from his now former colleague in that he could also have been lying to Hoyt about the gun being a prop (when it really wasn’t), lying for the purpose of avoiding the shame that belongs to getting caught for doing something risky, employment-wise, an action which would technically also be something morally dubious.

13.1 In terms of idolatry . . .

(13.1| Randall’s deception may be captured by the following script:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Deceptive kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Randall; Victims = Randall&Arthur; Audience = Randall&Arthur&Gary&HaHaClown&Chippendales;

1. Incoming-stage: Randall initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Randall-idolatry:[M] Am truthful and sincere about the gun; did not provide Arthur with it at all;
{–} Arthur-idolatry:[M] Am lying about the gun; did not procure gun from Randall at all;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Randall initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Randall-idolatry: Superior by Lying to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied to by Randall/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied about by Randall/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Randall-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Randall/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the others of Audience, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Randall initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Randall-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied to by Randall/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied about by Randall/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Randall-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Randall/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Randall incurs authentic guilt toward everyone whom he involves in his deception — Gary&HaHaClown&Chippendales, but more so toward Arthur and especially toward Randall himself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, by seeking to float his little exercise of self-sanctifying deception at Arthur’s expense, Randall–from his end–came to sacrifice (some of) the quality of the relationship he had with the other clown, in spite of simultaneously going around openly pretending to be his friend, his boy. In response, Arthur may now very well choose to reciprocate in kind, and by possibly lowering the esteem he has for Randall in terms of their alleged friendship, is prone to feel entitled to do so. Suddenly Randall has nudged Arthur into a position at which the latter might just feel little conscience pangs to retaliate–in whatever way deemed fit–for Randall’s betrayal. And although Arthur is to be held responsible for carrying out whatever future immoral action at his victim’s expense, Randall himself deserves to be held culpable for facilitating Arthur’s future act of payback.

In terms of actualization, nothing can be said as to who is unaware versus aware of Randall’s deception and who would therefore actualize his practices by gullibility versus by rationalization, respectively.

In terms of conscience, Randall’s deception obviously shows a lack of love and care for the main target of his deception: Arthur, as such defies the Golden Rule and so is hard to justify relative to Randall’s authentic conscience. However, he seems to launch his deception in order to avoid the shame that might have come his way if admitting the truth, especially in front of his employer. In terms of his inauthentic shame-avoiding conscience connected to a thematic practice of Shame-avoiding Self-idolatry, Randall’s deception makes a whole lot more sense. |13.1)

14.The prelude to “nothing but clowns” wreaking havoc in down-town Gotham

Arthur is in the kitchen, fixing himself something to eat, when his mother calls him to join her watching the news.

Penny: “Happy, look Thomas Wayne is on TV.“
Arthur: “Yes, mother.“
Penny: “They’re asking him about those horrible subway murders.“
He glances at the TV playing in the living room through the open wall–
Arthur: (attention peaking) “Oh, yeah.“
He walks to the living room, eyes glued on the TV, sits down on the couch and lights up a cigarette.
Thomas Wayne: “All three of them worked for Wayne Investments. They were good, decent, educated.” (14.1.i)
A small smirk registers on Arthur’s face when photos of the three Wall Street GUYS come up on the screen.
Thomas Wayne: “Although I didn’t know them personally, like all Wayne employees, past and present, they’re family.“
Penny: “You hear that! I told you. We’re family.“
Arthur shushes her, intent on hearing what Penny’s great hero further has to say.
“Good Morning” Host: “There now seems to be a groundswell of anti-rich sentiment in the city. It’s almost as if our less fortunate residents have taken the side of the killer.“
Thomas Wayne: “Yes and it’s a shame. It’s one of the reasons I’m considering a run for mayor. Gotham has lost its way.“
“Good Morning” Host: “What about the eyewitness report of the suspect being a man in clown mask?“
Arthur’s eyes start to bulge. The camera zooms in closer to Thomas Wayne on the screen–
Thomas Wayne: “It makes total sense to me. What kind of coward would do something that cold-blooded? Someone who hides behind a mask. Someone who’s envious of those more fortunate than themselves, yet they’re too scared to show their own face.” (14.1.ii) (to camera) “And until those kind of people change for the better, those of us who’ve made something of our lives, will always look at those who haven’t as nothing but clowns.” (14.2)
Arthur snickers.
Penny: “That’s not funny.“

Why does Arthur snicker?

Well, it’s obvious that Wayne is awfully prejudicial in his assessment; the Wall Street guys were likely educated yes, college probably, but good and decent? — they surely weren’t acting all good and decent down in the train, not to the woman reader and certainly not to Arthur (even though Arthur was not entirely innocent himself either). Also, by casually lumping all three attributes together as if one atomic category, Wayne suggests that such descriptors naturally belong together like beer and ballgames: suggesting that if a person should have one such attribute, say, educated, then the other two attributes naturally find home in the same person as well: good and decent.

By heedlessly painting the Wall Street guys as good and decent, conveniently glossing over the veritably ignoble ways in which they went around acting, Wayne may be held accountable for positively idolizing the Wall Street guys — he is guilty of presenting them, three of his employees, with more posthumous moral elevation than they deserved, propping them up with unduly-elevated personal image impressions, and by doing such on public television did so potentially in front of the entire residency of Gotham.

14.1 In terms of Person-idolatry — Wayne, the wedge driver

(14.1| Wayne altogether ignores his killed employees their nevertheless undeniably complex and multivariate human nature; Wayne neglects to acknowledge that they, like everyone else in principle, had good personal qualities about them as well as bad ones. Instead, Wayne focuses on a few of the good qualities they allegedly had and then goes to magnify the attributed importance of those alleged personal qualities to wildly exaggerated extent; but which, he implies, regardless still could still serve to accurately define what sort of people they were in reality: good and decent — such is the essence of Wayne’s initiation of an explicit potential practice of Abstract Positive Person-idolatry with the three now-deceased Wall Street guys for objects.

By the same token, Wayne altogether ignores the killer his complex and multivariate human nature; the captain of industry neglects to acknowledge that the perp, like everyone else in principle, has good personal qualities as well as bad ones about him. Instead, Wayne focuses on a few of the bad qualities the killer allegedly would have and then goes to magnify the attributed importance of those alleged personal qualities to such once again wildly exaggerated extent; but likewise which, he implies, regardless still could serve to accurately define what sort of person said killer is in reality: cowardly (+coldblooded+scared) and envious of the rich — such is the essence of Wayne’s initiation of an explicit potential practice of Abstract Negative Person-idolatry based on the killer.

Capturing Wayne’s initiated double act of Person-idolatry in script-format, we have:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Wayne; Victims = WS#1.2.3&Arthur; Audience = Arthur&Penny&Wayne&TVAudience14;

The set TVAudience14 is comprised of all the people of Gotham–besides Arthur, Penny, Wayne (and other people on the scene where Wayne is giving his statement)–who are watching Wayne on the pertinent television-channel, either live or by VCR (after-the-fact);

1. Incoming-stage: Wayne initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} WS#1.2.3-idolatry:[X] I was a good and decent person;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: [X] I am cowardly; too cowardly to show my face when I killed those three WS guys out of envy (for the fact that they were rich); [M] I am a bad person;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Wayne initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Wayne-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging Victims/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Wayne-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Wayne/ to Prejudge Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Prejudged by Wayne/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Wayne exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the others of Audience, and audially to self;
Arthur exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to Penny, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Wayne initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Wayne-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge Victims/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Wayne-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Wayne/ Prejudging Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Wayne/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Wayne incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his act of Prejudgment — TVAudience14&Penny, more so toward Victims and especially toward Wayne himself. So now, however many people of Gotham have been exposed to what for Arthur are particularly toxic Pidols, image impressions that paint especially him in a negative unattractive light, someone evil and immoral; while the Wall Street guys were painted as faultless saints.

4. The ‘In terms of conscience’ and ‘In terms of actualization’ bits will be treated in the next script.

In terms of sacrifice, on the one hand we have that, by openly representing them in the positive yet recklessly-skewed way which he did, Wayne may be expected to be reluctant to see the victims in a less rosy, less flattering yet more realistic manner; and, as such, Wayne may be said to sacrifice reasonability and rationality in his promoted evaluation of them. Indeed, he may be expected to only all-the-more cling to his promoted prejudicial picture if airing his take–which he did–on television in front of an arbitrarily large number of Gotham’s residents, as his reluctance to alter his advertised impression would then naturally stem from fear of losing face if admitting–in front of an arbitrarily large audience–to have been (a wee bit) wrong in what actually, truthfully, seems little more than his off-the-cuff superficially-meditated assessment of the victims.

On the other hand we have, by openly representing the killer now in the negative yet wildly-skewed way which he did, Wayne may be expected to be reluctant to see the killer in a more reasonable manner with which he paints him to be; and, as such, Wayne may be said to sacrifice reasonability and rationality in his promoted evaluation of the killer. Indeed, he may be expected to only all-the-more cling to his promoted prejudicial picture if airing his take–which he did–on television, naturally fearing the eventuality of losing face in front of an arbitrarily large number of Gotham’s residents if admitting to have been (a wee bit) wrong in what actually, truthfully, seems little more than his off-the-cuff prejudicial assessment of the killer.

Wayne is thus responsible for encouraging all those folks who buy into what he is saying (whether for or against him), to go ahead and sacrifice reasonability and rationality in the ways they might relate to the killer (together with compassion – if pro-Wayne, or precisely animosity – if anti-Wayne); and so, if hypothetically ending up interacting with the killer, may be inclined to treat him with less balanced and less neutral Golden Rule-compliance than would both be desirable and deserved. |14.1)

Wayne represents the incident as if it was committed out of plain cowardice, fueled by sheer envy — which is baloney, of the likely–for him–wishful thinking kind. Indeed, it must be very tempting for Wayne to conjure up the fairy tale narrative which he did, as it stands to be very egosyntonic for him to assert on public television, for as many residents as possible to witness, that his now late employees were nothing but purely innocent victims of envy; for by presenting them in such capacity, it enables him (and, by extension, his own entire company, and–indeed–all of his rich peers) to look good in comparison, made attractive due to its resulting sheen of moral and existential vindication, as the incident may thus be used to verify the ostensible nobility of his own exalted financial personal status: that raising the pursuit of wealth to chief virtue status would be nothing but entirely moral and righteous, that material wealth is to be regarded as a perfectly noble goal to pursue in-and-of-itself, otherwise–his implied argument goes–the likes of him, the opulent chosen few, would never have ended up being targeted by envious financially less-endowed, if not to say challenged, people to begin with.

As such, by his heedless words of self-elevating fancy, by cavalierly declaring broad general support from the marginal poor classes for the triple-murder committed, Wayne–ironically enough–only works to further the divide existing between the rich and the poor. He basically goes to label the entire class of poor people as being evil, sympathizers of a purportedly ruthless killer, champions of a supposed senseless string of pusillanimous homicides, allegedly uniformly driven by a kind of jealousy for the rich which would be due to the mere fact of them being poor.

In effect, by deliberately working to fulfill a prophecy which he himself is sure to float and one which casually serves to criminalize (if not outrightly demonize) the entire demographic formed by the poor working classes, the reckless self-serving rich-ass big-shot (nevertheless reflexively worshiped by Arthur’s own mother) only goes to worsen the fundamental sort of societal problem that he will now see himself forced–as if bound by nothing but a purely noble and selfless sense of duty–to help solve again.

In a cunning self-congratulatory televised stroke, Wayne encourages everyone willing to listen to his simplistic rhetoric, to divide the city into two basic but opposing camps: in the one camp are to be found those whom–in his eyes–may call themselves successful, those of Gotham’s residents whom allegedly have made “something“ of their lives, those kind of people whom have managed to land themselves in what he considers to be morally ascended positions of life, whom do not have to better themselves at all since they–in his eyes–already are better (than the rest); but because of their allegedly exalted stations of life may unfortunately be expected to wind up targeted by inherently envious members of the other camp, those folks whom–in his eyes–have failed to make “something“ of their lives, whose success in life–in his eyes–has proven elusive (especially financial success) and whom–unless they “change for the better“–may therefore, in his eyes, safely be regarded as “nothing but clowns” (and, as such, at once are deserving of the ample amount of derision that clowns usually, by default, get thrown their way).

14.2 In terms of Group-idolatry — Wayne, the flame-fanning firefighter

(14.2| With respect to the two mutually-antagonistic communal camps he promotes into existence (yet only in an abstract imagined sense, not a concrete actual sense of course), Wayne may be said to initiate a tandem potential practice of Abstract Group-idolatry. What he does specifically, is to ignore the complex and multivariate human nature of the various members of the group of rich people (his own native supposedly noble class) versus the comparably complex and multivariate human nature of the various members of the group of poor people (the alien other supposedly base class).

Instead, for each member at hand, Wayne focuses only on the financial (or socioeconomic) status of the members of both groups and then goes to magnify the attributed importance of that one characteristic to wildly exaggerated extent; and yet, he implies, it still were to accurately serve defining the member at hand: if someone is rich (financially successful) then that means that this person, according to Wayne’s gung-ho self-glorifying gospel, is entitled to regard themselves as (morally) superior with respect to someone else who happens to be poor (financially unsuccessful), deemed (morally) inferior, indeed, nothing but a clown — such is the essence of Wayne’s initiation of an implicit dual potential practice of Abstract Group-idolatry: Positive Group-idolatry with the entire group of rich people for object of worship; versus Negative Group-idolatry based on the entire group of poor people, the ones who are “nothing but clowns“ and who are expected to “change for the better“).

Wayne’s initiation of Group-idolatry practices in script-form:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Wayne; Victims = RichPeople&PoorPeople; Audience = Arthur&Penny&Wayne&TVAudience14;

The sets RichPeople versus PoorPeople consist of all the rich people of Gotham, including Thomas Wayne; versus all the poor people of Gotham, including Arthur&Penny. For simplicity’s sake, the union of PoorPeople and RichPeople yields the total population of Gotham, of which TVAudience14 is a subset representing the total TV viewership (excluding Arthur&Penny), whether tuning in live or after-the-fact via VCR, witnessing Wayne’s specific address taking place right now;

1. Incoming-stage: Wayne initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} RichPeople-idolatry:[X] I have made something of my life; [M] Do not need to change for the better;
{–} PoorPeople-idolatry: [X] I am nothing but a clown; [M] Do need to change for the better;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Wayne initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Wayne-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging Victims/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Wayne-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Wayne/ to Prejudge Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur&Penny-idolatry: Inferior by Being Prejudged by Wayne/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Wayne exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the others of Audience, and audially to self;
Arthur/Penny exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to Penny/Arthur, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Wayne initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Wayne-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge Arthur&WS#1.2.3/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Wayne-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Wayne/ Prejudging Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Wayne/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Wayne incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his act of Prejudgment — TVAudience14, more so toward Victims and especially toward Wayne himself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, Wayne again stoops to (for him awfully convenient) prejudice in his evaluation of members of the rich and poor classes, making it harder for himself to maintain Golden Rule-compliant relationships with members of either class, relationships that would be based on truth instead of its distortion along the direction of either undue group-oriented flattery or undue group-oriented depreciation. Wayne may therefore be said to sacrifice reasonability and rationality in his characterization of members belonging to either class and therefore sacrifices reason and fairness in his social interaction with members from both classes. Furthermore, he may be expected to only all-the-more cling to his promoted prejudicial pictures if airing his take–which he did–on television, naturally fearing the eventuality of losing face in front of an arbitrarily large number of Gotham’s residents if admitting to have been (a wee bit) wrong in his off-the-cuff prejudicial assessment of members belonging to either class.

Wayne is thus responsible for encouraging all those folks who buy into what comes out of his mouth (whether for or against him), to go ahead and sacrifice reasonability and rationality in the ways with which they might relate to members of either group (including abandoning compassion for members of the poor class and neglecting animosity for members of the rich class – if pro-Wayne; or neglecting animosity for members of the poor class and abandoning compassion for members of the rich class – if anti-Wayne); and so, if hypothetically ending up interacting with members of either class, he may be inclined to treat them with less-balanced and less-neutral Golden Rule-compliance than would both be desirable and deserved.

In terms of actualization, when it comes to the extent to which Wayne’s potential practices turn into actualized counterparts, there are three categories of people we need to take into account. The first distinction to be made is between those who fall for Wayne’s rousing rhetoric versus those who see through the inciting bullshit, by recognizing it for the delusional division-causing propaganda it really is. The former group may be called the suckers; whereas the latter group, the skeptics, will be comprised of people who are familiar with the ins and outs of mind-control, Narcissism and Group-narcissism — people such as psychologists, psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, as well as other people well-versed in critical thinking, those sharp-minded folks who are able to pierce through the however deceptively-attractive nevertheless mind-fucking idolatrous clutter; those who are able to sense red flags going up whenever brains are about to get washed. In short, the skeptics—courtesy of having savvy, quick-witted and properly-trained minds–will be able to prevent themselves from falling victim to Wayne’s toxic yet egosyntonically-attractive propaganda and so will not be among those who end up actualizing the VIP his idolatry practices.

As for the suckers, the sleepwalkers: those who do end up embracing and actualizing Wayne’s idolatry practices, those who do fall for his simpleminded mind-control rhetoric, they may, in turn, be divided up into two groups. On the one hand, we have the suckers who are sympathetic to Wayne’s own rich-guy camp, those who enjoy a comparable socioeconomic status as Wayne does, who have plenty of cash to burn, who like to base their identity on the fact that they are rich and who do identify with his self-promotional little theatrical show after watching him on television; indeed, they may even go so far as to call him their hero, their honorable and exalted banner-waving front-man. Such type of folks may be said to be in a trauma bonding kind of pathological relationship with Wayne; i.e. whenever Wayne would now go and morally misbehave (on televised stage), they will nevertheless tend to identify with him–the aggressor–instead of with the scores of (ideological) victims he leaves in his wake: the poor, the clowns.

On the other hand, we have the kind of suckers who are precisely anti-sympathetic to Wayne and the camp of the rich people, but are rather sympathetic to the killer clown; they are the sort of people who are being told by their nemesis (and effectively believe him) that they are nothing but clowns — those who do hate the rich, who feel victimized by the rich, exploited, marginalized, looked down upon and spat upon by members of the rich class; those who feel as if they have an axe to grind with the likes of Wayne and indeed all that his rich class represents: the establishment, the system. Now such other type of folks may be said to be in a state of trauma bonding with the killer clown, the enemy of the likes of Wayne; i.e. whenever the killer clown would now go and morally misbehave (on television), they will nevertheless tend to identify with him–the aggressor–instead of with the victim(s) he leaves in his wake.

The more Wayne hammers this corrosive and crooked message of communal bifurcation down the craniums of Gotham’s residents, i.e. the more opportunities he is able to enjoy to get up on stage and broadcast his toxic message of societal division and disharmony, the more he works to drive the members of the poor class into (collective) defensive posturing; as the poor will increasingly feel being seen as guilt-ridden de facto fair game by the rich, the latter class who–inspired by Wayne’s circumstantial flattery–would feel increasingly entitled to look down on the former, as if those poor people–in a worst case scenario–were an intrinsically problematic sort of demographic, if not an outrightly dangerous scourge deserving to be dealt with (in, if need be, harsh decisive manner) by representatives of the rich class; all in order to–what Wayne leads his peers to believe–further the noble goal of enlightening and brightening up the city, undoing itself–purging itself–of the damnable ostensible reason, coming in the form of a scapegoated whole class of people, as to why it were going down to hell in a hand-basket.

By working to drive a wedge in between the rich and the poor classes the way he does, Wayne himself only works to fulfill the prophecy coming from his own lips, one which he is sure to broadcast across an arbitrarily large number of Gotham’s households using the nifty telecommunications invention called the television. In a metaphoric sense, he shows to act as the special kind of fire brigade captain who also happens to go around acting on the shady side-lines as an elusive sort of somnambulatory pyromaniac, who by his concealed sleepwalking arsonist escapades effectively ensures that his own dearly beloved fire department never quite ends up bogged down by boredom and as such never quite ends up unable to justify the scope of its budgetary spending (bills ultimately footed by tax-payers, including–ironically enough–those who happen to be poor, those who already are struggling to make ends meet, the same sort of people whom Wayne likes to point the broad finger of scapegoated accusation to).

In addition, Wayne also shows to deserve retroactive culpability for the committed triple-homicide which he–by giving it a recklessly self-serving spin–is now keen to exploit for political and self-exalting purposes, for reasons which give him the opportunity to present himself as Gotham’s designated hero, its Knight in Shining Armor, exclusively suited to valiantly fight against the collective menace posed by the city’s corrupt and unwashed seedy underbelly; a sumptuous chance to bravely struggle against the wantonly evil rabble of the poor, the dangerous and depraved failures of life, the radical hordes of destitution blindly driven by greedy jealousy for the members of the purported noble class. Without the triple murder having become a reality, Wayne would have missed out on a defining opportunity to prop himself up as Gotham’s singular White Knight. Thomas Wayne thus surely does deserve blame for using the bloody subway tragedy to enable him to transform into the savior of a city which is ever more embroiled in the kind of flames that he is fanning into catastrophically incendiary heights himself.

As such, to recap, Thomas Wayne might just deserve to be fingered as a proverbial fire-starter sooner than a fire-fighter — the sort of fire-starter (or fire-bellower) who will soon take away any lingering possible doubts as to likewise deserving to be held accountable for promoting positive idolization of his own self (soon showing to not just seeing, but also advertising, himself as Gotham’s virtual Messiah). In addition, Wayne already deserves to be held responsible for promoting positive idolization of all of his employees (including the three killed ones) and, indeed, all of his peers who have managed to make “something“ of their lives. By the same token, he deserves to be held accountable for promoting negative idolization of all those supposedly inherently envious “clowns“ who failed to attain–what he considers to be–successful lives, including especially the “coward“ killer clown and the entire class of poor people allegedly automatically going around championing the latter, all allegedly eager–fueled by poverty-induced envy–to predate on members of the rich class.

In terms of conscience, while Wayne might delude himself into believing that he would be acting only with the best interests in mind for everybody, for members of the poor as well as the rich class, such in practice is clearly not the case. Maybe he does really manage to convince himself that he is acting only out of love and care when he portrays members of the poor class in the demeaning and quasi-incriminating light with which he does, but in reality he has no leg to stand on when claiming that he is acting in line with his authentic Golden Rule-compliant conscience. In actuality, by granting himself license to vigorously clean up town, so to speak, while scapegoating an entire demographic, Wayne shows to much sooner act in accordance with his own power-seeking inauthentic conscience, one that is connected to a thematic practice of Power-seeking Self-idolatry. |14.2)

15.In front of an indifferent Social Worker, stressing the undying need to be noticed

Arthur sits across from the same Social Worker from the opening scene. Same depressing office. He takes a drag from his cigarette.
Arthur Fleck: “I heard this song on the radio the other day. And the guy was singing that his name was Carnival–“
Social Worker: (trying to interrupt) “Arthur.“
Arthur Fleck: “–Which is crazy because that’s my clown name at work. And until a while ago, it was like nobody ever saw me. Even I didn’t know if I really existed.“
Social Worker: (insistent) “Arthur, I have some bad news for you.“
Arthur Fleck: (taken aback) “You don’t listen, do you? . . . I don’t think you ever — really — hear me. You just ask the same questions every week. ‘How’s your job?’ ‘Are you having any negative thoughts?’“ (radiating pain and resignation) “All I have are negative thoughts. But you don’t listen anyway. I said, ‘for my whole life, I didn’t know if I even really existed.’ But I do. And people are starting to notice—“
Social Worker: (still ignoring) “They’ve cut our funding. We’re closing down our offices next week. The city’s cut funding across the board. Social services is part of that. This is the last time we’ll be meeting.“
Arthur is not hating the idea.
Arthur Fleck: “Okay.“
Social Worker: “They don’t give a shit about people like you, Arthur. . . And, they really don’t really give a shit about people like me either.“
Arthur sits there for a moment. And then it dawns on him–
Arthur Fleck: “How am I supposed to get my medication now? Who do I talk to?“
Social Worker: “I’m sorry, Arthur.“
He just stares at her, taking it all in.

First off, I tend to agree with Arthur that the social worker seems to not really listen to her patient. In fact, she seems to do a pretty good job at ignoring what he’s saying, but then appears to rationalize her display of professional apathy by basically letting him know–while sort of implying to agree with him being virtually indifferent in regards to what he’s telling her (which–in all cruel irony–is precisely about his implied need to be noticed)–that her peculiar neglectful attitude toward him would somehow be okay, since she’s not alone in this respect at all, as the municipality in general were to not “give a shit about people like“ him. Without shifting her weight or so much as blinking her eyes, in a half-hearted bid to throw some vague joke of an approximation of sympathy in his way, she then dryly only shows to lend further implicit legitimacy to her professional disinterest of him by declaring that the inferred collective body of people controlling Gotham “don’t really give a shit about people like“ her either. In other words, they both would be in the same proverbial no-shit-given-whatsoever sort of boat, a vessel containing people rejected and damned, HMS Done Away With.

Arthur seems to derive the veracity of his existence from the extent to which people show to notice him in daily life. Whereas before the triple-murder incident occurred, people failed to leave him with the impression that they were even aware of his existence; and, because of having to bear such profound deficit in life, Arthur was left in doubt as to the realness of his own existence. His once sorry state of existential affairs has since drastically changed for the better, however, in that he now does sense that people do start to notice him; and, as a result, may now enjoy an increasingly strong notion of feeling alive.

In Arthur’s book, one that’s written in the bold-lettered and loudly-colored kind of image-oriented and attention-seeking sort of language of Narcissism: being seen, being recognized for existing, therefore equates with a sense of being alive — the more he is noticed by other folks, the more he feels alive. It goes to show that Arthur–somewhere in his formative past–came to develop an unhealthy external dependence on other people rather than his own person; that rather than developing a more natural internal dependence on his own autonomous person, he began to look for salvation outside of his person and personal control; trading what to him (and every other person alive) is the natural way of nurturing true natural autonomy, for an unnatural route of life promoting attachment to and dependence on outsiders.

It seemingly matters less to him, whether the reasons for people noticing him would be righteous and moral or not so much so — and this is where it gets iffy. Indeed, since he now repeatedly has been punished for his attempts to be noticed for the good, noble or at least harmless things he was doing, there is increasingly less choice for him to try and gain notice for automatically bad, ignoble and harmful reasons. If categorically being denied the opportunity to feel alive through walking the blissful way of fame, which need not be without merit and deserved reward, he would then see himself naturally forced to gain a sense of aliveness by going down the only route left available for him, the path of infamy — and God help Gotham, if he somehow manages to also find blissfully attractive venturing into such alternative grim and glum venue of existence.

16.Premiere at pogo’s Comedy Club, hanging out with Sophie

Arthur is waiting next in line at pogo’s Comedy Club, located at Chinatown Street. It appears to be his first time on stage, his first shot at making a name for himself as stand-up comic. It’s obvious he’s nervous as hell, already profusely perspiring when the master of ceremony introduces him as a “lifelong Gotham resident who, from a young age, was always told that his purpose in life is to bring laughter and joy into this cold dark world.“

He gets up on stage, “the light so bright he can’t see faces in the dark audience, his trembling hand holding onto his worn notebook. He takes a deep breath, looks out at the dark crowd, opens his mouth and starts to laugh. His eyes go wide. God no, not now. A terrified look comes to his face under the laughter. He just keeps laughing. The crowd is just staring back at him.“

Arthur: (trying to stop himself from laughing) “— good evening, hello.“ (deep breath; trying to stop laughing) “Good to be here.“ (keeps cracking up) “I hated school as a kid. But my mother would always say,–“ (bad imitation of his mom, still laughing) “You should enjoy it. One day you’ll have to work for a living.“ (laughs) “No I won’t, Ma. I’m gonna be a comedian!” (16.1)
Arthur keeps cracking up. Hard to hear anything or anybody else. He goes through his notebook trying to find another joke–
Arthur: (reading verbatim) “It’s funny, I was thinking the other day,– Why are rich people so confused by the poor people?“ (silently counting to three) “Because they don’t make any cents!“
Arthur, looking out into the audience, sees Sophie sitting in the back laughing–

Arthur and Sophie leave pogo’s together, walking down Chinatown Street as they come across a news-stand featuring “a wall of Chinese language newspapers mixed with local papers and tabloids, screaming headlines about the three Wall Street Guys gunned down on the train. Arthur stops and stares at the headlines“: “Subway Vigilante“, “Yuppie Slaughter“, “Killer Clown On The Loose?“

Sophie: (re: the headlines) “You believe that shit? . . . I’ll bet you five bucks those rich assholes deserved it. He turns to her.“
Arthur: “You think?“
Sophie: “Look at their faces. Those smug smiles. I’ve seen that look. Fuck them. I think the guy that did it is a hero. Three less pricks in Gotham City. Only a million more to go.” (16.2)
Arthur watches her walk for a beat. She looks great, even in front of the mounds of garbage bags that line the sidewalk. A cab rolls past. In the backseat, someone wearing a clown mask stares back at Arthur. Holding his look for a moment. He smiles broadly and approvingly at the sight.

A moment later, Arthur and Sophie can be seen “sitting together across from each other in a molded plastic booth“ over at some run-down donut shop. “Bathed in ugly fluorescent light, a few other patrons scattered about. We don’t hear what they’re saying, but they look happy– and Sophie is laughing. Hard. Arthur stares at her“ with the subtle sort of smile that signals inner contentment, “this may be the best night of his entire life” — Sophie has indicated to him, albeit indirectly and prejudicially (and perhaps therefore only superficially), to be on his side when it comes to the murders, which–of course unknown to her–he recently committed.

And yet it deserves mention that while he does appear to be having a good time with Sophie, the smile Arthur shows to Sophie is less pronounced than the one he flashed outside at the one itinerant stranger person who reflected him more closely by wearing a clown-mask (resembling his own clown-face, his own facial image based on an alter-ego). Perhaps this incident could count as circumstantial evidence that Arthur likes receiving favorable (Narcissistically-affirming) public attention a little bit better than receiving attention of the romantic kind — although his hesitation to smile with less reservation in her presence could (also be) due to his possible worry that she might just feel a wee bit less at ease in his presence if learning the sobering truth about his factually homicidal person.

16.1 In terms of idolatry . . .

Note furthermore that, when it comes to idolatry, Sophie is doing the exact opposite of Thomas Wayne. She shows, if from a safe detached distance, to positively idolize the killer whom she doesn’t know the identity yet; quick to praise him, calling him a “hero“ (instead of merely a human being acting out immorally, while trying to cope with acutely-trying personal circumstances in the arena of self-defense). She simultaneously shows to negatively idolize the Wall Street guys, reflexively denouncing them as “rich assholes“ and “pricks“, floating image impressions of them in which they are readily painted such that it makes them out to be deserving of their miserable fates of violent expiration (instead of merely human beings acting out in vindictive immoral ways and ending up punitively victimized because of it).

(16.1| As for his maiden performance on stage, by his hapless laughing fit in the beginning, by effectively showing to ridicule the only available object – his audience, Arthur–however unintentionally–may be said to initiate an implicit and non-verbal potential practice of Abstract Negative Group-idolatry with his audience for object, its attributes being: inferiority, being ridiculousness and deserving to be ridiculed. At the same time, Arthur may be said to initiate an accompanying implicit potential practice of Abstract Positive Person-idolatry with himself for object, having attributes: superiority, entitled to ridicule.

In more comprehensive script-format, Arthur’s mild infraction may be captured as:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = dubious Moral Action; Perp = Arthur; Audience = Arthur&Victims;

The set Victims consists of Sophie and all other audience members of pogo at this particular moment;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{–} Victims-idolatry:[M] Being ridiculous; not worthy of being taken seriously or sympathetically (at all);
{+} Arthur-idolatry:[M] The opposite of being ridiculous; worthy of being taken seriously and sympathetically;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging Victims/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Prejudge Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Inferior by Being Prejudged by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge Victims/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Prejudging Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his nonverbal act of apparent ridiculing Prejudgment — Victims and especially toward Arthur himself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, Arthur technically does risk developing a somewhat compromised relationship with some of his audience members, who might now be tempted to lose some measure of faith in the clown’s stand-up comedy capabilities. Arthur’s ill-justified laughing fit, (unintentionally) smacking of necessarily inappropriate ridicule, may therefore cause him to sustain a loss of future audience enthusiasm, and he may end up with smaller audiences in the future, even more so if his laughing fits were to go on to become a recurring phenomenon at the start of his would-be gigs.

In terms of actualization, it is doubtful, however, that Arthur would be willing to actualize his own practice, as he obviously has little control over his laughing fit; indeed, is taken aback by it, ill-timed and awkward it obviously is — and is not authentically holding his audience in contempt (but something, some creepy little thing or things, inside of him tenaciously and viciously holding hostage of his psyche, might). As for his audience, I expect any self-respecting member to sooner take offense of Arthur’s apparent exercise of ridicule at their expense, than go anywhere near actualizing his practices (unless they’re masochistically inclined). Then again, they might also be self-respecting and recognize that there is something wrong with Arthur and be able to forgive him on such account.

In terms of conscience, Arthur’s laughing fit is more than anything an act of self-sabotage. Even though some members may either find some humor in it or sympathy for his apparent plight and as such shrug it off, his uncontrolled awkward laughing does not serve anyone, least of all himself — and so it’s hard to explain in terms of his authentic conscience. Once again, since he shows some signs of aversion to his misplaced laughter, it’s as if Arthur is split; as if there’s one or more alien intelligent being inside of Arthur passionately acting against his best interests; that want him to suffer instead of prosper; that want to push him into a direction of existence at which he will end up making others suffer because he might just be deluded into believing, courtesy of that same stealthy hostile alien intelligence, that those other people are responsible for the state of suffering he is being maneuvered into ever further. |16.1)

(16.2| Sophie goes to altogether ignore the complex and multivariate human nature of each of the three Wall Street guys by otherwise acknowledging that they, like everyone else in principle, had good personal qualities about them as well as bad ones. Instead, Sophie focuses on a few of the bad qualities they allegedly had and then goes to magnify the attributed importance of those qualities to greatly exaggerated extent; while, she implies, it could still serve to accurately define what sort of people they were in reality: rich assholes and pricks — such is the essence of Sophie’s initiated explicit potential practice of Abstract Negative Person-idolatry with the three now deceased Wall Street guys for objects. In addition, as did Wayne before her, she pulls off the same simplifying self-deceptive mental trick with respect to “the guy who did it“, but now goes to positively idolize him by artificially raising to definitional heights the attributed importance of his alleged heroism: Sophie may thus be said to initiate an explicit potential practice of Abstract Positive Person-idolatry based on the (for-her-unknown) killer, having for attribute: hero.

As such, her double act of Person-idolatry may be captured more comprehensively by a script of prejudgment:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Sophie; Victims = WS#1.2.3&Arthur; Audience = Arthur&Sophie;

1. Incoming-stage: Sophie initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur/KillerClown:[X] I am a hero; [M] Still a hero if I were to kill a couple more WS guys [one million more to go];
{–} WS#1.2.3-idolatry: [X] I was a rich asshole who deserved to be killed; [X] Prick;
Abstract Arthur-Pidol and WS#1.2.3-Pidols are disseminated over Arthur; Abstract KillerClown-Pidol and WS#1.2.3-Pidols are cast over Sophie;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Sophie initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Sophie-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging Victims/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Sophie-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Sophie/ to Prejudge Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Prejudged by Sophie/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Sophie initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Sophie-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge Victims/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Sophie-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Sophie/ Prejudging Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur/KillerClown-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Sophie/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Abstract Sophie-Pidol & Arthur-Pidol are cast over Arthur; Abstract Sophie-Pidol & KillerClown-Pidol are disseminated over Sophie;

In summary, qualitatively, Sophie incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in her act of Prejudgment — WS#1.2.3, more so toward Arthur and especially toward Sophie herself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, by representing them in the negative yet heedlessly-skewed way which she did, Sophie may be expected to be less willing to see the victims in a more reasonable and neutral manner than with which she paints them to be; and as such may be said to sacrifice reasonability and rationality in her evaluation of them, now prejudicial. In addition, by representing the killer clown in the positive yet likewise heedlessly-skewed way which she did, Sophie may be expected to be less willing to see the killer clown in a more reasonable and neutral manner than with which she paints him to be; making it harder for herself to have a possible Golden Rule-compliant (sober and non-fawning) relationship with the killer, a relationship that would be based on truth and recognition of interpersonal parity instead of being based on what it now threatens to be, a distortion along the direction of undue flattery coming from her end. As such, she may likewise be said to sacrifice reasonability and rationality in her promoted evaluation of the killer.

In terms of actualization, as to the particularity specificity, not just Sophie but also Arthur will tend to actualize her practices since it obviously is egosyntonic for him to do so. Here he is indirectly being called a hero by the girl who in principle might very well end up becoming his girlfriend. Sophie shows tacit support for Arthur and he is therefore provided with a reason to not have to feel bad for his committed murders. As for the generality specificity, by showing to have no qualms to agree with the assassination of all remaining assholes working at Wall Street, Sophie indicates a ready willingness to hypothetically actualize more general sort of practices pertaining to the remaining one million more rich assholes serving as potential future victims. 

In terms of conscience, by prejudging the WS guys so reflexively and decisively, Sophie goes to show having an attitude of hate toward members of the rich class. She does not seem to be willing to act with much care and love for the likes of the WS guys; and by negatively idolizing the rich class, shows to be guided not by her authentic Golden Rule-compliant conscience, but by an inauthentic type of conscience in which members of the poor class relatively-speaking receive more of her default blessings than do members of the rich class. |16.2)

17.Son of Thomas Wayne?

Later that night, Arthur returns home alone and finds his mom sitting in a chair, all passed out in front of the still-buzzing TV — Murray Franklin is on but, as it happens, signing off for the day. When he gently wakes her, she says having finished a new letter for Thomas Wayne. Arthur, however, is evidently in a good mood and wants his mother to dance with him for a bit. Unfortunately she is too much out of it to be of any use; and, after emphasizing the need for him to post her letter, can then be seen disappearing into her bedroom.

Arthur now focuses his attention on the letter, can’t resist the temptation to open it and begins reading its contents. He is not shocked to learn that Penny yet once again is asking her erstwhile employer for help. His inner peace is disturbed a great deal more, however, when he discovers being referred to as no less a person than Thomas Wayne’s son — the implication being that his mother and Wayne must have had a child-bearing affair years ago when she worked for him. He is so upset by this new revelation, in fact, that it keeps him up and awake all night, adamant to confront his mother the precise moment she wakes up. “He’s holding her letter in his hand as the sun is just starting to rise outside the windows, light just beginning to crack the gloom. Arthur impatiently sits there for another moment waiting for his mother to wake up, then suddenly shrieks out at the top of his lungs like a teapot, kicking his back on the chair like an excited toddler.“

The mother wakes up with a terrible start and before long a row ensues between her and Arthur. Penny manages to ensconce herself in the bathroom, door locked, saving herself from the decidedly unattractive prospect of facing her son standing in the living room, still wearing yesterday’s clothes, demonstrably holding out her letter in his hand as the incriminating piece of compelling direct evidence it would be.

Penny: (shouts back from behind the door) “I’m not talking to you until you stop being angry.“
Arthur paces for a minute, now goes to the bathroom door. Talks to his mother from behind the closed door.
Arthur: (lowers his voice; trying to sound calm) “Okay. Okay. I’m not angry, mom. I’m not angry. Please, mom. Is this real?“
Arthur leans in closer to the door. Leaning against it with just his head–
Penny: “He’s an extraordinary man, Happy. He’s a very powerful man. We were in love.” (17.1.i)
Arthur just leans there, listening. He closes his eyes, it’s all too much.
Penny: “He said it was best that we not be together, because of appearances. And, I could never tell anyone because, well, I signed some papers, and besides you can imagine what people would say about Thomas and me, and what they would say about you.” (17.1.ii)
Arthur: (eyes still closed, head leaning against the door) “What would they say, Mom?“
Penny: “That I was a whore, and Thomas Wayne was a fornicator, and that you’re a little, unwanted bastard.“

Since she shows to find Wayne “extraordinary“ on account of him being “very powerful“, it is suggested that Penny finds worthiness in a man to the extent that he is able to wield power. Showing therefore to be attracted to a man for the power he would command, this might be an indication of her finding comfort in such a man for the protection he were to furnish her as well as grant her a robust opportunity to bask in that man’s glory — thus being able to lay claim to a persistent means to feed her own possibly-existing Narcissistic proclivities.

Penny has already indicated that she doesn’t feel comfortable where she is currently living, that she wants to get “away from this place“ and “these people“ that are implied to be in her current environment. By being able to attach herself to a powerful man, it would give her a chance to escape from it all, an opportunity to settle in what–in an ideal sense to her–would be a safer and more exclusive social habitat, one which were to provide her access to an at once ameliorating and sedating abundance of wealth, comfortably able to distance and shield herself from the apparently regrettable prevailing social circumstances she now shows feeling victimized by.

17.1 In terms of idolatry . . .

(17.1| Two possibilities are open. Either she’s telling the truth or she’s lying about having had an affair with Thomas Wayne. If it turns out that Penny was lying, she then is guilty of implicitly promoting an unduly elevated image of herself, one in which she paints her own person as someone who once managed (if illicitly) to attach to a man of high status, a purportedly extraordinary man of a high power; and it may therefore be said that, in front of Arthur (and herself), she went on to initiate an implicit potential practice of Abstract Positive Person-idolatry with herself for object, with its attribute signifying elevated personal status of a romantic (albeit illegitimate) nature.

If indeed Penny is lying, her act of deception may be captured in script-form as:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Deceptive kind: Level = grievous Moral Crime; Perp = Penny; Victims = Arthur&Wayne&Penny; Audience = Arthur&Penny;

1. Incoming-stage: Penny initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Penny-idolatry:[M] I have had an illicit affair with Thomas Wayne; [M] Arthur was born out of wedlock as a result;
{–} Arthur-idolatry:[M] I am the bastard son of Thomas Wayne and Penny Fleck;
{–} Wayne-idolatry:[M] I have had an illicit affair with Penny when she did work for me; [M] Arthur is my bastard son; 
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Penny initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Penny-idolatry: Superior by Lying to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied to by Penny/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur&Penny-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied about by Penny/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Penny-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Penny/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Penny initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Penny-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied to by Penny/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied about by Penny/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Penny-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Penny/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Penny incurs authentic guilt toward everyone whom she involves in her deception — Wayne, but more so toward Arthur and especially toward Penny herself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, if she is lying, by representing herself in the unduly elevating way which she then does, Penny may be expected to be unwilling to give up her unwarrantedly self-flattering way in which she paints herself; and, as such, may be said to sacrifice reasonability and rationality in the way she represents herself, and in the way she relates to her own being; thus causing her to blind herself to information pertaining to her own person which clashes with her idealized unduly flattering self-image; she makes it harder for herself as well as other people to act with open-minded compassion, patience and protective care aimed at her true person; thus–by wasting her focus on an unreal image of herself, by abandoning living in truth as to her own person–sacrificing some measure of her ability to effectively love herself — her own uncensored, unspun and authentic self.

By the same token, if Penny is lying and yet he believes her, by himself coming out in a correspondingly unduly elevating light which he then does, Arthur may likewise be expected to be (highly) reluctant to give up the unwarrantedly flattering ways in which he now may paint himself as well as his mother; and, as such, may also be said to sacrifice reasonability and rationality in the way he represents and relates to himself as well as his mother; thus causing him to (willfully) blind himself to the kind of personal information which clashes with his idealized unduly flattering self-image and his ditto image of Penny. By misrepresenting himself as well as his mother (in unduly flattering ways), he makes it likewise harder for himself as well as the people exposed to his mischaracterizations to act with open-minded compassion, patience and protective care aimed at his true person and his mother’s; thus–by wasting his focus on unreal images of himself and his mother, by abandoning living in truth as to the two of them–sacrificing some measure of his ability to effectively love himself, his own uncensored, unspun and authentic self as well as his uncensored, unspun and authentic mother.

In terms of actualization, as it stands right now, if Penny is lying, she either is aware of it herself or she isn’t. If she doesn’t know she’s lying, by believing she’s telling the truth as he seems to do, then Arthur quite willingly joins his mother in actualizing her practices by gullibility. If she is aware she is deceiving her son, would she then be willing to actualize her practices by rationalization? — and if so, how?

In terms of conscience, if she in fact is lying, then by trying to lure her son as well as herself away from perfect truth and perfect sanity of mind, while at the same time there clearly is no pending great disaster which might be averted through deception, what she is doing relative to her authentic conscience obviously doesn’t make sense. However, by promoting the impression that she and her son deserve access to more status than fate up until that point had openly granted them, relative to an inauthentic conscience connected to a penchant for status-seeking, her deception seems to make more sense (if only myopically). |17.1)

18.Confrontation at Wayne Manor

That afternoon, Arthur is sitting in a subway train on route to take him outside of Gotham. He’s heading to the estate of Thomas Wayne, intent on trying to meet with–what he now firmly believes is–his real biological father. When he arrives at the manor on foot, he first attracts the attention of the ten-year-old son of Wayne, Bruce — meeting one and other on opposing sides in front of the wrought iron gate. Arthur pulls out his magic wand in a seeming attempt to break the ice, does a few tricks, they exchange first names and Arthur–using his hands through the bars of the gate–ends up touching the face of a nevertheless solemn and expressionless Bruce. He uses his hands to twist the mouth of the kid into a forced artificial smile (not unlike what he once did to himself in front of the vanity over at Ha-Ha’s), a sort of gesture which makes for a rather dubious sight since the lad consistently shows neither sign to want to cooperate or resist.

Indeed, with the boy doing little more than stare vacantly at the entirely unannounced visitor, before long an older man dressed in suit named Alfred suddenly comes hurrying toward Bruce from within the estate and is quick to tell the young master to keep a distance from what to them as yet–in a best case scenario–is but a perfect stranger.

Alfred: (to Bruce) “Get away from that man.“
Arthur: (assuring) “It’s okay. I’m a good guy.“
Alfred: (turns to Arthur) “What are you doing? Who are you?“
Arthur: “I’m here to see Mr Wayne.“
Alfred: (defensive) “Well, you shouldn’t be speaking to his son. Do I need to call the police?“
Arthur: “No, please. My mother’s name is Penny, Penny Fleck. She used to work here, years ago. Can you please tell Mr. Wayne I need to see him?“
Alfred: (color drains from his face) “You are her son?“
Arthur: “Yeah. Did you know her?“
Alfred doesn’t say anything. Arthur puts his face right up against the bars, whispers so the boy can’t hear him–
Arthur: “I know about the two of them. She told me everything.“
Alfred: (demystifying) “There’s nothing to know. There is no ‘them’. Your mother was delusional. She was a sick woman.” (18.1)
Arthur: “Don’t say that.“
Now Alfred leans in closer to Arthur, almost looks like he feels some pity for him–
Alfred: “Just go, before you make a fool of yourself.“
Arthur: (blurts out) “Thomas Wayne is my father–” (18.2)

When Alfred cracks up laughing in the face of the puzzled clown, (18.3) thus inflicting an apparent serious offense aimed at his standing as well as that of his mother, Arthur reaches his eager hands through the bars of the gate, rudely grabs the other by the lapels, pulls him nearer with force and starts choking the perceived as insolent and deceptive valet — but after a few seconds stops and relaxes his harrowing hold when he sees little Bruce, standing several feet away in the background, looking at the attempted strangulation scene in sheer shock. He lets go of Alfred and takes off with haste, running back down the street away from the estate. (18.4)

18.1 In terms of idolatry . . .

Let’s assume that Penny did lie to Arthur about having an affair with Wayne. The string of immoral actions committed by Arthur translate into a string of truncated scripts, with a stage four discussion given at the end; the one committed by Alfred translate into one full script.

(18.1| Arthur seems to rather firmly believe that Alfred is now trying to deceive him, deceptively trying to make him believe that his mother is crazy, that he is not the bastard son of Thomas Wayne, that she all made it up. Since this is what is actually asserted to be the truth (verified later in the story), Arthur merely imagines that Alfred is lying.

i. Imaginary Psychic Abuse of the Deceptive kind: Level = grievous Moral Crime; Perp = Arthur; ImPerp = Alfred; Victims = Arthur&Penny&Wayne; Audience = Alfred&Arthur&Bruce;

1. Imaginary Incoming-stage: Arthur effectively imagines Alfred initiating a potential practice of Abstract…
{–} Penny-idolatry:[X] I was delusional; [M] did not have an illicit affair with Thomas Wayne; [M] Arthur was not born out of wedlock as a result;
{–} Arthur-idolatry:[M] I am not the bastard son of Thomas Wayne and Penny Fleck; [M] I am a fool for believing my mother;
{+} Wayne-idolatry:[M] I have not had an illicit affair with Penny when she did work for me;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Imaginary Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur effectively imagines Alfred initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Alfred-idolatry: Superior by Lying to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied to by Alfred/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied about by Alfred/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Alfred-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Alfred/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Imaginary Rationalization-stage: Arthur effectively imagines Alfred initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Alfred-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied to by Alfred/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied about by Alfred/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Alfred-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Alfred/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs the authentic guilt which he implies to believe Alfred incurs toward everyone whom the valet involves in his alleged act of deception — Bruce, Penny, Wayne but more so toward Arthur and especially toward Alfred himself. Since Penny made him believe the fantastical sort of narrative which inspired his trip to Wayne Manor, based therefore on a erroneous conviction that Alfred is lying to him, the mother deserves to be fingered for having had a facilitating hand in what Arthur is now doing and so deserves to share in the guilt which her son now incurs; |18.1)

(18.2| i. Psychic Abuse of the Deceptive kind: Level = grievous Moral Crime; Perp = Arthur; Victims = Arthur&Wayne&Penny; Audience = Arthur&Alfred&Bruce;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Penny-idolatry:[M] I am not at all delusional; [M] I did have an illicit affair with Thomas Wayne; [M] Arthur was born out of wedlock as a result;
{–} Arthur-idolatry:[X] I am the illegitimate son of Thomas Wayne, [M] and Penny Fleck; [M] I am not at all a fool for believing my mother;
{–} Wayne-idolatry:[M] I have had an illicit affair with Penny when she did work for me; [X] Arthur is my secret son;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Lying to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied to by Arthur/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied about by Arthur/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied to by Arthur/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied about by Arthur/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward everyone whom he involves in his deception — Bruce Wayne, Thomas Wayne, Penny, Alfred, and especially toward Arthur himself. Since Penny made him believe the fantastical sort of narrative which now convinces him that Alfred is lying to him, the mother had a facilitating hand in what Arthur is now doing and so deserves to some degree share in the guilt which her son now incurs; |18.2)

(18.3| i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = dubious Moral Action; Perp = Alfred; Victim = Arthur; Audience = Alfred&Arthur&Bruce;

1. Incoming-stage: Alfred initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{–} Arthur-idolatry:[M] Being ridiculous; not worthy of being taken seriously or sympathetically (at all);
{+} Alfred-idolatry:[M] The opposite of being ridiculous; worthy of being taken seriously and sympathetically;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Alfred initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Alfred-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Alfred-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Alfred/ to Prejudge Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Prejudged by Alfred/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Alfred initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Alfred-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Alfred-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Alfred/ Prejudging Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Alfred/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Alfred incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his nonverbal act of ridiculing Prejudgment — Bruce, but more so toward Arthur and especially toward Alfred himself;

4. In terms of actualization, in his eyes, Alfred is dealing with a fool; and so the valet may only be expected to actualize his own practices; in sharp contrast with Arthur, who must sooner be scratching his head in disbelief as to why Alfred would be so cruel to laugh in his face, humiliating him, having the rude nerve to offhandedly dismiss him into the realm of absurdity and hilarity.

In terms of conscience, by laughing in the stranger visitor’s face, Alfred may be said to exercise a subtle form of power over the other, a power of the dismissive kind. It’s the sort of power that is hard to justify in terms of his authentic conscience since in it there is little love and care for Arthur to be found; but the demeaning gesture makes a whole lot more sense in terms of his possibly existing inauthentic conscience connected to a personal power-seeking practice that would be consistent with his function as a representative of a much more powerful person than himself, Thomas Wayne. In the capacity of being Wayne’s proxy, should the occasion present itself, Alfred could very well see himself authorized to put strangers in their place using (slightly) Golden Rule-perturbing means if need be; and such is what he’s doing right now.

Needless to say, however, in terms of sacrifice, by openly ridiculing Arthur, Alfred does make it a little bit harder for himself to expect a Golden Rule-compliant future interactability with Arthur — he therefore sacrifices some measure of quality in any future relationship with Arthur he might have. |18.3)

(18.4| i. Physical Abuse of the Body kind: Level = Moral Crime; Perp = Arthur; Victim = Alfred; Audience = Arthur&Alfred&Bruce;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward Alfred for grabbing him rudely by the lapels (autonomy supersession) and proceeding to choke him;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Bodily Abusing Alfred/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Bodily Abusing Alfred/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Alfred-idolatry: Inferior by Getting Bodily Abused by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the others of Audience, audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Bodily Abuse Alfred/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Bodily Abusing Alfred/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Alfred-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Bodily Abused by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are cast over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his act of Physical Abuse — Bruce, more so toward Alfred and especially toward Arthur himself. Since Penny made him believe the fantastical sort of narrative which now convinces him that Alfred is lying to him, the mother had a facilitating hand in what Arthur is now doing and so deserves to share in the guilt which her son now incurs;

4. In terms of conscience, the infractions committed by Arthur make no sense in terms of his authentic conscience. However, in terms of his inauthentic conscience connected to a penchant for praise-seeking and power-seeking, Arthur might have reason to feel himself quite entitled to do what he did, as Alfred presented himself to him as an obstacle, and–standing in the way of what he implies to think is rightfully his to have–an annoying one at that. In Arthur’s tormented eyes, Alfred must be evil for supposedly lying to the other about his mother, about Thomas Wayne and the love-affair the two alleged lovebirds were to have had way back in the fifties — and most of all, Alfred would be evil for implying to lie about Arthur himself.

But what if Alfred was right all along? What if his mother had been lying instead?

This latter possibility doesn’t seem to dawn on Arthur, however, as he shows to stubbornly cling on to what to him may very well be a rather irresistibly-attractive egosyntonic delusion appearing as undeniably real as death and taxes; the blissful divinely-sanctioned “truth” that he would be the secret (if bastard) son of an important and powerful industrial magnate, a “fact of life” which automatically would lend significant personal status to him too, a sure stellar improvement of his current pitiful civil and socioeconomic status as struggling professional clown aiming to be a stand-up comedian but whose success is yet to prove fruitful, and who–shamefully enough–is still living with his mother in a state of all but abject poverty.

And so Arthur would have special reason to consider Alfred evil, hating him for effectively being unwilling to recognize the younger other as the concomitantly elevated son of someone important, very important indeed. His mother shows to revere power and Arthur seems just as keen to — something which, of course, happens to fall right in line with his already demonstrated Narcissistic hunger for public recognition, whether coming in the form of personal fame. . . or, if such route to success is ruled out, personal notoriety.

In terms of actualization, it’s no wonder that Arthur seems determined to actualize his own practices [except of course those of script (18.1)]; the personal images built on his practices and which raise both him and his mother a little bit more into pink clouds of celebrity, just seem too attractive to deny and dismiss. Alfred, on the other hand, must be thinking to be dealing with a madman (like mother, like son) than someone deserving to be taken seriously; Wayne’s proxy is therefore not expected to be willing to anywhere near go actualizing the other’s practices, quickly relegated into the realm of self-glorifying and self-congratulatory fantasy.

In terms of sacrifice, by committing the moral infractions which he did, Arthur is only digging himself further-and-further into his egosyntonic fantasies. Courtesy of what his mother told him, if the ideas he has about himself and his mother are built on fanciful makebelieve, then the more he is making a fool of himself, the more he goes out on a limb defending them and committing the infractions which he did along the way. The more he would lie about himself and his mother, the more he sacrifices reasonability and rationality with respect to how he views himself and his mother as well as how he expects other people to view him and his mother. Specifically, by lying to Alfred and by flying at the valet’s throat, Arthur makes it harder for himself to expect future Golden Rule-compliant interactability with Alfred (and to lesser extent, with Bruce as well) — he therefore sacrifices some measure of quality in his possible future relationship with Alfred. |18.4)

19.Mother lands in hospital

When some time in the evening returning to the tenement building housing his home, to his horror, Arthur sees his mother lying motionlessly on a medical stretcher, oxygen cap on, being wheeled into an ambulance. Deciding to join the team of paramedics taking care of her, whom all are as oblivious as him as to what happened, the shook-up off-duty clown gets into the ambulance taking off to hospital.

Later at night, Arthur is sitting on a bench just outside of the hospital smoking a cigarette when two police detectives walk up.

Det. Garrity: “Mr. Fleck, sorry to bother you, I’m Detective Garrity, this is my partner Detective Burke.“
Arthur looks up at them. Doesn’t say anything.
Det. Garrity: “We had a few questions for you, but you weren’t home. So we spoke with your mother.“
Arthur Fleck: “Oh. What did you say to her? Did you do this?“
Det. Garrity: “What? No.“
Det. Burke: “We just asked her some questions and she got hysterical– hyperventilating, collapsed and hit her head pretty hard.“
Arthur Fleck: “Yeah, the doctor said she had a stroke.“
Det. Garrity: “We’re sorry to hear about that. But like I said, I still have some questions for you. They’re about the subway killings that happened last week. You’ve heard about them, right?“
Arthur Fleck: “Yeah. It’s horrible.” (19.1.i)
Det. Garrity: “Right. So we spoke to your boss over at, Ha-Ha’s. He said you were fired for bringing a gun into the children’s hospital. Is that true Mr Fleck?“
Arthur Fleck: “It was a prop. It’s part of my act. I’m a party clown.” (19.1.ii)
Det. Burke: “All right. So why were you fired?“
Arthur Fleck: “They said I wasn’t funny enough. Can you imagine that?” (19.1.iii) (stands up) “Now, if you don’t mind, I have to go take care of my mother.“
The detectives share another look. Detective Burke steps close to him, holds up the card that Arthur handed him–
Det. Burke: “Your boss also gave us one of your cards. This condition of yours, the laughing, is it real or some sort of clown thing?“
Arthur Fleck: “A clown thing?“
Det. Burke: “Yeah, I mean– is it part of your act?“
Arthur Fleck: “What do you think?“

Arthur then walks away, intending to re-enter the hospital, but unexpectedly bumps nose-first into a sliding glass door stubbornly staying shut — no wonder, exit only, it says on the header of the door. He does manage to get in, however, when an itinerant medic makes the sliding door open from the inside, by–indeed–exiting the building. The two detectives silently behold the whole clumsy scene unfold as the self-styled not-funny-enough party clown disappears into the building.

Arthur has lied in this exchange at least twice. First off, he either lied explicitly or by omission when he commented on the murders, ostensibly finding them “horrible“ — in an obvious attempt to evade drawing incriminating attention to himself; lest giving them even the slightest of hints of the actual god-given unadulterated truth, i.e. the personally most meaningful fact of his unusual clown life which to him towers with unequaled splendor above all possible necessarily fake narratives that could be conjured up in the service of describing the killing-event, and that is the soon-to-be-reaffirmed butt-naked truthful psychological reality that he was actually able to draw considerable personal sustenance from executing the murders, considering them to constitute a most significant moment of existential vindication, a source of utmost personal pride and a sure-way ticket to a better existence in terms of access to much coveted glamor and public recognition for his own (Narcissistic) person, his particular praise-probing person.

Secondly, he was fired not for being insufficiently funny but because his boss didn’t tolerate his employee flashing a gun over at a children’s hospital. This is a critical new development, as the detectives now have to decide whom of the two clowns was speaking the truth; and if they do a follow-up interview with Hoyt, it should not take very long to conclude that the boss was not lying (as to the matter at hand, at least). And so since Arthur, by necessity, must have deceived them, the detectives would naturally want to know why; and if the clown would be so good as to come up with a credible alibi: where he was, whom he was with and what he was doing the exact time the murders took place — also, why did he carry that gun anyway?

Hence, by providing himself with a novel reason to dread their pending inquisition already smacking of apparent vengeance, anxiously anticipating their right-off-the-bat uncomfortable sort of their follow-up inquiries, Arthur has provided himself with a resilient reason to henceforth resent meeting the two detectives again in the future.

19.1 In terms of idolatry . . .

(19.1| By lying twice to the detectives, by seeking to promote into the minds of all present–but especially the deliberately-misled two detectives–an image impression of himself in which he effectively was twice more innocent than would be consistent with the sober reality, i.e. an image impression in which the truth as to his person was distorted twice in for him egosyntonically beneficial ways, it may be said that Arthur initiated an implicit as well as explicit potential practice of Abstract Positive Person-idolatry with himself being its object, having two attributes of deception: 1) not being the subway murderer at all [implicitly]; and 2) fired for not being funny enough [explicitly].

In addition, Arthur implies that–between the two of them–his boss had been lying, ostensibly firing Arthur for not being funny enough, and as such–by painting his boss to be more guilty than would be permitted by the sober reality–the clown may also be said to have initiated an implicit potential practice of Abstract Negative Hoyt-idolatry, having as attribute of deception: having fired Arthur over lack of being funny.

In more comprehensive script-form, Arthur’s twin-deception may be rendered as follows:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Deceptive kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Arthur; Victims = Arthur&Hoyt; Audience = Arthur&DGarrity&DBurke;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry:[X] I find those subway murders horrible; [M] Therefore I have nothing to do with them; [X] Hoyt fired me for not being funny enough;
{–} Hoyt-idolatry:[M] I fired Arthur for not being funny enough;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Lying to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied to by Arthur/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied about by Arthur/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the others of Audience, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied to by Arthur/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied about by Arthur/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward everyone whom he involves in his deception — DGarrity, DBurke, but more so toward Hoyt and especially toward Arthur himself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, by lying to the detectives about himself and his boss, by incurring authentic guilt and for seeing to an increase in inner tension in order to brace himself for their subsequent reproach or revenge, all for coming out looking relatively good at the expense of his boss coming out looking relatively bad, Arthur makes it more difficult for himself to now relate to the detectives as well as Hoyt in a state of (honest and fair) Golden Rule-compliance. As such, Arthur causes himself to sacrifice some measure of quality in his potential relationship with the detectives as well as his now-former boss.

In terms of conscience, his attempts to draw both detectives away from objective truth and away from perfect sanity, do not make sense relative to Arthur’s authentic conscience, but make a whole lot more sense when trying to steer clear from the reach of the law. Arthur clearly has something to hide and may be said to launch his deception in order to avoid the shame of getting caught. Hence, his deception does make sense in terms of his inauthentic conscience connected to a habit of shame-avoidance.

In terms of actualization, if we presume that Arthur is aware that he is lying to the detectives, he will be prone to actualize his practices by rationalization on the basis that such had been necessary in order to mislead the detectives and keep them at a for him comfortable enough distance. As to whether the professionally skeptical detectives would actually be gullible enough to believe Arthur’s side of the story remains to be seen of course, and so it cannot be said that they would succumb to actualize his practices by gullibility. |19.1)

20.Humiliated by Murray for everyone to see

It’s late at night, still in the hospital, sitting on a small visitor’s bench next to his bedridden mother, a depressed Arthur is staring vacantly into space, barely responsive. Sophie has joined him in the meantime, but–with him sitting stooped forward while she is sitting normally with her back to the back of the bench–he shows to be too distraught to be socially engaged with her. His mother is still unconscious, oxygen mask still on, hooked up to what seems like a life-support machine.

Sophie: “She’s gonna be okay.“
He just nods. Lost in thought.
Sophie: “I’m going to get some coffee? You want one?“
He nods again. As Sophie walks out, we hear Murray Franklin from the TV set bolted high up on the wall.
Murray Franklin: “So I told my youngest son, Billy, you know, the new one, the ‘not so bright’ one,–“
Murray is in the middle of doing his monologue.
Murray Franklin: (laughter) “I told him that the garbage strike is still going on. And he says, and I’m not kidding, Billy says, ‘So where are we gonna get all our garbage from?’“
Murray cracks up at his own joke. Studio audience laughs — Arthur too, and the television goes on to capture his full suddenly lightened-up attention.
Murray Franklin: “And finally, in a world where everyone thinks they could do my job, we got this videotape from the Gotham Comedy Club. Here’s a guy who thinks if you just keep laughing, it’ll somehow make you funny. Check out this joker.“ (20.1.i)

The TV proceeds to show a recording of someone coming on stage and immediately is confronted with the troublesome and embarrassing task of overcoming a tenacious laughing fit gripping him by the throat, even before being able to decently introduce himself, let alone crack his first joke. Arthur soon realizes that he is watching himself on TV. Seeing his recent maiden appearance at gogo’s Comedy Club right here on television, makes him jolt into a higher state of awareness.

He rises to his feet and goes to stand right in front of the television set to make sure he doesn’t miss a frame or beat of what’s coming next. This might be a most defining moment in his otherwise uneventful life, a potential breakthrough opportunity of epic proportions, getting to have free advertisement of the highest possible quality right here on his favorite television show, courtesy of his favorite host.

Arthur (ON TV): (trying to stop himself from laughing) “— good evening, hello.“ (deep breath; trying to stop laughing) “Good to be here.“ (keeps cracking up) “I, I hated school as a kid. But my mother would always say,–“ (bad imitation of his mom, still laughing) “You should enjoy it. One day you’ll have to work for a living.“ (laughs) “No I won’t, Ma. I’m gonna be a comedian!“
Back in the hospital, seeing his own appearance, makes Arthur laugh out loudly. But on TV, Murray Franklin–in sharp contrast–is only left shaking his head, trying not to laugh.
Murray Franklin: (sarcastic) “You should have listened to your mother.” (20.1.ii)
The studio audience erupts into laughter. Here is Arthur, taking it all in right beside his bedridden and unresponsive mother, watching Murray Franklin make fun of him on TV. The smile he had been showing melts away and is replaced by an increasingly stern expression. This can’t be real: his hero, his idol, suddenly turning Judas, stabbing him in the back like Brutus, and for all of Gotham to see.
Murray Franklin: “One more, Bobby. Let’s see one more. I love this guy.“
Another moment of Arthur at the comedy club plays–
Arthur (ON TV): “It’s funny, when I was a little boy and told people I wanted to be a comedian, everyone laughed at me.“ (opens his arms like a big shot) “Well, no one is laughing now.“
Dead silence. Nobody is laughing. Not even him.The TV camera then closes in on Murray Franklin, just shaking his head.
Murray Franklin (ON TV): “You can say that again, pal!” (20.1.iii)
Murray cracks up and the studio audience laughs along with him.

Arthur, back in the hospital, while staring at the television set, is left with a similarly empty sort of depressed look he had just a few minutes ago, but it now also shows the clear beginnings of resentment, indeed, hatred.

Here is Murray, his brightly shining idol, doing the exact opposite of what Arthur had hoped he would do, at the very least do a little pro-bono promotional work for what is–after all–one of his biggest fans, if not THE biggest. But oh no, on the contrary, let’s instead casually prove to do the very opposite when showing to have no qualms at all, moreover, even having the rude gall, to make fun of him, his perfect fan, his most worshipful devotee; and not just that, but, adding insult to injury, also doing it for all to see right here on television. It must therefore be extra painful to have to withstand not just his big hero, but the entire audience as well, and–by worst-case-scenario extension–all of Gotham, laughing at him, ridiculing him, implicitly shaming him for what they all imply to believe is his pathetically worthless attempt at stand-up comedy.

The irony on top of a heavy foundation of humiliation, is palpable. Here he was, just minutes ago, dryly lying through his teeth when declaring to the police detectives outside, that he supposedly was fired for not being funny enough; and now it is confirmed, all out in the demeaning open, potentially in front of all of Gotham, that he might as well have been telling them the truth. At least, on a minor bright side, the fantastical components in the story he shared with the detectives have now been fashioned with a little extra dose of credibility, though such turn of events was clearly unforeseen by Arthur.

In effect, in Arthur’s eyes at least, Murray is guilty of no less an offense than altogether destroying his prospects of becoming a successful stand-up comedian, because the way he sees it, with a bit of bad luck, everyone in Gotham will have reason to seize any random future opportunity to go and ridicule Arthur — his image as aspiring professional comedian therefore tanked, ruined, carelessly shattered into a thousand painful pieces; all thanks to the one person he until that point in time had idolized, worshiped, sanctified, the one person whom he looked up to; indeed, the one person who functioned as his beloved and idealized father figure (if remote and removed by belonging to the ivory-tower sort of world of pixelated media entertainment).

20.1 In terms of idolatry . . . Murray humiliates Arthur by televised ridicule

(20.1| The host asserts that Arthur would be someone, some kind of joker, who supposedly operates on the belief that it is funny to laugh merely for the hell of it. Murray thus takes a character trait of Arthur, his volatile propensity for laughter, and–rather than acknowledging that this might, in principle, be due to some delicate sympathy-requiring underlying psychopathological condition the host is as yet not aware of (a sort of laughter counterpart of Tourette’s)–then goes on to superciliously presume that the aspiring comedian does this willfully in order to make himself appear funny.

First off, Murray evidently is not only unwilling to actualize Arthur’s effectively initiated practices (see section 16) apparently serving to raise himself up by ridiculing his audience through expressing his laughing fit, the host goes so far as to be inspired to flip the other’s practices upside down, using the fit as inspirational ammo to precisely ridicule Arthur in retaliation. Furthermore, rather than airing his egosyntonically-distorted image impression of Arthur “only” in front of a live audience, however, which would do enough damage already, Murray is sure to tremendously magnify the pack of his punch aimed at the amateur comedian’s fragile glass-jaw sort of Narcissistic chin by casually broadcasting his toxic take of Arthur across every television-outfitted household in Gotham that happens to have their TV-set switched on and which also happens to be tuned in to his show at that particular time (or who went to record the show on the VCR they might have, only to watch it later).

Since Murray’s advertised image impression of Arthur is meant to trigger shame and ridicule (negative) instead of praise and admiration (positive), it may be said that–by broadcasting said image impression not just across a live audience but also across an untold large number of Gotham’s households–Murray initiated an arbitrarily potent implicit potential practice of Abstract Negative Arthur-idolatry, with attributes being: 1) laughing for the hell of it, in a vain and ridiculous attempt to appear funny, 2) being cut of no comedian material at all. And when I write arbitrarily potent, I mean the large yet unknown number of people who ended up exposed to Murray’s televised poisonous abstract Pidol based on Arthur.

In more comprehensive script-format, Murray’s prejudicial action may be described as:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = dubious Moral Action; Perp = Murray; Victims = Murray&Arthur; Audience = Arthur&Murray&LiveAudience20&TVAudience20;

The sets LiveAudience20 versus TVAudience20 consist of all the members of his live audience (concerning this chapter) versus all the people who watch this show via television, respectively. 

1. Incoming-stage: Murray initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Murray-idolatry:[M] Even though “everyone” may think they could do my job, no-one can do it like I can or as good as I can; [M] I’m an authority when it comes to vetting aspiring comedians;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: [X] I am funny merely for laughing if unprovoked; [X] Should have listened to my mother and chosen another line of business; [M] No comedic talent; 
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Murray initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Murray-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging Murray&Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Murray-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Murray/ to Prejudge Murray&Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Prejudged by Murray/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Murray exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the others of Audience, and audially to self; Arthur exposes PrimePidol audially to himself;

3. Rationalization-stage: Murray initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Murray-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge Murray&Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Murray-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Murray/ Prejudging Murray&Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Murray/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Murray incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his act of Prejudgment — LiveAudience20&TVAudience20, but more so toward Arthur and especially toward Murray himself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, it’s obvious that Murray’s dissemination of his demeaning image impression of Arthur via television may trigger in the latter a sense of crucial loss in comedy-career potential; rather than indulging in a televised occasion in which he was going to be lauded for his joking ability as he hoped he would, Arthur himself is made a laughing stock instead. As such, Murray ends up sacrificing (some significant measure of) quality in his potential relationship with Arthur. Especially seen in Arthur’s fragile eyes, Murray had made a tremendous leap downwards in terms of esteem, tumbling at free fall speeds from a lofty and celestial brightly lit-up Mount Olympus sort of height of attributed importance all the way down to the gutter, dark and shady.

If they run into each-other in the future, it would be (unimaginably) more difficult from Arthur’s end, to interact–and sustain interacting–with Golden Rule-compliant friendliness toward one another. Murray is partly to blame for such unfortunate sort of development, although Arthur himself–by way of previously positively idolizing Murray, for unreasonably upping the ante of his expectations with respect to the host, and also for his inability to rationalize away his sustained slight–is also responsible for such sad turn of events.

In terms of actualization and conscience, Murray and an unknown portion of his audience imply by their evidently dismissive behavior to have no difficulty actualizing the host his practices. Although what Murray is doing to Arthur on stage is dubious in terms of his authentic conscience, it makes more sense in terms of his inauthentic conscience connected to a thematic practice of Praise-seeking and also Power-seeking Self-idolatry; as his joking episode at the expense of Arthur (the Joker) gives the host a self-serving chance to earn him praise from his (live) audience as well as letting everyone know just how exactly he deals with aspiring comics whom in his eyes are just no way near funny enough.

In Arthur’s eyes, what Murray is doing is more than just airing a few jokes at the clown’s expense; the entertainment star is acting as his judge, ruling with a cold and callous rod of iron that Arthur can never become a comedian: not funny enough, end of story. Owing to his prior commitment to idolize Murray, Arthur was more-or-less forced to take to heart what Murray was saying about him; who may very well, at least initially, have chosen to actualize Murray’s practices. And so when Murray supposedly told him he had no future in comedy, Arthur saw himself forced to accept such nevertheless prejudicial verdict. Owing to his vulnerable mental disposition, one that is compromised in its ability to rationalize away personal slights as well as criticism aimed at his person, the resulting psychic devastation is huge. The core tragedy of Arthur is that he is incapable of being guided by his own autonomy; and instead is deeply reliant on cues coming from outside people as to his person and as to what direction his life should take and what he should do in life; even if such cues are highly prejudicial, circumstantial (relative and temporary) and the people emitting them do not really know Arthur — and so couldn’t possibly, in any decent and sound capacity, act as his judge of personal life (deciding for him, personal questions of an existential nature). |20.1)

As to why Murray stoops to reckless prejudice in his evaluation of Arthur is that it gives the host a chance to be funny himself, amusement going at the expense of the sort of person they all seem to have settled on only deserves to be made fun of (which makes the comic host out to be a bit of a sadist, albeit arguably of a more-or-less tongue-in-cheek kind, typical for comedians). Murray, after all, asserted at the start of his bit about Arthur that the (particular sort of) world of which the host speaks, would be one where everyone thinks they can do his job, thus suggesting to believe (if jokingly) that people are prone to take his job lightly, that “everyone“ thinks they could go on stage and joke around and shoot the shit (as good as him), an implied-to-be no-big-deal trivial sort of job. By brutally putting down Arthur in front of–with a bit of bad dramatic luck–all of Gotham, Murray effectively seizes the opportunity to show who’s the boss around town, who’s the true King of Comedy, sitting on a kind of throne that has room for only one king (to put it melodramatically).

Seen from Murray’s vantage point, the likes of Arthur–the comics they sell themselves to be–would normally have valid reason to laugh only if it were in response to an expression of a joke. Since Arthur hadn’t yet said anything that could pass for one, here he is nonetheless already laughing — which stands to make him look instantly suspicious in the eyes of Murray. As such, it might be tempting for Murray to consider Arthur himself to be the joke in focus and so the somewhat pejorative appellation of Joker seems fitting, someone whose mere stereotypically ridiculous appearance is to draw laughter rather than the actual words that might come out of his (or her) mouth.

In addition, Murray might be led to believe–just like the mother with the child in the bus, or the three Wall Street guys–when confronted with an Arthur suddenly bursting out in laughter, that he would do so in order to convey ridicule as to the particular people he laid his eyes on; his bouts of laughter then seemed implicit and non-verbal put-down acts. Hence, Murray might be led to take offense, however slightly or subtly, to Arthur’s seemingly unprovoked and undeserved exercise of ridicule apparently now targeting the audience at hand, since there simply were no other people around. Murray’s put-down response to Arthur’s admittedly mediocre performance would then automatically have retaliatory overtones; in which Murray shows indirect sympathy for Arthur’s own apparently slighted audience — vengeance for the latter’s seeming attempts to kick off his gig by first ridiculing his very own audience, and for no good reason whatsoever, right off-the-bat, before even airing his first joke, or what was to pass for one.

Murray, after all, knows like no other the inherent virtue and merit–the blessed outright luxury–of disposing over a live audience. Indeed, if it were up to Murray, Arthur should sooner get down on his grateful knees and cry tears of joy for even getting to have the opportunity of a bunch of people taking out their (precious) spare time, making the effort to come on over to gogo’s and act as his audience. Murray, vigilant and protective Murray, standing up for and defend that which matters to him (perhaps eagerly so), may be expected to place a great deal of worth and esteem in the concept of an audience, in the idea of being able to possess a live audience as well as a TV audience. Seeing himself therefore perfectly-sympathetic to the general phenomenon called the audience, what’s good for an audience – any audience, is good for Murray; versus what’s bad for an audience – any audience, is bad for Murray; audiences are his lifeblood as they feed his fame and fortune.

In all fairness though, as to whether Murray also really is serious about his televised treatment of Arthur, remains to be seen of course. He is a professional comedian after all, one who evidently does not shy away from making fun of even his own children on air and also, as we shall find out later, about his own self for that matter. That’s why it might just be in everybody’s interest to not so readily letting their knickers or panties get in a bunch, and instead take what Murray is saying with a healthy grain of salt.

20.2 In terms of idolatry . . . Arthur retaliates by Mentally Murdering Murray

However, Arthur himself evidently fails to see Murray’s treatment of him as lighthearted as it perhaps was intended; he seems rather unable to recognize it for the joke Murray might very well make it out to be, albeit of an arguably rather low-blow (sadistic) type. Indeed, if we take into account Arthur’s sensitivity about his image, his self-confessed rather desperate need to be noticed by other people in order to feel alive, it is unlikely that Arthur is able to rationalize away the sting of Murray’s initiation of a widely-publicized implicit potential practice of Abstract Negative Person-idolatry with him being its object and therefore coming at his cardinal expense.

Arthur’s main anxiety would then naturally be that people, after watching the show, will be henceforth seeing (noticing!) him in the ridiculous and dimwitted light that mocking Murray makes him out to be. His worry, his very real and pronounced anxiety, would be that Murray is out to tarnish his reputation, indeed, obliterate it, smash it to smithereens; terrified that Murray’s potential compound-practice of Abstract Negative Arthur-idolatry had turned into actualized compound-counterparts for however many of Gotham’s residents, i.e. the for Arthur nightmarish scenario in which an arbitrarily substantial number of viewers went to decide adopting and committing to mind Murray’s toxic mental Pidols about Arthur.

And when tongue-in-cheek targets of Murray’s televised tongue-in-cheek cheap shots fail to rationalize away their tongue-in-cheek victimhood (by otherwise interpreting it within the context of easy-going comedy and keeping it there), that’s when things get iffy, real quickly.

In order to process what he now finds is a terrible act of betrayal of the highest order, in order to hang on to some semblance of self-honor and sense of self-worth, Arthur will see himself forced (as well as fully vindicated) to retaliate and redeem the assault on his image by firstly radically altering his own idolatrous interpretation of Murray. Whereas pre-incident-wise the celebrated host was positively idolized in Arthur’s mind, he will now post-incident-wise end up negatively idolized. As a person-idolatrous object of worship, Murray–in Arthur’s mind–is thus subjected to an abrupt polarity reversal, rapidly transitioning from plus (positive) to minus (negative).

By initiating a novel private (strictly self-actualized) practice of Abstract Negative Murray-idolatry, with attributes–though undisclosed–which will no doubt be drenched in hatred for Murray, Arthur has now provided himself with a tool (ego-defense mechanism) to bring down his former hero from his once lofty mental pedestal by progressively minimizing his mental appreciation of Murray. In the service of dealing with the host’s effectively devastating treatment of him, Arthur is keen to strike back by as-of-now starting to mentally shame the other — seeking to ultimately altogether nullify Murray in his mind, and thereby hoping to ultimately altogether nullify the caustic effects of the host’s treacherous treatment of one of his greatest of fans; the almost mathematical argument behind such trick of the mind simply being: when ideally zero (fully-nullified) regard may be given to the person issuing an otherwise grave sort of insult, then likewise ideally zero (fully-nullified) regard may be given to said insult, thus ideally having zero (fully-nullified) mental impact on the victim.

In terms of sacrifice, by suddenly starting to bomb out Murray in his mind, by working hand-over-fist to flip his appreciation of the host right on its head, it’s obvious that Arthur sacrifices from his end a significant amount of quality in his potential real-life relationship with Murray. And so, should they now run into each-other in real life, without clearing up between them the matter that has now arisen, it will also be (infinitely) harder from Arthur’s end to socially interact with his former idol in an ultimately Golden Rule-compliant sort of way.

Again, Arthur ends up being punished for trying to seemingly do good, for having put what to him was his best foot forward trying to make people laugh, serving the buoyant yet principledly noble goal–drilled into him since infancy by his mother–of spreading joy and laughter in the world around him, which by its jovial spirits-uplifting function does intrinsically have positive Karmic merits tied to it (the power to make people enjoy themselves through laughter). It is becoming clear to him, in his unfortunately not so flexible and ditto self-confident mind–in which an eager love-guided drive to learn and improve skills seems painfully lacking, just like an ability to sustain personal criticism–that his chances of making a name for himself by doing good are annihilated, over and done with, gone forever and ever.

The notion that Arthur is most of all interested in making a name for himself, is once again confirmed when it turned out that the presence of Sophie left him virtually indifferent – sitting away from her, not looking at her, barely showing interest in her; whereas when Murray came on TV, merely cracking the first corny joke, the clown–as if recognizing a fellow clown suddenly dawning–magically perked up, his mood instantly brightening up. It goes to show that Murray, even though not being tangibly present, took up a (far) more important role in Arthur’s life than Sophie does and probably ever will, even though she is very much physically present in his life even.

The question remains, will Sophie become wise to her persistently–and, for all practical purposes, unalterably–marginal role in Arthur’s life? It would have been interesting, when she returns to the room with the coffee she said she was going to get, to be able to gauge her reaction to Arthur’s change of demeanor following Murray’s (widely) televised butchering of his name together with seemingly obliterating his overall prospects to become a comic. It remains to be seen however, if Arthur would even be willing to show his true emotional state to Sophie, since he might be too much in shock, quite paralyzed by overwhelming embarrassment and all that Murray’s apparent betrayal would entail; possibly fearing–keeping in mind his sensitivity for his image, apprehensive about the way other people notice him–that she might lose respect for him if coming out all covered in pixelated tar and feathers, for all to see, in front of potentially all of Gotham, all that dreadfully-deflating shame soiling him six ways from Sunday.

As far as Arthur is concerned, by both of them offhandedly passing votes of no confidence as to his stand-up aspirations, Murray and Penny now unwittingly have in common to be in a state of antagonism with respect to the clown rapidly turning vindictive and spiteful — and this does not bode well for either one of them.

Even though Arthur as yet seems to possess little conscious control over his laughing fits, there nevertheless is a sense of Karmic justice tied to the occasion of him experiencing what it is like to be on the receiving end of apparent ridiculing laughter; to end up getting a taste of his own medicine; to find out what it’s like to be made fun of the way he appears to make fun of other people. The fact that such an experience is (undeniably) egodystonic, rather than generating reflexive vindictiveness, a dying thirst for revenge, it could also be used as an ultimately beneficial opportunity for transcendental self-growth.

Indeed, if Arthur would be more in tune with his authentic conscience, the fact that someone now has made fun of him, after having recovered from the blow, such might serve to inspire meditative self-reflection in him as he now knows (like no other) what it feels like to be ridiculed. It’s the egodystonic sort of occasion which he could then use to enlighten his own moral character, especially its shady sadistic aspects — and might ultimately even serve to make him more empathic in general with respect to other people who have the misfortune of likewise being subjected to ridicule.

In addition, while he might not be in a position to right away see to a lifting of his Tourette-like laughing-fit affliction, it could just-the-same serve to sufficiently humble him into realizing that ultimately it was he who needed to change for the better, instead of building up ever more resentment toward his paternal idol as well as his mother for them having stated what really is but the obvious: the tough but fair truth, pointing to a universally just sort of rule — that (technical) skills and proficiency worth bragging over tend to take an ample amount of prior training and dedication of time: blood – sweat and tears; that something worth having in life tends to not come easy, and nor that it should for that matter, lest creating hard-to-please hordes of spoiled little brats. . . although, needless to say, being blessed with useful talents does help in the skill-development department.

21.Collective resentment building in the city reaching boiling point

Late in the evening, Arthur is back home, lying motionlessly in his mother’s bed — lethargic and dispirited; the television is on but he only starts paying noticeable attention to it when the 11 o’clock news comes on and a woman reporter announces, “As tensions mount in the metro area, mayor Stokes has pleaded for cooler heads to prevail. City services have been affected and some businesses have decided to remain closed amid the unrest. Chuck Stevens filed this report–”

Arthur slowly rises, goes to sit upright in front of the TV set and turns up the volume to hear more clearly what the news anchor has to say.

Chuck Stevens: “The anger and resentment that’s been building in the city for weeks seems close to exploding. Protesters, many dressed as clowns, took to the streets today in one of several planned demonstrations taking on the city’s elite. Including a massive rally outside tomorrow night’s Benefit at Wayne Hall.“
On the television a crowd of protesters can be seen, a few wearing Arthur’s clown mask are being interviewed.
“CLOWN” PROTESTER #2: (screaming into camera) “[Beep] the rich, [beep] Thomas Wayne, that’s what this whole [beeping] thing is about! [beep] the whole system.“
Thomas Wayne now being interviewed on the plaza in front of Wayne Tower–
Chuck Stevens: “Wayne, who recently announced he is running for mayor, will be attending the Benefit. You might remember, it was Thomas Wayne who first referred to many of Gotham’s residents as clowns. Today, he offered little in the way of an apology.“
Thomas Wayne: “Well, what I will say is, there’s something wrong with those people. I’m here to help them. I want to lift them out of poverty, help make their lives better. That is why I’m running. They may not realize it, but I’m their only hope.” (21.1)

Again, Wayne resorts to self-glorifying prejudice by asserting that all those who oppose him–the noble and exclusive savior of Gotham–do not do so for any valid and honorable reason at all; leaving it not being his fault at all, nothing to do with him whatsoever; rather they–the resisters–are the ones malfunctioning, there’s something wrong with them – not him; they themselves are the ones to blame – not him; thus conveniently wholly denying any need from his own end to admit having any personal culpability for the escalating crisis gripping the city ever more tightly in its catastrophic clutches.

Wayne shows once again unable to resist the ego-stroking temptation to place the blame for the aggravating city-wide crisis entirely outside of his own person — when he himself, in stark contrast with his self-aggrandizing self-whitewashing asserted take of how things stand, every time he makes a public appearance like the one he’s making right now, actually actively works to widen the divide between the wealthy elite versus what he infers to be the unwashed and uncouth working class masses, the automatically problematic little people, Gotham’s putrefying poverty burden: uniformly violent, envious and cowardly.

21.1 In terms of idolatry . . .

(21.1| With respect to the alleged (socioeconomic) fate of the poor people of Gotham, by claiming that he would be “their only hope“, by therefore declaring to be their sole savior, Wayne seeks to raise the attributable functional importance of his own person to lofty exclusive heights while simultaneously trying to lower the attributable functional importance of all other relevant people who might likewise have a credible shot at improving the alleged fate of the poor people, including the ones who hail from the ranks of the poor people themselves, the type of demographic which he earlier deridingly referred to as “nothing but clowns“ — who would be virtually helpless by definition, albeit by his own definition. By explicitly asserting himself to be Gotham’s savior while casually denying such exemplary role of noble exaltation to categorically everybody else, Wayne shows to initiate an explicit potential practice of Abstract Positive Person-idolatry with himself being the object of worship, having attributes that baptize him as the exclusive savior of Gotham.

The fact that he idolizes himself, basically seeing himself as Gotham’s virtual Messiah, as well as wanting as many other people as possible to join him in the exercise of idolatry based on his own person, goes to conveniently blind him ever more from another already-broached most worrisome fact, which is that he himself to significant extent has been responsible for creating the dire societal problem that he now seeks to solve, as the proverbial pyromaniacal yet shortsighted fireman he actually goes around acting like.

In comprehensive script-format, Wayne’s act of prejudgment victimizing also himself (since he also includes his own person in his prejudice) reads:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = dubious Moral Action; Perp = Wayne; Victims = Wayne&Arthur&Protesters; Audience = Wayne&TeamChuck&Arthur&TVAudience21;

The set TeamChuck is comprised of all the people involved in recording and broadcasting Wayne’s interview, apart from Wayne himself; the set TVAudience21 consists of all the people tuning in to the show that Arthur is tuned in too, apart from Arthur himself as well as any possible members of TeamChuck; The set Protesters consists of all the people out there protesting right now; 

1. Incoming-stage: Wayne initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Wayne-idolatry:[X] I am the only hope for the (mask-wearing) protesters, [M] and the poor people of Gotham in general;
{–} Arthur&Protesters-idolatry: [X] There is something wrong with me, [M] should accept help from Wayne, the Savior of Gotham;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Wayne initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Wayne-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging Victims/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Wayne-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Wayne/ to Prejudge Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Prejudged by Wayne/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Wayne exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the others of Audience, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Wayne initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Wayne-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge Victims/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Wayne-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Wayne/ Prejudging Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur&Protesters-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Wayne/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Wayne incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his act of Prejudgment — TeamChuck&TVAudience21, but more so toward Arthur&Protesters and especially toward Wayne himself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, by promoting Abstract Positive Person-idolatry of his own person, by placing himself on a lofty celestial pedestal like some majestic sort of Archon overseeing the entirety of the city of Gotham (including metro-area), Wayne goes to sacrifice rationality and reasonability with respect to his self-perception, and with respect to how he expects other people to approach him. In addition, he goes to sacrifice his willingness to potentially recognize other people who might make a dent as to solving the societal problems now plaguing Gotham.

In terms of actualization and conscience, Wayne’s rash declaration exclusively favoring himself as Gotham’s savior, while dismissing everyone else to the ranks of problem-solving superfluity, makes little to no sense with respect to his authentic conscience; but makes more sense in terms of his inauthentic conscience connected to a penchant for praise-seeking. Blinded by his own Narcissism, Wayne is expected to be (dying to be) the first to actualize the idolatry practices which tout his own person (yet seeing his factual act of prejudgment not as such, but rather only one of sound judgment). The suckers from section 15 tuning in to the show who also happen to be on Wayne’s side, are likewise expected to actualize his practices. Arthur and the protesters as well as all the viewers who are sympathetic to the protesters and the mysterious killer clown, will not be expected to actualize Wayne’s practices. |21.1)

22.Confronting Thomas Wayne inside of Wayne Hall

That next day, at dusk, Arthur is making his way through a screaming and shouting mob of angry protesters that has assembled in down-town Gotham right in front of Wayne Hall, the Center for Performing Arts. The irate crowd is prevented from charging and bum-rushing the Hall, however, by way of strategically-placed barricades commanded by lots of policemen and security guards working hard to keep them at a distance. Many of the protesters are wearing “clown face” masks inspired by Arthur’s lethal lone wolf action the other night, since deemed heroic and just–indeed–noble by the protesters. Showing to positively idolize “the clown” and negatively idolize Wayne, they are chanting slogans like “Down with Wayne“; and a few of them are holding up home-made partisan signs that carry rallying cries, positively idolizing ones such as: “We Are ALL Clowns“, “Clown for Mayor“, versus negatively idolizing ones like: “Kill the Rich” and “Fuck Wayne“.

With scuffles going on between protesters and police, as all this simmering unrest manages to absorb the attention of the entire security detail, Arthur is able to cleverly exploit all the distracting outside chaos by slipping unnoticedly into the building through an unguarded side-entrance. Once inside, he succeeds to further minimize the chances of any unwanted nosy eyes being brought down upon his person, by sneaking into a change room for bellboy personnel and, a minute later, coming out dressed as one. This disguise enables him to pass through the massive multi-level lobby in wholly undetected fashion, due in part to a perfect absence of security personnel (whom all must have been called outside). He ascends the wide lobby staircase to enter the main hall through a second-level entrance.

For a moment, Arthur is diverted by the mesmerizing magic coming from the huge silver screen now hanging right in front of him–playing Charlie Chaplin’s, Modern Times–but pulls himself back on track after happening to spot Thomas Wayne sitting with his wife in one of the peripheral balconies. When his target–the man who is supposed to be his real biological father–stands up to leave, Arthur likewise exits the main hall and sets out to look for the VIP. He finds him in one of the opulent bathrooms, undoes himself of his bellboy disguise and timidly approaches Wayne, who is busy relieving himself at the end of an open and otherwise vacated row of urinals.

With Arthur standing there in the middle of the bathroom in his shabby clothes and with a look of hesitant anticipation on his face, it does not take long before Wayne notices him, what must strike Gotham’s wannabe savior as an instantly unlikely newcomer to the posh and plush establishment they find themselves in.

Thomas Wayne: (glances over; annoyed) “Can I help you, pal?“
Arthur Fleck: “I don’t know what to say.“
Wayne finishes, zips his fly back up, walks passed the insignificant other and moves over to one of the sinks to wash his hands.
Thomas Wayne: (interrupting) “You want an autograph or something?“
Arthur does not respond as the significant other walks passed him. He instead tentatively follows his allegedly real father to the sink area.
Arthur Fleck: “My name is Arthur. Penny Fleck is my mother.“
Thomas looks over at him like he’s fucking crazy.
Thomas Wayne: “Jesus. You’re the guy who came to my house yesterday.“
Arthur nods, relieved he finally broke through.
Arthur: “Yes. I’m sorry I just showed up, but my mother told me everything and I had to talk to you.“
Wayne grabs a tissue to dry his hands.
Thomas Wayne: “Look pal, I’m not your father.“ (chuckles) “What’s wrong with you?” (22.1.i)
Arthur Fleck: “Look at us. I think you are.“
Thomas Wayne: “Well, that’s impossible, because you were adopted. And I never slept with your mother.” (22.1.ii)
Arthur Fleck: “I wasn’t adopted.“ (22.2.i)
Thomas Wayne: “What do you want from me, money?“
Arthur Fleck: “No, I don’t. . . I wasn’t adopted.” (22.2.ii)
Thomas Wayne: (taken aback) “Jesus. She never told you?“
Arthur Fleck: (indignant) “Told me what?“
Thomas Wayne: (sighs) “Your mother adopted you while she was working for us.“ (22.1.iii)
Arthur Fleck: (getting annoyed) “That’s not true. Why are you saying that?“ (22.2.iii)
Thomas Wayne: “She was arrested and committed to Arkham State Hospital when you were just a little boy.” (22.1.iv)
Arthur Fleck: (rising temper) “Whoa, whoa. Why are you saying this? I don’t need you to tell me lies. I know it seems strange. I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I don’t know why everyone is so rude. I don’t know why you are. I don’t want anything from you. Maybe a little bit of warmth. Maybe a hug, DAD! How about a little bit of fucking decency?! What is it with you people?!! You say that stuff about my mother!!” (22.2.iv)
Thomas Wayne: (cocksure) “She’s crazy.“
Arthur starts laughing, frantically, madly. (22.3)
Thomas Wayne: (insulted) “You think this is funny?“
Arthur: (laughing loudly) “Dad! It’s me!“ (laughs louder) (22.2.iv)
Thomas Wayne punches Arthur straight in the face with his free hand, blood spraying from his nose– (22.4)
Thomas Wayne: “Touch my son again, and I’ll fucking kill you.” (22.5)

22.1 In terms of idolatry . . .

Let’s again assume, and this will be verified a little bit further down the story, that Wayne was telling the truth; and that Arthur therefore (unconsciously) was promoting lies and in such capacity was effectively engaged in lying. Arthur’s first of three immoral actions is an imagined one, he imagines Wayne is lying to him. Arthur’s imagining of Wayne’s deception may be described in truncated script-form as:

(22.1| i. Imaginary Psychic Abuse of the Deceptive kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Arthur; ImPerp = Wayne; Victims = Arthur&Penny&Wayne; Audience = Arthur&Wayne;

1. Imaginary Incoming-stage: Arthur imagines Wayne initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Wayne-idolatry:[X] I am not Arthur’s father; [X] never even had sex with Penny Fleck; [M] did not have an illicit affair with Penny;
{–} Penny-idolatry:[M] I did not have an affair with Thomas Wayne; [X] adopted Arthur when I worked for Wayne; [X] arrested and committed to Arkham State Hospital when Arthur was a kid;
{–} Arthur-idolatry:[X] I am not the illegitimate son of Wayne and Penny; [X] was adopted by Penny when she worked for Wayne;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Imaginary Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur imagines Wayne initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Wayne-idolatry: Superior by Lying to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied to by Wayne/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur&Wayne-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied about by Wayne/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Wayne-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Wayne/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Imaginary Rationalization-stage: Arthur imagines Wayne initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Wayne-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied to by Wayne/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied about by Wayne/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Wayne-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Wayne/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs the authentic guilt which he effectively thinks Wayne incurs toward everyone whom he–in Arthur’s mind–involves in his alleged Deception — Penny, but more so toward Arthur and especially toward Wayne. Due to exposing him to her deception first, since she inspired Arthur to set out to find Wayne and confront him with what Arthur believes is the unassailable truth, Penny deserves to share in the guilt which her supposed son now accrues for himself; |22.1)

Evidently until this point in time unknown to him, Arthur effectively did lie during the exchange when he was basically propagating his mother’s lies about herself and her son. His deception may be captured by the following truncated script:

(22.2| i. Psychic Abuse of the Deceptive kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Arthur; Victims = Arthur&Penny&Wayne; Audience = Arthur&Wayne;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Wayne-idolatry:[X] I am Arthur’s father (2x); [M] did have an illicit affair with Penny;
{–} Penny-idolatry:[M] I did have an affair with Thomas Wayne; [M] Arthur is my son, the product of my affair with Wayne;
{–} Arthur-idolatry:[X] I wasn’t adopted (3x); [X] Wayne is my real father (2x); [M] I was born out of wedlock to Wayne and Penny;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Lying to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied to by Arthur/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur&Wayne-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied about by Arthur/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied to by Arthur/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied about by Arthur/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward everyone whom he involves in his deception — Penny, but more so toward Wayne and especially toward Arthur himself. Since Penny made him believe that he is the bastard son of Wayne, however, and since she therefore inspired Arthur to now go find Wayne and confront him with what Arthur believes is the unassailable truth, she deserves to share in the guilt which her supposed son now accrues for himself; |22.2)

The third and final script attributable to Arthur in the role of Perp, is generated into being by another one of his dubious laughing fits:

(22.3| By laughing in the face of the other, Arthur obviously shows to dismiss–and rather vehemently so–the substance of what Wayne is telling him. The louder he laughs, the more strongly he implicitly shows to reject–to the point of abject ridicule–what Wayne is saying about Arthur and his mother.

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = dubious Moral Action; Perp = Arthur; Victim = Wayne; Audience = Arthur&Wayne;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{–} Wayne-idolatry:[M] Being ridiculous; not worthy of being taken seriously or sympathetically (at all);
{+} Arthur-idolatry:[M] The opposite of being ridiculous; worthy of being taken seriously and sympathetically;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging Wayne/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Prejudge Wayne/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Wayne-idolatry: Inferior by Being Prejudged by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge Wayne/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Prejudging Wayne/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Wayne-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his nonverbal act of ridiculing Prejudgment — Wayne and especially toward Arthur himself;

4. In terms of actualization, notice that Arthur no longer grabs his card out to hand it over in this case to Wayne; and so he no longer makes an effort to show that he didn’t really mean to ridicule the other by implication. In other words, Arthur really does seem to believe that Wayne at the very least is being unreasonable, that he might be putting on some kind of show, a show of denial, stubborn denial; and that the captain of industry, as such, only deserves to be ridiculed, his due reward for making an apparent fool of himself. Could this be a sign that Arthur sees himself more-and-more vindicated in his laughing responses? — that he would be more-and-more convinced that the people he laughs in their faces really do deserve to be made fun of? It is obvious from the way he spreads the lies instilled into him by his mother, that he really does believe them himself. He doesn’t know he is lying, and so readily implies to actualize his own practices by gullibility, and eagerly so; in contrast to Wayne, who shows only to want none of it, and probably even thinks the son is just as nuts as the mother (like mother, like son).

In terms of conscience, Arthur’s prejudicial actions serving to victimize Wayne, his gullibility basically turning him into humanoid drone uncritically propagating his mother’s lies as well as turning Wayne into an imagined liar, all these reckless actions make no sense relative to his authentic conscience; but do make more sense relative to his inauthentic conscience connected to a penchant for praise-seeking and power-seeking, as the prospect of being regarded as the son of someone famous, someone important is just to attractive to pass up on (highly egosyntonic).

In terms of sacrifice, in spite of its apparent appeal to a misguided Arthur, his effectively awkward behavior, ultimately self-sabotaging, does not exactly earn him favors with Wayne. By calling him a liar and by laughing in his face for actually no verifiably good reason at all, Arthur goes to sacrifice some measure of quality in his potential future relationship with Wayne; and he should count himself lucky if the VIP would even be willing to receive him with any semblance of Golden Rule compliance. |22.3)

(22.4-5| (22.4| Wayne, by literally coming back swinging, readily shows vehement aversion to being treated with ridicule (readily showing to refuse actualizing Arthur’s potential practices); and by taking revenge through punching the other in the face, shows to indeed be partial to the exact opposite scenario as the one advertised by the clown: that Arthur himself should rather deserve to be the subject of ridicule, while it precisely would be Wayne who was entitled to enjoy the elevated position of moral superiority. Also by punching him in the face, by giving him a bloody nose, Wayne raises into existence physical evidence of the other’s implicated shameful and morally-inferior position — showing to push the narrative that, yes, Arthur got his nose busted, but rather than deserving compassion and sympathy, Wayne implies to want people to side with him by wondering what the hell this bloodied other fellow must have done to deserve ending up getting slugged on the snout.

By punching Arthur and therefore blemishing his PrimePidol, by physically shaming him, Wayne’s violent action may be captured in script-form as follows:

i. Physical Abuse of the Body kind: Level = grievous Moral Crime; Perp = Wayne; Victims = Arthur; Audience = Arthur&Wayne;

1. Incoming-stage: Wayne incurs authentic guilt toward Arthur for punching him in the face, giving him a bloody nose;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Wayne initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Wayne-idolatry: Superior by Bodily Abusing Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Wayne-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Wayne/ Bodily Abusing Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Getting Bodily Abused by Wayne/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Wayne initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Wayne-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Bodily Abuse Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Wayne-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Wayne/ Bodily Abusing Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Bodily Abused by Wayne/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are cast over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Wayne incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his act of Physical Abuse — Arthur and especially toward Wayne himself. However, Wayne would not have punched Arthur, if the latter hadn’t started to laugh in the former’s face, implying to ridicule him, and therefore Arthur partly owes it to himself for ending up with a busted nose — Arthur gets to share in Wayne’s blame to some further specifiable extent (quantitatively). Then again, Arthur would not be in a position to laugh in Wayne’s face, if it weren’t for his deceptive mother effectively inspiring him to do what he has done, and so Penny–in turn–deserves to share in Arthur’s incurred guilt. |22.4)

Wayne did not leave it with bloodying Arthur’s nose, he also passed an arbitrarily grave conditional threat unto the clown, to be captured in script-form as follows:

(22.5| i. Psychic Abuse of the 2-party Conditional Threat kind: Level = grievous Moral Crime; Perp = Wayne; Victim = Arthur; Audience = Wayne&Arthur;

1. Incoming-stage: Wayne initiates an potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Wayne-idolatry: If Arthur touches my son again, I will “fucking kill” him;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: If I touch Wayne’s son again, Wayne will “fucking kill” me;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Wayne initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Wayne-idolatry: Superior by Conditionally Threatening Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Wayne-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Wayne/ Conditionally Threatening Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Conditionally Threatened by Wayne/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Wayne initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Wayne-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Conditionally Threaten Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Wayne-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Wayne/ Conditionally Threatening Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Conditionally Threatened by Wayne/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Wayne incurs authentic guilt toward all involved in passing his Conditional Threat — Arthur and especially toward Wayne himself. However, Wayne would not have threatened Arthur, if the latter hadn’t started to laugh in the former’s face, implying to ridicule him, and therefore Arthur partly owes it to himself for ending up being threatened — Arthur gets to share in Wayne’s blame to some further specifiable extent (quantitatively). Then again, Arthur would not be in a position to laugh in Wayne’s face, if it weren’t for his deceptive mother effectively inspiring him to do what he has done, and so Penny–in turn–deserves to share in Arthur’s incurred guilt. |22.5)

4. In terms of sacrifice, also Wayne ends up sacrificing quality from his end as to his possible relationships with the other; he likewise makes it harder for himself to interact with Arthur in a Golden Rule-compliant way should they again happen to meet in the future.

In terms of conscience, what Wayne did to Arthur obviously is not inline with the meaning of the Golden Rule. If there’s no real pressing reason for Wayne resorting to violence and threats, there’s no care or love to be found for Arthur in the act of punching the clown in right in his face and conditionally threatening his life; there’s no-one under his immediate care, including his own person, that would warrant such acts. In terms of his inauthentic power-seeking conscience, however, Wayne established himself with decisive power and so relative to his power-seeking inauthentic conscience, he did do rather well; he showed quite unequivocally to his victim that he is not someone who kids around, who is ready and willing to act with power if either insulted or feeling threatened or otherwise maligned.

In terms of actualization, seeing himself perfectly entitled to lash out to any sort of crazies out there having the balls to cross his path, trying to infect him with their lunacy, Wayne may therefore be expected to be quite willing to actualize his own practices. It remains to be seen if Arthur feels that way too. |22.4-5)

Arthur’s behavior–in Wayne’s mind–could very well serve as one more piece of evidence that the rich industrial cat had been right in his factually egosyntonically-skewed, heedlessly broad and sweeping general appraisal of the poor classes: summarily seen as nothing but clowns, because–well–here’s one standing right in front of him, after all, temporarily blocking his view and holding him up, like the blood-boiling nuisance such pain-in-the-ass sort of people easily go on being. Wayne might thus very well be led to think that it was more than a little bit ironic that Arthur, while precisely trying to make the VIP out to be the clown of the two, actually only managed to come out looking like one himself, and with flying ridiculous colors too for that matter — heavy on the blood-red component.

As far as Arthur is concerned, when being most reasonable and rational, two possibilities are open. Either Wayne was lying, or his own mother was. If the former, Arthur would have all-the-more reason to hate the older, as it would then redefine the younger as not just a bastard son but also one deliberately and persistently unwanted, even during a face-to-face sort of confrontation between son and real father.

But what if his mother had been lying to him all along? If so, then it immediately means that she would share in the responsibility for him now having made a fool of himself two times in a row: once right now, right here in front His Royal Loftiness Thomas Wayne and once in front of one of Wayne’s proxies, as well as Wayne’s son, down over at the gate of Wayne Manor the other day. Moreover, he would then also have valid reason to hold her responsible for directly facilitating to raise his spirits based on a seductive but ultimately proven-false hope, the now shattered otherwise Narcissism-soothing hope of being able to indulge in the lusciously-elevated basking-in-the-glory sort of status that belongs to being acknowledged (and therefore noticed!) by everybody as the son of a Very Important Person (the blissful exact opposite of the totally-unfunny wacky hack of a piece-of-shit sorry-excuse-for-a-clown he now could very well fear being viewed as, also by everybody, courtesy of--what he solemnly may think is–the particular, exclusive and [most of all] malicious manufacturing coming from the magnificent telecommunication Maestro Murray).

Rise of a Sadistic Clown type of Psychopath
Table of Contents
i.God the Ultimate Movie Director
ii.Idolatry 101 – Crash Course Idolatry Theory
ii.1.The double fundamental error lying at the heart of idolatry . . .
ii.2.Negative vs Positive, Concrete vs Abstract, Explicit vs Implicit and Potential vs Actualized
0.Qualitative Idolatry Analysis of Joker (2019)
1.Beatdown in alley	1.1.In terms of idolatry…
2.Feeling better when locked up in hospital
3.Taken for a bus ride	3.1.In terms of idolatry…
4.Reverie of idolatry at mom’s apartment	4.1.In terms of idolatry…
5.Getting an instrument of destructive power	5.1.In terms of idolatry…
6.Meeting Sophie in the awful elevator of their awful building
7.Mother expressing lack of faith in son’s comedy career	7.1.In terms of idolatry…
8.Accidentally discharging gun at home
9.Stalking Sophie and taking notes at pogo’s Comedy Club
10.If you’re happy and you know it, stomp your feet . . .	10.1.In terms of idolatry…
11.Send in the Clowns	11.1.In terms of idolatry…
12.Catharsis in public bathroom, finding self-confidence, solace with Sophie
13.Punching out at Ha-Ha’s	13.1.In terms of idolatry…
14.The prelude to “nothing but clowns” wreaking havoc in down-town Gotham
14.1.In the first terms of idolatry — Wayne, the wedge driver
14.2.In the second terms of idolatry — Wayne, the flame fanning fire fighter
15.In front of an indifferent Social Worker, stressing the undying need to be noticed
16.Premiere at pogo’s Comedy Club, hanging out with Sophie	16.1.In terms of idolatry…
17.Son of Thomas Wayne?	17.1.In terms of idolatry…
18.Confrontation at Wayne Manor
19.Mother lands in hospital	19.1.In terms of idolatry…
20.Humiliated by Murray for everyone to see
20.1.In terms of idolatry . . . Murray humiliates Arthur by televised retaliation
20.2.In terms of idolatry . . . Arthur retaliates by killing Murray in his mind
21.Collective resentment building in the city reaching boiling point	21.1.In terms of idolatry…
22.Confronting Thomas Wayne inside of Wayne Hall	22.1.In terms of idolatry…
23.Invited by Murray and finding out the truth about himself
23.1.The meaning of Arthur’s childhood abuse
23.2.Pathological laughing, repression and Penny’s psychology	23.3.In terms of idolatry . . .
24.Laughing loudly at the joke that is his life	24.1.In terms of idolatry…
25.Killing mother in hospital	25.1.In terms of idolatry…
26.Killing Randall at home	26.1.In terms of idolatry…
27.Completion of transformation into Joker
27.1.Joker the tragic clown and the agent provocateur alternative reality
28.i.Final Showdown with Murray Franklin — The dress-room	26.1.In terms of idolatry…
28.ii.Final Showdown with Murray Franklin — The pièce de résistance
28.ii.1.The meaning of killing Murray on his own live show	28.ii.2.In terms of idolatry…
29.i.Ascending from a Cradle of Flames and Chaos — Mentally murdering Wayne	29.i.1.In terms of idolatry…
29.ii.Ascending from a Cradle of Flames and Chaos — Murdering Wayne in actual fact	29.ii.1.In terms of idolatry…
29.iii.Ascending from a Cradle of Flames and Chaos — Crowd of clowns openly idolizing Joker	29.iii.1.In terms of idolatry…
30.Summary Analysis: Arthur’s Negative Transmutation

i.God the Ultimate Movie Director

Just like music, I have loved movies for as long as I can remember. Some people may look down on the professions involved in film-making, such as acting and directing, considering them not real jobs, merely in the business of entertainment and what not. But I’m not one of those people. I have a tremendous default respect for actors, directors and all other people working in the movie industry. I like to think that the movie industry, in principle, serves quite an important function in the development of culture; indeed, even serving the noble goal of raising our collective awareness, raising the awareness of humanity at large as to what it means to be human.

Save for perhaps for horror and science-fiction genres, what is the essence of a movie anyway but a document of the human experience? The characters of typical movies are typically human, some of whom–especially in the case of so-called biopics–are based on people who even really exist or have really existed. Like novels, movies tell stories. And so, like books, movies may command all the general benefits which story-telling brings.

In its inherent function to interpret the human experience lies tremendous potential to serve as an instrument of enlightenment, a potent tool to shed light on the existence of the human being, what it means to be human. And for that reason, a movie can be so much more than merely entertainment. Even though there is real merit to be found in its entertainment function (and I do love movies for that too), a film in its broadest conceptual sense also has great potential to educate and illuminate the viewing public of all kinds of experiences that human beings have lived through, or may live through in the future, or might have lived through — hypothetically, or if the proverbial cards of history had been dealt differently, etc.

The motion picture, as such, in general, has incredible potential to be a force for good in our world — and that’s why I like to think that God loves movies too.

When I wonder what it is like to be God and how God regards our world, I like to resort to what might be called the metaphysical movie metaphor. I like to envision God as some kind of director, acting as the ultimate supervisor of what we call our reality, a metaphysical director if you will, working from behind the scenes of what we know as physical reality in order to guide and orchestrate the evolution of what we know as our day-to-day world. Whereas the typical human movie director stands to leave a clear directional fingerprint on their work, and that’s fine, even desirable; in somewhat sharp contrast, however, I like to picture God as the type of director who exercises control in usually rather subtle and typically unnoticeable ways. To God, the world as we know it is one big cosmic-level sort of stage, in which we all are actors performing in a perpetual divinely-coordinated play, however remotely aware we would be of our particular roles, or simply not at all (especially so if you have atheistic leanings).

By virtue of God’s omniscience, God knows every little thing that goes on in our world, knows it to perfect degree and in perfect detail, having perfect knowledge of every crazy little thing that is happening, or could be happening too for that matter, while viewing any crazy little random event from every conceivable angle (whether meant literally or figuratively). It thus makes perfect sense to assert that God is able to view any silly little thing we do (or think) from any-and-all imaginable angles (literal or figurative ones). With respect to what you do in particular, you might picture God as some sort of metaphysical counterpart of a cameraman or director of photography who is buzzing around you at no particular fixed position and yet who at the same time occupies all possible meaningful proximate positions, basically sure to shoot everything you do with perfect accuracy and fidelity from every conceivable angle and vantage point.

In a metaphysical sense, courtesy of divine omniscience, it’s therefore as if there are a virtually infinite number of invisible cameras trained on our world, indeed already a great many of them at any one person walking around, at literally any given time. God sees everything, and by “recording” everything from all angles and vantage points, God is left with a colossal yet even ever-growing amount of footage (so to speak), documenting in immaculately thorough manner, an almost infinite number of human experiences, many of which are being played out consecutively when they happen at the exact same time, while some show overlapping footage if two or more characters interact with one another. Viewing our reality through such lens of metaphysical cinematography, God is therefore able to enjoy the human world as one big cosmic-level movie-like experience, having a time-evolution which showcases unavoidably truly mind-boggling evermore-pronounced levels of cinematographic complexity and sophistication.

Of course one might argue that–precisely by virtue of God’s omniscience–God already knows what’s going to happen in our world down to every silly little detail at any given time, and while that’s true, it is also possible that God–now by virtue of God’s omnipotence–is able to suspend divine disbelief and by this trick of momentarily dimming the otherwise fully-activated all-knowing divine mind, grants God’s own being the opportunity to be (somewhat) surprised by what God is “viewing” from one moment to the next; and as such–as to the ever-expanding fantastically-great multitude of different real-life “movie”-experiences playing out in our human world at any given time–also would be able to, at some level, be emotionally involved with whatever developing human affair God is witnessing while sitting in that Director’s Chair or director’s chairs, placed high up there in that spiritual kingdom accessible for each of us within, instead of without.

Even though we know in the back of our minds that technically movies are not real, we are nevertheless very much able to enjoy movies by virtue of our own ability to suspend disbelief — and so why not God also? If it is true that we are made in God’s image, then it may even be that we have inherited our capacity to suspend disbelief precisely from God. Perhaps God is also where we inherited our love for drama from. One seemingly timeless argument that atheists like to advance as argument against the existence of God, one deriving from Epicurus, is that a truly good God would never allow evil to manifest in the world of God’s own creation.

And so, since obviously evil does exist in our world, God would then either not be real, not care, or not worthy of being called God. And while technically this is a possibility, it also shows a rather simplistic underlying idea of God: that God, if even existing, would create only worlds in which its beings of the highest creational order were to only be capable of doing good; that basically such a world were a robotic sort of world in which everything goes according to God’s plan, at any given moment, like some kind of cosmic-level humanoid sort of Swiss clockwork. Now picture yourself being God in such a hypothetical situation by adopting the movie metaphor.

Would God like watching movies in which everything always happens according to plan, in which the characters always interact with one another in full Golden Rule-compliance, where nothing bad or evil ever takes place? Would God like watching such kind of movie? I can only speak for myself of course, but I know I would not. I like drama. I like movies that feature difficulties, challenges, obstacles needing to be overcome. If–for the sake of argument–confronted with movies in which everything goes according to plan, in which everyone is always nice and good to each-other, after the novelty has worn off, I would be bound to find them ultimately rather boring. And quite frankly, I think God thinks so too — I think God also likes drama. Hence, there might just be room for drama in the world, on top of God existing.

If God is omnipotent then why wouldn’t God be able to prevent Godself from ever becoming bored? To put into perspective what God would be watching from his Ultimate Director’s Chair high up there in heaven, adorned by God knows how many divine angels, while munching divine popcorn and sipping from divine coke, let’s say there are eight billion people in the world; that means God is watching, with the utmost divinely-immaculate precision, eight billion lives gradually unfold, generating a collective movie experience involving eight billion actors, whose characters are historically entwined with ever greater complexity — thanks to, first off, our ever increasing population numbers, obviously, but also thanks to our ever increasing capacity to travel all over the world, as well as being able to connect and communicate with arbitrary people from all over the world (courtesy of the computer, the Internet and social media).

0.Qualitative Idolatry Analysis of Joker (2019)

Joker impressed me the first time I watched it, which was a bootlegged version downloaded via ThePiratebay early October 2019 (yeah, I’m big on bit-torrent). Even though the quality was dubious and was littered with redundant and distracting advertisement crap, I nevertheless knew right away that this was the kind of movie I wanted to analyze. I waited another month until I was able to download a decent copy and, as of that moment, went to see it with almost religious commitment evening after evening for at least a few weeks, three or four, straight. Although I have a tendency to see one particular movie more than once and I have watched quite a few movies more than ten times, what I experienced with Joker has happened only twice before. The first time I caught myself watching one movie over and over again, for about a month straight, was with the film called American Psycho and, a few years later, with Gangster Number One — both released in 2000, and both of which I now have watched probably in excess of fifty times.

Every time I analyze a movie, which takes usually about six weeks, though Joker seven weeks, I both apply my analytical skill and knowledge, but I also learn to deepen my analytical skill as well as learning to expand my perceptual awareness; and so, even though it is an incredibly laborious process, it is also always fruitful to me, always worth the while. I am positive that I’ve learned a lot during my analysis of Joker. In fact, I have been able to define with more clarity and precision the language needed to make analyses of–what I like to call–the qualitative kind, all within the context of idolatry.

And so I am greatly indebted to all the people who have contributed to making this movie, as well as the other person–besides the director–writing the script. My particular thanks go out to the director Todd Phillips and fellow script-writer Scott Silver; the actors Robert De Niro, Zazie Beets, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen and of course Joaquin Phoenix. My thanks also goes out to all the other people who have invested their time and energy into making this movie a reality (and making it available to the public in whatever shape or form).

This three-part blog contains a moral analysis of the Joker movie from 2019, albeit in a qualitative vein. When I say qualitative, I mean that in juxtaposition to its quantitative counterpart; the latter which will be coming up some time in the future, after I first have sufficiently developed the necessary underlying computational framework of Moral Calculus. What the term qualitative analysis means in practice is that the lexicon I will be drawing from in order to render the analysis, is still purely English, the relevant idolatry practices still described in “normal” language (albeit rather technical).

As already alluded to, idolatry and immorality go hand in hand. I seek to model general immoral conduct (of arbitrary type), and the language of idolatry is most suited for that purpose. Indeed, it is perfectly possible to describe and expand an act of immorality, any act, in terms of a set of relevant potential idolatry practices. And so that’s why my work on idolatry analysis ultimately precipitated a spin-off detour into the as-yet barely explored realm of Moral Calculus, the mathematical sort of language that I will be using to quantitatively describe immoral conduct of whatever nature. But quantitative analyses based on a usage of Moral Calculus, still to be fully developed and implemented into actual computer models, is automatically still talk of the future. For now, I’ll stick to qualitative analyses.

Some household remarks to help the reader make sense of the various colors used. I have used text both from the movie (transcript) as well as the script, the latter which can be accessed here. What–in movie parlance–is called the “action” of a scene, will rendered in brown color if the text is drawn from the original script; whereas if concerning my own augmentation, it will be rendered either in black or in orange if not appearing within a (blockquoted) dialogue, and in amber if it is. My own commentary will be rendered either in a default indigo color, or light-blue if it pertains to a more technical descriptive context of idolatry.

As for the dialogues, the default used color is either purple if is featured in spoken form in the movie; blue if it does not appear in the movie but is nevertheless featured in the script. What are called parentheticals or character directions are rendered in turquoise if originally appearing in the script; and olive if it is my own addition.

As for copyright concerns, my analyses are non-profit driven and so I rely of fair-usage provisions. However, if you are a copyright holder and are about to get your knickers or panties in a twist over the material I am using, then you might want to reconsider when realizing that the used material could very well go on to form part of the foundational work of an entirely new computational academic field, one that is devoted entirely to describing–ultimately quantitatively–immoral conduct of whatever nature — in other words, that would be history in the making. And so you, as well as countless other copyright holders involved, only stand to benefit–as my work becomes increasingly well-known–in terms of (long-term) promotion of personal name and fame, entirely free-of-charge.

1.Beatdown in alley

It’s the fall season of the year 1981. “It’s a troubled time. The crime rate in Gotham is at record highs. A garbage strike has crippled the city for the past six weeks. And the divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘havenots’ is palpable. Dreams are beyond reach, slipping into delusions.“

Inside the locker room of Ha-Ha’s Talent Booking, “Arthur is putting on his make-up, using the small mirror in his locker. Behind him a couple other clowns are eating their lunch at a small table, not paying Arthur any attention. Arthur pauses half-finished, and stares at himself for a beat. Hooks the corners of his mouth down with his index fingers, turning his mouth into the ‘tragedy mask’ frown–And then he pulls his fingers up, pulling them up wider and wider, stretching his smile into a grotesque parody of the ‘comedy mask,’ trying to make himself look happy, pulling his mouth so wide tears come to his eyes–“

Later that day, we see Arthur all painted-up and wearing full clown regalia in front of a store called Kenny’s Music that’s going out of business. Holding up a sign that says, “Everything Must Go!“, moving around to the tune coming from a piano placed to the store-side and being played by some older guy, Arthur is making silly faces while playfully twirling the sign all for the purpose of drawing in prospective customers; when all-of-a-sudden a giddy bunch of kids approach him, clearly up to no good, make a demeaning offhanded remark about his shoes and–before the clown knows what’s going on–steal the sign. (1.1) As they sprint off with it, a suddenly mobilized Arthur gives chase immediately and “keeps running through traffic. People stare. A clown barreling down the street has got to be a joke–“

Breathing heavily and sweating profusely by now, he dashes impetuously into a shady alley, reflexively following their impromptu lead. It is there that the sadistic kids ambush Arthur, with one of them (Kid1) first smashing the sign to pieces on his caught-off-guard body and face. The kid immediately follows-up by starting to kick an Arthur already lying on the ground; and wastes no time to cajole the other four kids to join him in beating Arthur’s ass up. (1.2) “The kids start kicking and beating the shit out of Arthur. It’s brutal and vicious. Nobody on the street stops to help.” “Sweat running down his face, smearing his make-up. Doesn’t even look like he’s in pain. He just takes the beating. Arthur’s good at taking a beating. That stupid smile painted on his face.“

1.1 In terms of idolatry . . .

The abuse committed by the kids may be captured by two truncated scripts: one detailing the robbery of the sign, and the other the physical abuse inflicted on Arthur, the latter which will be split up into two parts. The stage four discussion in terms of actualization, conscience and sacrifice will be given at the end.

(1| There are five kids acting as culprits: Kid1 versus the other four kids, Kid2345 = Kid2&Kid3&Kid4&Kid5; All five kids are represented by the set: Kids = Kid1&Kid2345; Since they are all acting as a team in which each member is presumed to back up all other members, the authentic guilt which each member incurs will end up being shared equally by all members of their group. And so–courtesy of being a team-player–what Kid1 does for a moral infraction, or any of the other kids, will be shared in terms of guilt-burden by all other kids; such that each kid ends up having an equal guilt burden. 

(1.1| i. Physical Abuse of the Property kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Kid1; Victims = Arthur&Kenny; Audience = Kids&Arthur;

1. Incoming-stage: Kid1, on behalf of Kids, incurs authentic guilt toward Arthur&Kenny for stealing the sign under Arthur’s stewardship while owned by Kenny (from Kenny’s Music); and for smashing it to bits, thus destroying it;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Kid1, on behalf of Kids, initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Kid1-idolatry: Superior by Property Abusing Victims/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Kid1-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Kid1/ Property Abusing Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Getting Property Abused by Kid1/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Each (of Kid1&Arthur) exposes his PrimePidol audiovisually to others of Audience, audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Kid1, on behalf of Kids, initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Kid1-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Property Abuse Victims/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Kid1-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Kid1/ Property Abusing Victims/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur&Kenny-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Property Abused by Kid1/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Kid1 incurs authentic guilt toward all involved in his abuse of property — Kid2345, and more so toward Arthur&Kenny and especially toward Kid1 himself; the guilt-burden of Kid1, however, will be shared by all Kids, equally. |1.1)

(1.2| The beat-down which Arthur suffers, starts with Kid1 smashing the sign against the body of Arthur, followed by starting to kick him immediately after crash-landing on the ground.

As long as their violent ferocity does not give way to notable and openly expressed compassion toward their victim, the message which the kids send to Arthur by way of inflicting their abuse, is unequivocally one of guilt and shame. Automatically accompanying the physical abuse, the exercise of physical shaming, therefore also brings with it the initiation of an implicit potential practice of Abstract Negative Arthur-idolatry, having Pidol-attributes revolving around personal unrighteousness, guilt and deserving to be (physically) punished — i.e., by way of executing their merciless abuse, the kids also try to hammer into the skull of their victim (and themselves) the idea that he should be ashamed of himself, that he would only deserve his beating.

At the same time, the abusers may also be said to initiate an implicit potential practice of Abstract Positive Person-idolatry with themselves for objects of worship, having Pidol-attributes revolving around personal righteousness and entitlement to (physically) punish — i.e., by way of executing their abuse, the kids–in order to justify their roles as “punishers”–may also be said to broadcast to all people exposed to the abuse–any possible bystanders, the kids themselves and of course Arthur–the nevertheless at-once dubious notion that, between them and their factual victim, it is they who command the moral high-ground, that they ostensibly were just in their factual abuse of the victim.

In more comprehensive script-format, we may write:

i. Physical Abuse of the Body kind: Level = grievous Moral Crime; Perps = Kids; Victim = Arthur; Audience = Arthur&Kids;

Let’s split up the abuse into two parts. The first part takes place when Kid1 ambushes Arthur by smashing the sign on Arthur’s body — causing Arthur to fall to the ground.

1. Incoming-stage(1):
Kid1, on behalf of Kids, incurs authentic guilt toward Arthur for whacking him over the head and body with a piece of property that is under stewardship of Arthur and owned by Kenny;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage(1): Kid1, on behalf of Kids, initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Kid1-idolatry: Superior by Bodily Abusing Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body&Physicality of Arthur&Kenny/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Physicality/ by Kid1/ Bodily Abusing Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Getting Bodily Abused by Kid1/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body&Physicality of Arthur&Kenny/;
Each exposes his PrimePidol audiovisually to the others of Audience, audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage(1): Kid1, on behalf of Kids, initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Kid1-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Bodily Abuse Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body&Physicality of Arthur&Kenny/;
{–} Arthur&Kenny-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Physicality/ by Kid1/ Bodily Abusing Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Bodily Abused by Kid1/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body&Physicality of Arthur&Kenny/;
Abstract Pidols are cast over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Kid1 incurs authentic guilt toward all those people who are either exposed to or involved with the abuse — which are Kenny, Kid2345 and more so toward Arthur and especially toward Kid1 himself; however, the guilt-burden of Kid1 gets to be shared equally by all Kids;

The second part takes place when the initiator Kid1 then invites the rest of the kids to come join him in beating up the clown’s ass; and all kids end up beating and kicking Arthur’s undefended body.

1.Incoming-stage(2):
Kid1, on behalf of Kids, incurs further authentic guilt toward Arthur by kicking and beating a prostrate Arthur about a dozen times;
Kid2345, on behalf of Kids, incurs authentic guilt toward Arthur for kicking and beating a prostrate Arthur about 7 times;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage(2): Each Kid, on behalf of Kids, initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Kid-idolatry: Superior by Bodily Abusing Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Kid-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Kids/ Bodily Abusing Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Getting Bodily Abused by Kid/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Each [of Kid&Arthur] exposes his PrimePidol audiovisually to the others of Audience, audially to self;

Note that due to the beat-down being a group-effort executed by all kids simultaneously, each kid not just uses his own name and body but the names and bodies of Kids, i.e. all kids.

3. Rationalization-stage(2): Each Kid, on behalf of Kids, initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Kid-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Bodily Abuse Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Kid-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Kids/ Bodily Abusing Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Bodily Abused by Kid/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are cast over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, each Kid incurs authentic guilt toward all those exposed to the abuse — the other Kids, more so toward Arthur and especially toward Kid himself; the guilt-burden of each kid is shared by all kids equally; |1.2)

4. In terms of actualization, as to the particularity specificity and to the extent that they remain unrepentant and unapologetic, the kids are expected to have no problems rationalizing their practices (stage two); whereas their stage two practices will be committed to memory with the usual morally-spun meanings, i.e. favoring themselves (seen as morally superior) at the expense of Arthur (seen as morally inferior). Whether Arthur would be as eager as the sadistic kids to rationalize away his own abuse remains to be seen; due to him refraining from showing overt signs of resistance, however, a possibly-existing masochistic disposition on his part might deserve to be taken into account.

As to the generality specificity, there is a risk for the kids to think to themselves that they are entitled to visit abuse upon not just upon Arthur, but the likes of Arthur, whatever those likes have in common with Arthur, and for an arbitrary set of alternative reasons. For example, if they happen to have racist leanings, they may hold the color of the skin of their victim(s) against them; Arthur is white and the kids–who seem to be of color–may think to themselves that, when provoked, any other white person like Arthur deserves a beating. Or, as another example, inspired or reinforced by their manifested aggression against Arthur the party clown, the kids may kindle into being a more general disliking of party clowns, and as a result may assume a more hostile general attitude toward them. As for Arthur himself, depending on how masochistic (guilt-absorbing) he is, in spite of being innocent, there is a technical risk that (under certain circumstances) he ends up seeing himself with an increased sense of deserving to be abused not just by those kids but by other people as well.

In addition, after the kids physically shamed Arthur, his now blemished PrimePidol—his black-and-blue body–serves as a physical reminder of the shaming episode which they brought into reality through executing their abuse, a reminder lasting at least for however long his bruises remain visible. To the extent that the kids remain unrepentant and unapologetic (in the wake of the abuse), they may be expected to furthermore hope that the sight of Arthur’s battered body would lead to follow-up implicit potential practices of Abstract Negative Arthur-idolatry, with attributes that paint him as being unrighteousness and deserving of his abuse — hoping that Arthur ends up unfavorably represented in the minds of the people who encounter him during the aftermath of the abuse; at which the potential practice launched by each kid turns into an actualized practice. By the same token, those same kids are also expected hope that the sight of Arthur’s battered body would also cause into being implicit potential practices of Abstract Positive Kids-idolatry, with attributes that paint the kids as righteous and entitled in their abuse — hoping that they, if indeed recognized for their factually abusive roles, end up favorably represented in the minds of those same after-the-fact witnesses.  

That is, if an involved abuser kid refuses to recognize that what he did was wrong, then the lad may naturally be expected to wish for the people who encounter Arthur, to not show sympathy for the victim (at all); but instead show sympathy for the abusers by ending up identifying with the aggressors — in case of such Stockholm Syndrome type of bonding between those after-the-fact witnesses and the abusers, the of course terribly petty and childish rationale then being: Arthur had received a beating, yes, but it was ostensibly only for his own good, only deserving of what had come to him: an ostensibly suitable punishment for wearing–what they had casually judged were–insufferably ugly shoes; and arguably also deserving to be beat-up for having had the ostensible balls to furthermore chase after them, their ostensibly exalted selves (in reaction to them first stealing the sort of property which was actually under the stewardship of the victim, leaving the victim automatically getting to enjoy the moral higher-ground in his decision to chase after them in order to regain control of the property).

In terms of sacrifice, the kids deserve to be held accountable for wrecking some of the quality of their potential relationships with Arthur — although this depends on how unwarrantedly guilty (masochistic) Arthur is willing to see himself being. As a result, if they would happen to run into each-other after this incident–since he now has some just cause to approach them with either increased apprehension or perhaps precisely with a craving for vengeance–it stands to be harder for them all to act with Golden Rule-compliant future friendliness toward one another, and the kids are responsible for such deterioration in potential relationships, for heedlessly sacrificing a certain measure of quality in the potential relationship between each of themselves and their victim.

In addition, since all-of-a-sudden he was plunged into a crisis situation from which he came out of unable to continue doing his job (at least for the day), the kids are also responsible for Arthur now running into potential trouble with his employer as well as the client of his employer who was paying for Arthur’s service as a clown. As such, the kids also deserve to be held responsible for Arthur ending up sacrificing whatever pertinent measure of relationship quality between him and his employer; between Arthur and his employer’s client hiring the clown; and also between the client and Arthur’s employer; some of the latter’s company goodwill, market reputation, might also go up in smoke (when it comes to light that hired clowns apparently may suddenly run off during assignments).

In addition still, in a material sense, the kids destroyed the sign which was under Arthur’s direct stewardship, and so by sacrificing the sign that was not his property to begin with, they potentially cause Arthur to have to endure even more trouble of an employment nature.

In terms of conscience, the question remains, why did the kids do what they did? It is obvious that they did not act out of love and care for Arthur; and so their heedless predatory action coming primarily at the clown’s expense, defies explanation relative to their authentic Golden Rule-compliant consciences. But, if they remain unrepentant as to inflicting their abuse, they might use the incident as bragging material — they may stoop to flaunting pride for their act of factual abuse in front of those of their peers whom they wish to impress. They may use the incident to promote factual notoriety as to their persons, especially if they happen to form part of a youth gang and scoring brownie points at the expense of bystanders (entirely innocent ones, if need be), might not be considered a vice at all, but more of a virtue even, especially if the culprits have cause to believe that their victim were to belong to the arbitrarily-hated camp of an enemy — victims are thus suddenly reinterpreted as trophies, and the fewer enemies there are going around of them, or the more miserable those enemies would end up being, the better.

In particular, and this possible conscientious context seems most pertinent nowadays with a fashionable flaring up of anti-white racist sentiments across the US (feelings of hatred that were catalyzed into being especially by the tragic death of a nevertheless drugged-up George Floyd), if the juvenile band of gang bangers would be fueled by racist sentiments and motives, they then might just be tempted to rationalize away their abuse of Arthur on the basis of the clown being Caucasian. To the extent of being guided by such racist type of conscience, beating up the sort of people who happen to have a hated color of skin would only (immediately) be considered right, even commendable.

As for bragging material is concerned, suppose for argument’s sake, that one of the involved kids had a camera on him and had recorded the whole beat-down incident. Depending on the circumstances, the group might have been able to exploit the recorded footage as leverage to access a rise in esteem in front of the homies they would want to impress with it — getting to look good (supposedly) by making their victim look bad (by reversing the perp-victim roles, as if the perps were the victims and the victim somehow the perp).

This hypothetical situation, now more pertinent than ever with all those ready-to-shoot-yo-crazy-ass smartphones that everybody is carrying nowadays, reminds me of the opening scene of the movie called Menace to Society (1993); in which a lead character by the nickname of O-Dog, ends up casually shooting an Asian store-keeper into the hereafter and–also sure to take out what may very well be the keeper’s panicking and screaming wife–then steals the footage from the VCR connected to the store’s security camera capturing the execution of the store-keeper, in order to later show it with glee and pride to his homies. |1)

2.Feeling better when locked up in hospital

Arthur–the clown patient–is laughing loudly, “trying to get it under control. His greasy, black hair hanging down over his forehead.” “He’s sitting across from an overworked Social Worker“. “Her office is cramped and run-down in a cramped and run-down building. Stacks of folders piled high in front of her. She just sits behind her desk, waiting for his laughing fit to end, she’s been through this before. Finally it subsides. Arthur takes a deep breath, pauses to see if it’s over.“

Arthur Fleck: (fragile) “Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?“
Despite the laughter, there’s real pain in his eyes. Something broken in him. Looks like he hasn’t slept in days.
Social Worker: “It’s certainly tense. People are upset, they’re struggling. Looking for work. These are tough times. How ’bout you. Have you been keeping up with your journal?“
Arthur Fleck: “Yes ma’am.“
Social Worker: “Great. Did you bring it with you? . . . Arthur, last time I asked you to bring your journal with you. For these appointments. Can I see it?“
He reluctantly reaches into the pocket of his jacket hanging on the chair behind him. Pulls out a weathered notebook. Slides it across to her–
Arthur: “I’ve been using it as a journal, but also as a joke diary. Funny thoughts or, observations– I think I told you I’m pursuing a career in stand-up comedy?“
She’s half-listening as she flips through his journal.
Social Worker: “No. You didn’t.“
Arthur Fleck: “I think I did.“
She doesn’t respond, keeps flipping through his journal–pages and pages of notes, neat, angry-looking handwriting. Also, cut out photos from hardcore pornographic magazines and some crude handmade drawings.
Social Worker: (reading out loud) “I just hope my death makes more cents than my life.“
She looks up at Arthur. He just stares back. Lets it hang out there for a beat. Then he laughs a little, even though he doesn’t think it’s funny–
Social Worker: “How does it feel to have to come here? Does it help having someone to talk to?“
Arthur Fleck: “I think I felt better when I was locked up in the hospital.“
Social Worker: “And have you thought more about why you were ‘locked up’?“
Arthur: (depressed) “Who knows.“
Long pause.
Arthur: “I was wondering if you could ask the doctor to increase my medication.“
Social Worker: “Arthur, you’re on seven different medications. Surely they must be doing something.“
Arthur Fleck: “I just don’t want to feel so bad anymore.“

3.Taken for a bus ride

Late one afternoon, Arthur is on his way home from work. He’s “sitting in the back of a crowded bus, looking out the window at the city passing him by… his make-up’s washed off, still see some white grease-paint smudged on the sides of his face. He feels somebody staring, turns to see a sad-eyed three-year-old boy, face puffy from crying, sitting on his knees looking back at him. His mother’s facing forward, but even from behind you can tell she’s angry. Arthur doesn’t know where to look, feeling self-conscious and small. He gets back into ‘character’ smiling like a clown and covers his face with his hands– Starts playing the peekaboo game with him. The boy stares back at him for a moment then giggles–“

Rather than appreciating the sociable spontaneous gesture coming from a well-meaning and actually quite benign stranger, the mother does no more than turn her upper torso side-ways, look at Arthur, frown and already full of spite bark at him to “please stop bothering“ her kid. (3.1) When Arthur–taken aback from this sudden disheartening burst of unearned hostility–is about to explain himself, telling her he wasn’t bothering the little guy at all, she interrupts and now orders him–in an uncompromising stroke of superseding power–to “just stop“. (3.2)

This is too much for Arthur to handle and causes him to only respond by starting to laugh out loudly, soon covering his mouth knowing full well that his particular reaction is disconcertingly inappropriate (even though hers is too). (3.3) It–in turn–makes her throw at him the natural question as to whether he would find it all so funny; to which he quickly shakes his head in denial, thus signaling an unequivocal negative (even trying to articulate, “sorry“, if only his laughing fit would not get the better of him) — quick to grab out of his pocket a small card, handing it over to her as his alibi in writing.

The card says, “Forgive my laughter. I have a condition” “It’s a medical condition causing sudden, frequent and uncontrollable laughter that doesn’t match how you feel. It can happen in people with a brain injury or certain neurological conditions.” She looks at him judgmentally, full of unspoken contempt (still locked-and-loaded to again burst wide open); then relaxes her posture to face forward again, sighs, and resumes looking angrily into a nondescript space in front of her. Arthur just keeps on laughing while simultaneously covering his mouth in an ongoing attempt to muffle the necessarily peace-disturbing noise coming from it, at once awkward and embarrassing due to its contextually uncivil and inferred antisocial nature, one that painfully-obviously radiates raw derogatory ridicule (and, as such, reeks of sadism: sadistic self-satisfaction at the expense of the object of laughter, the mother).

Owing to the mother selfishly insisting on indulging in a little personal power-trip fueled by a misplaced sense of maternal protectiveness, thus causing her to misread his motive and action, this would be the second time that Arthur is being punished for simply doing something good — an action on his part which should not be held against him, simply not deserving such. He has been shamed into silence twice now for doing no more than putting his best foot forward trying to have a positive impact on the lives of other people, while posing no credible danger, being no real nuisance and no veritable burden to anyone.

3.1 In terms of idolatry. . .

The three committed moral infractions featured in this scene may be described by the following scripts: two conjoined scripts are attributed to the mother; and one to Arthur. The stage four discussion is given for the mother at the end of first two truncated scripts; for Arthur it is given at the end of his script as usual.

(3.1-2| What the woman is doing by openly berating Arthur for a necessarily unjust reason, is that it effectively gives her a chance to show–in principle in front of the whole crowded bus, mind you–that she is a noble and commendable kind of mother as to her capacity of being protective and vigilant, the sort of mother who takes shit from no-one, not one bleeding soul. Coming at the expense of Arthur, who is left looking bad potentially in front of the whole bus, her openly scolding and humiliating action may be interpreted as an opportunity for her to promote–among, in principle, all of the bus travelers–an image impression of herself centered around self-elevation and protective power.

It may thus be said that the mother, due to unduly accusing him of bothering her child, goes to initiate an explicit potential practice of Abstract Negative Arthur-idolatry, having as attribute which paints him as bothering her kid. To the extent that she refuses to openly recognize fault in her wanton disciplinary action, the mother may also be said to initiate an accompanying implicit potential practice of Abstract Negative Arthur-idolatry, having as attributes which paint him as unrighteous, and therefore deserving to be punished. At the same time, she may be said to initiate an implicit potential practice of Abstract Positive BusMom-idolatry, with attributes that paint her as being righteous, protective, vigilant and entitled in her reproach.

What this comes down to is the mother sending out a two-fold overall imagic (idolic) message to Arthur, herself and, indeed, potentially the rest of the bus: that she supposedly would be righteous, protective, vigilant and entitled to be punitive; whereas Arthur supposedly would be bothersome, unrighteous, shameful and deserving to be punished — when in reality, by making the boy laugh instead of cry, showing to harbor no ill will to her child at all, in fact showing quite the benign exact opposite, and while she of course has the right to tell strangers to leave her child alone, she is nevertheless wrong in her assessment that he is bothering the child; and likewise her order to make Arthur stop even explaining himself is morally dubious to say the least. As such, the mother comes out looking not entirely morally clean either.

In more comprehensive script-language, BusMom’s immoral behavior then comes down to an act of prejudgment and an immoral order, yielding the following two conjoined scripts:

(3.1| i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = dubious Moral Action; Perp = BusMom; Victim = Arthur; Audience = BusMom&BusKid&Arthur&Bussers;

The set Bussers consists of all the bus travelers who were sitting nearby enough to be able to register the exchange happening between BusMom and Arthur;

1. Incoming-stage: BusMom initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} BusMom-idolatry:[X] My son, BusKid, is being bothered by Arthur;
{+} BusKid-idolatry:[X] I am being bothered by Arthur;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: [X] I am bothering BusKid;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

BusMom unduly charges Arthur as a victimizer; he is made to look more culpable than he deserves, hence the polarity of the practice based on him is negative. The mother paints herself and her son with undue victimhood, she makes the two of them look more like (innocent) victims than she is entitled to, hence the polarity of the practices based on her and her son are positive.

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: BusMom initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} BusMom-idolatry: Superior by (Pre)judging Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} BusMom-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by BusMom/ to (Pre)judge Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being (Pre)judged by BusMom/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: BusMom initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} BusMom-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to (Pre)judge Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} BusMom-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by BusMom/ (Pre)judging Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous, Shameful and Deserving to be (Pre)judged by BusMom/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, BusMom incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in her act of Prejudgment — Bussers&BusKid, but more so toward Arthur and especially toward BusMom herself; |3.1)

(3.2| i. Psychic Abuse of the 2-party Immoral Order: Level = dubious Moral Action; Perp = BusMom; Victim = Arthur; Audience = BusMom&BusKid&Arthur&Bussers;

1. Incoming-stage: BusMom initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} BusMom-idolatry: To have Arthur stop “bothering” my kid and myself, to even have Arthur stop talking and defending himself for that matter;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: To stop “bothering” BusKid and BusMom, to even stop talking and defending myself for that matter;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: BusMom initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} BusMom-idolatry: Superior by Immorally Ordering Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} BusMom-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by BusMom/ Immorally Ordering Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Immorally Ordered by BusMom/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to others of Audience, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: BusMom initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} BusMom-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Immorally Order Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} BusMom-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by BusMom/ Immorally Ordering Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Immorally Ordered by BusMom/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, BusMom incurs authentic guilt toward all involved in passing her Immoral Order — Bussers, but more so toward Arthur, and especially toward BusMom herself; |3.2)

4. In terms of actualization, given Arthur’s inferentially dismissive reaction and even though he of course technically does follow her order to stop “bothering” her child, it is nevertheless doubtful that he will side with his abuser and actualize BusMom’s practices. Hopefully, after Arthur handed her his medical card, BusMom herself will realize that her reaction was a tad bit overblown and superfluous and will also not actualize her own practices — but such remains to be seen of course. If she insists on keeping to wear her hat of (undue) righteousness, not seeing herself doing anything wrong, she is expected to actualize her own practices by reinterpreting her act of prejudgment not as such but rather as a justified act of (sound) judgment; as to script two, she is expected to actualize her own practices by reinterpreting her immoral order not as such but rather as a justified order.

In terms of sacrifice, by berating Arthur for an unjust reason, by partly unjustly trying to come out looking good by trying to make Arthur look bad (potentially in front of the whole bus), the mother sacrifices first off the continuity of an otherwise ongoing effort–coming from a benign stranger–to cheer up her son, a gesture innocent in nature–indeed, beneficial–and granted entirely free-of-charge; and secondly, she sacrifices some of the quality of her potential future relationship with Arthur. As a result, if they would happen to run into each-other after this incident–since he has somewhat just cause to see her as somewhat of a bitch, while she might cling on to her prejudicial image of him as someone bothersome–it stands to be harder for them to act with Golden Rule-compliant friendliness toward one another; and she’s responsible for such possible relationship deterioration.

Indeed, in terms of conscience, the question remains, why did she lash out to Arthur? Was it because of genuine love and care for her child? If this was the case, then why did she not see that her reaction was not in the best interest of the kid? — since the little guy, by showing clear signs of enjoyment, was obviously benefiting from Arthur’s ministrations as a clown. And so her reaction makes little sense in light of her authentic Golden Rule-compliant type of conscience; but makes more sense with respect to her power-seeking type of inauthentic conscience — as it gave her the opportunity to show punitive dominance and maternal power of a protective kind. 

As to her motive, it could be that the mother felt bothered by Arthur and that she went to project her state of irritation on her child in an attempt to provide herself with a seemingly plausible excuse to berate Arthur for “bothering her child”. If she were to admit to Arthur what would then be the truth, that she felt bothered by him interacting with her kid when the kid showed no overt signs of being bothered at all (quite the contrary), then the mother would come out looking like a bully, someone who had no just cause to reproach Arthur, someone in the wrong. However, by resorting to what would then be a little steel of self-deception which she did, she might gain a decent shot at fooling herself into believing that she was in the right and Arthur was in the wrong. |3.1-2)

(3.3| However, even though he initially did enjoy the moral upper-hand, due to his awkward and obnoxious follow-up laughing response, insinuating to ridicule the mother, especially vis-à-vis her parental role marked by admittedly undue vigilance and dubious exercise of parental vigilance, by now trying to make her look bad in what may be inferred as a stroke of reflexive retaliation, Arthur–in turn–effectively (through the mechanism of self-fulfilling prophecy) now does go on to jeopardize confirming–with a bit of bad luck, in front of the whole bus–the validity of her prejudicially disparaging, humiliating and openly-advertised take of him: that she–in the end, after all–would enjoy having moral superiority between the two of them (because, well, here she is, together with her little kid, being bothered by this annoying man rudely laughing in their faces, after first bothering her kid, mind you).

By breaking out in laughter, idolatry-wise, Arthur shows to initiate the exact opposite of what the woman is trying to do. He shows by his action alone, to want to promote–among all present people–a two-fold imagic impression that seeks to reject the two-fold imagic impression which she went to float around. By trying to flip her dual images right on their head, now Arthur may be said to initiate an explicit potential practice of Abstract Negative BusMom-idolatry, showing to promote an image of her as unrighteous and deserving to be ridiculed; whereas also simultaneously initiating an implicit potential practice of Abstract Positive Arthur-idolatry, showing to promote an image impression of himself as righteous and entitled in his ridiculing implicit judgment of the other.

In more comprehensive script-language, Arthur’s awkward laughing response may be interpreted as a nonverbal act of prejudgment:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = dubious Moral Action; Perp = Arthur; Victim = BusMom; Audience = BusMom&BusKid&Arthur&Bussers;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{–} BusMom-idolatry:[M] Being ridiculous; not worthy of being taken seriously or sympathetically (at all);
{+} Arthur-idolatry:[M] The opposite of being ridiculous; worthy of being taken seriously and sympathetically;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging BusMom/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Prejudge BusMom/ in front of Audience/;
{–} BusMom-idolatry: Inferior by Being Prejudged by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge BusMom/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Prejudging BusMom/ in front of Audience/;
{–} BusMom-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his nonverbal act of ridiculing Prejudgment — Bussers, but more so toward BusMom and especially toward Arthur himself;

4. In terms of actualization and sacrifice, by his response to laugh in her face, Arthur–in unjust turn, in effect–seeks to come out looking good (potentially in front of the whole bus) by trying to make the mother look bad (ridiculous); he likewise, from his own end, sacrifices some of the quality of his potential relationship with her. As a result, since she has somewhat just cause to now see him as somewhat of a dick, possible future meetings between them stand to become marked by even less Golden Rule-compliant sort of friendliness; this time it’s his turn to be held responsible for such further deterioration in their potential relationship. However, Arthur would not have responded in the pathological way which he did, had she not responded in the powerful dubiously-moral way to him first, and so the mother does deserve to be held responsible for facilitating Arthur’s unbecoming response.

Fortunately, for the glory of Golden Rule-compliance, in spite of his manifested show of apparent reflexive vindictiveness, by him showing her his card, he is nevertheless trying to tell her that while his outward behavior is marked by derogation and ridicule, which therefore is seemingly fueled by an openly-advertised entitled-to-redeem sort of moral personal superiority, he simultaneously shows to not feel as such on the inside. Arthur–at the present time–is still aware that his laughing response does not reflect the sort of person he wants to be in reality, does not reflect the kind of person he authentically identifies with.

Arthur thereby shows to be split, suffering from a likely dissociative personality disorder, torn between the pathological and ultimately self-humiliating ways in which he factually–at awkward moments–does present himself to the outside world versus the more authentic ways in which he would prefer to present himself outwardly (if only his invasive and offensive laughing fits didn’t manage to get the better of him). Unlike the mother–a probable believer in her own imagic narrative of being a righteous and vigilant sort of mother when it comes to dealing with obnoxious and bothersome strangers–showing to want to actualize her own polarity practices described in scripts (3.1-2), Arthur–in salient contrast–for now still shows resistance toward actualizing his own practices; and thus ends up siding with the mother, since–judging from her still-fuming demeanor–she is expected to only be unwilling to actualize his practices.

As for the fellow bus travelers, they do not seem to be engaged with what is going on between the mother and Arthur, they all seem to be minding their own business too much and it’s fairly safe to assume that the hostile and mutually-antagonistic exchange of initiated polarity practices do not affect them.

If the mother would accept the excuse contained in his card, his medically-endorsed alibi, his written gesture of atonement, their potential relationship might then not suffer the deterioration it now stands to suffer; even though the mother herself likewise deserves from her own end to atone by apologizing for having had not an entirely just cause to bark at him and humiliate him (in principle in front of the whole bus).

In terms of conscience, Arthur’s seemingly vindictive action makes no sense with respect to his authentic conscience since in it there obviously is no love or care to be found for the mother. But just like the mother seemingly having been motivated by a desire to articulate power, Arthur–if executed in a dubious spirit of ambiguity–shows to have responded perfectly in kind; his action on face value begs to be interpreted as a parity response to the mother’s attempt to trump him in power. If Arthur hadn’t handed her his card, it would have been hard to see it different than his attempt to deny and supersede her preceding attempt to assert power over him. His action then makes more sense relative to his inauthentic power-seeking conscience, one that is connected to a growing thematic practice of Power-seeking Self-idolatry. |3.3)

4.Reverie of idolatry at mom’s apartment

We see a tired and dispirited Arthur do what seems like a habitual pedestrial ritual: while on his way back home, he slowly climbs up a large staircase situated in between and connecting two streets at different altitudes; and once having hauled his tired ass all the way up, maunders like a ghost on life-support down the street leading up to the residential building in which he shares an apartment with his mother; on arrival, first checks their mailbox located near the hallway entrance -<nothing>; steps into an elevator; lets himself be transported up to his floor; exits the elevator; drags himself through the corridor; opens the door to their apartment; has to first–as per well-established tradition–bear his mother calling him Happy, followed immediately by her single-sentenced inquiry about any new mail that might have arrived; tells her there isn’t any; then heads to the kitchen to make dinner for her, and–when done–serves it while she’s sitting on her bed, busy watching the local news on TV.

Penny: “He must not be getting my letters.“
Arthur: “It’s Thomas Wayne, Mom. He’s a busy man.“
Penny: “Please. I worked for that family for years. The least he could do is write back.“
Arthur puts a plate of food in front of his mother.
Arthur: “Here. You are getting all worked up. You need to eat.“
Penny: “You need to eat. Look at how skinny you are.“
Before Arthur can say anything, his mother points to the news on the TV–
Penny: “He’ll make a great mayor. Everybody says so.“
Arthur: (playful) “Oh yeah? Everybody who? Who do you talk to?“
Penny: “Well everybody on the news. He’s the only one who can save this city. He owes it to us.“
Arthur smiles for his mother as he cuts up some more of her food.
Penny: (she pats the bed) “Come sit. It’s starting.“

Knowing only all-too-well what’s up, Arthur sighs in relieving anticipation and sits down next to his mother on the bed. Their favorite show is coming on. They watch how talk-show host Murray Franklin, adorned by his faithful live jazz orchestra, makes his playful daily entry while his audience is cheering and applauding loudly for him. This blissfully attractive scene inspires Arthur to drift off into a reverie in which he lets his wishful-thinking sort of dreamy faculty of imagination project his imaginary self right up there dead-smack in the middle of Franklin’s live audience. A gratefully beaming Murray can be seen doing a few moves to the music, takes a little bow to greet his enthusiastic audience, which he is certain to call “great looking“; and–sure enough–in the center of the crowd we now may notice the presence of a fictitious and idealized Arthur, clapping and cheering even more fanatically than the rest.

Murray then opens with the kind of joke which–if corny and obvious–seems to fall remarkably well with his audience, making Arthur laugh out particularly loudly; and by laughing almost hysterically, not only goes to openly and unreservedly express his unrivaled–indeed—transcendental personal affection for the popular TV host; by so doing also, in a most theatrical and artificial way, quite clearly shows to aim for nothing less than being recognized–especially by the extensively-revered target of his exaltation expressed with exaggeration–for his exhibited exultant excellence as audience member, truly exotic, exciting and extra exemplary.

Arthur Fleck: (screaming loudly) “I love you Murray!“
Murray is unsure where it is coming from but is eager to reciprocate.
Murray Franklin: “I love you too.“
He glances up at Arthur, who is clapping wildly, squints his eyes a bit to make him out—
Murray Franklin: “Hey Bobby, will you put the lights on?“
The house lights come up. Murray takes a few steps downstage and points straight up at Arthur–
Murray Franklin: “Who was that? Was that you? Will you stand up please? Stand up for me.“
Arthur looks around at the people around him, and realizes Murray’s talking to him. Murray picked him out of the crowd– Arthur gets up to his feet. He talks more here, and with more confidence, looks more at ease than we’ve seen him.
Murray Franklin: “What’s your name?“
Arthur Fleck: “Hi Murray. Arthur. My name is Arthur.“
Murray Franklin: “Uh, okay. There’s something special about you Arthur, I can tell. Where you from?“
Arthur Fleck: “I live right here in the city. With my m…other.“
The audience starts to giggle and laugh at him. Murray holds up his hand, stopping them from laughing, coming to Arthur’s defense–
Murray Franklin: “Hold on. There’s nothing funny about that. I lived with my mother before I made it. It was just me and her. I’m that kid whose father went out for a pack of cigarettes and he never came back.“
Audience “awwwws” for Murray, we can hear how much empathy they have for him. Arthur looks around at the crowd surrounding him.
Arthur: “I know what that’s like, Murray. I’ve been the man of the house for as long as I can remember. I take good care of my mother.“
The audience starts to applaud Arthur.
Murray Franklin: “All that sacrifice. She must love you very much.“
Arthur Fleck: “She does. She always tells me to smile and put on a happy face. She says I was put here to spread joy and laughter.” (4.1)
Audience “awwwws” now for Arthur.
Murray Franklin: “Wow. . . I like that. I like that a lot.“

Arthur’s idol–the extravagant and experienced master of ceremony, a fabulous flamboyant veteran in the exceptional art of administering top-notch-leveled show business–goes to show having nobility of heart when motioning his special audience member to come join him on stage. At first, Arthur shyly shakes his head in coltish reluctance, but soon relents, walks down the stairs, already glowing as he finally gets to meet his big hero in “real life”, the one prominent usually-pixelated person perpetually appearing in the spare-time part of his life whom–for however long already–has granted him enormous entertainment enjoyment.

Even though the ageing entertainment star was out of physical reach all throughout his life, by virtue of the marvelously miraculous invention called the television, Arthur had been able to procure a lasting means to please his senses in the form of a steady and valuable televised supply of lighthearted yet soul-soothing stand-up comedy.

As a result, in Arthur’s book, Murray had attained the outstanding personal status of being a remote yet symbolically-significant virtual god of television-mediated entertainment, one whom was serving the important role of acting as a great ameliorating force in his otherwise depressing and burdensome life. In other words, Murray quickly managed to rise to celestial heights of importance in his young admirer’s mind, leaving the older man being an invaluable asset for the younger man in his efforts to weather the seemingly ceaseless storm that may be called his life. In other words still, Murray had revealed himself to the other as a wonderful medium for Arthur to be able to cope with the emotional fall-out of the relentless trials and tribulations plaguing his life — although, all the while, in actual not insignificant fact and in all fairness, the lauded TV celebrity had remained entirely oblivious of this particular individual fact of fan life.

Recognition at last!

The worshipful TV host gladly receives a gratefully radiating Arthur, briefly whispers something in his ear, kind words no doubt, takes the hand of the completely content-looking other and raises it triumphantly in the air, as if to convey the clear unmistakable message to his audience that this particular admirer of his would truly be something else; that standing right in front of them is a fan only cut from special cloth indeed, worthy of all the honor and praise which the audience could possibly throw his way for being the outstanding devotee he would be, surely as worshipful as the TV star himself.

Such is the essence of Arthur’s idealized egosyntonic fantasy: that he himself were to deserve being worshiped for serving as the perfect fan of a perfect TV emcee — as if they together constituted some kind of yet-to-be-recognized royal class, belonging together as an inseparable team of excellence, made for each-other only even more due to having a comparable sort of familial background (both allegedly abandoned by their, implied to be, cowardly father); bound together by a shared level of exclusive personal magnificence; destined–in their own special television-aristocratic capacity–to rule over and look down upon all those other automatically deemed lesser mortals, fans and other viewers alike; even though all those supposed subordinates at the same time are expected to act with perfect sympathy and empathy toward the elevated host and the likewise elevated fan, for the untouchable and immaculate cosmic couple of entertainment gods which Arthur implies them to be (in his imagination running wild).

Murray then announces a break and, as such, is able to say a few special words to his special newfound fan.

Murray Franklin: “That was great, Arthur, thank you. I loved hearing what you had to say. It made my day.“
Arthur Fleck: (disarmed) “Thanks, Murray.“
Murray pulls Arthur in closer, lowers his voice–
Murray Franklin: “You see all this, the lights, the show, the audience, all that stuff, I’d give it all up in a heartbeat to have a kid like you.” (4.2)
Arthur looks at Murray Franklin, tears in his eyes and Murray looks back at him and gives him a hug.

Notwithstanding Murray being able to indulge daily in a flush and voluminous heart-warming supply of high-quality adoration and admiration coming from a lively live audience as well as an untold high number of not-directly visible fans and viewers tuning into his show by way of television, in Arthur’s egosyntonic fantasy land, all of that pales in comparison to the hypothetical opportunity of Murray having him for a son; thus emphasizing just how important Arthur ideally likes to see himself being to the entertainment celebrity — although, truth be told, for completeness’ sake, as broached before, that same entertainment star, in that same idolatrous fantasy land, really does not know Arthur beyond the superficial capacity of barely-acknowledged fan-hood, no matter how special a fan he likes to see himself being to the TV host he likes to see as a surrogate father figure; and so Murray’s hypothetical declaration championing Arthur would be more than a wee bit unwarranted and reckless; but this little detail seems to altogether escape Arthur’s notice while being lost in his intoxicating reverie of idolatry with Murray and himself for its objects.

4.1.In terms of idolatry. . .

There are two immoral actions that may be distilled from Arthur’s wildly self-inflating day-dream. The first occurs when Arthur confesses that, if true, his mother has a habit of immorally ordering as well as brainwashing him into doing something that was actually not hers to decide (infringement on personal autonomy). The second happens when Arthur prejudges Murray in his mind to be the sort of host who would give it all up, the kit and caboodle giving rise to his televised fame, just to have him for a son. Thus are generated two scripts.

Each time Penny ordered Arthur to put on a smile and happy face just for the heck of it, she committed an immoral action. Likewise, by prejudging a young impressionable Arthur what his life mission would be, to spread joy and laughter, she committed another immoral action — since such profound directive of life is up to the person themselves (or God) to decide. Her double immoral action, apparently habitually committed, may be described by the following script:

(4.1| i. Psychic Abuse of the 2-party Immoral Order and Prejudgment (Brainwashing) kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Penny; Victim = Arthur; Audience = Penny&Arthur;

1. Incoming-stage: Penny initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Penny-idolatry: [X] To have my son smile and put on a happy face;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: [X] I am to smile and put on a happy face; [X] my purpose in life is to spread joy and laughter;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Penny initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Penny-idolatry: Superior by Immorally Ordering and Prejudging Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Penny-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Penny/ to Immorally Order and Prejudge Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Immorally Ordered and Prejudged by Penny/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Penny initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Penny-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Immorally Order and Prejudge Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Penny-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Penny/ Immorally Ordering and Prejudging Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Immorally Ordered and Prejudged by Penny/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Penny incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in her dual act of Immoral Order and Prejudgment — Arthur, and especially toward Penny herself;

4. In terms of actualization, I don’t expect either Arthur or Penny to have objected to actualize her polarity practices; my prediction is that she, given her habit of time-and-again exposing Arthur to them, considered herself only a good mother to have done so; while Arthur simply was too young and too dependent on Penny to even have the guts or wits to object being subjected to the subtle form of brainwashing and autonomy-overriding abuse which he was.

In terms of conscience, Penny did not act with effective Golden Rule-compliance in mind, but since she probably did not know any better, seems to have convinced herself that she was only acting with the best interests in mind for young Arthur. Nevertheless, she did exercise an unwarranted measure of power over him, and would therefore in actual fact be acting more in line with her inauthentic conscience of a power-seeking kind; the sort of unnatural conscience which would also be consistent with a practice for praise-seeking in that she would naturally hope to profit herself from using a young Arthur as an extension of her own person in his attempts to (diligently and perpetually) trying to make other people smile, naturally hoping that this would reflect well on her too.

In terms of sacrifice, by her persistent subtly-tyrannical efforts, Penny actually forced Arthur ever more into an artificial existential position, one in which he was left dependent on other people more than was healthy. By continually hammering into his young formative skull what his mission in life was, she forced him to part with developing natural autonomy, forcing him to become dependent especially on the reactions of other people in his efforts to entertain them through laughter and joy, the type of reactions which “ideally” would be such that it only encouraged and stimulated him to become more-and-more dependent on external feedback (at the expense of his capacity to nurture his own autonomy). |4.1)

(4.2| By dreaming his reckless dream, Arthur may be said to initiate a private practice (with explicit and implicit components) of Abstract Positive Person-idolatry with Murray as well as himself for object of worship, having attributes which revolve around Murray being an ideal and perfect TV host, automatically worthy of endless showers of praise and recognition, perfectly entitled to be famous and celebrated for all the right reasons; whereas Arthur imputes to himself attributes which revolve around being the ideal and perfect fan, also only worthy of endless showers of praise and recognition, likewise perfectly entitled to be famous and celebrated for no more than being Murray’s self-styled perfect fan — and, fueled by a blinding sense of reverie-induced entitlement, he would then easily be tempted to consider it all to be such a crying shame as to why he has not already been recognized in that capacity, not by the people of Gotham, and not by Murray himself (which might be especially disappointing).

His dubiously laudatory daydream may be described by the following script:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Arthur; Victims = Arthur&Murray;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur initiates a potential (yet private) practice of Abstract…
{+} Murray-idolatry: [M] The perfect and ideal TV host; [X] would nevertheless give up the whole celebrity kit and caboodle in a heartbeat to have a son like Arthur;
{+} Arthur-idolatry: [M] The perfect and ideal fan of Murray; [M] entitled to be just as famous and celebrated as Murray, who might just as well be the father I long for;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Arthur;

There is no Scene of Immorality since it’s all playing out in Arthur’s mind and so there are no physical bodies involved in an immoral action playing out in the outside physical world.

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential (yet private) practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge Victims/ – Using Verbality/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality/ by Arthur/ Prejudge Victims/;
{–} Arthur|Murray-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Arthur/ – Using Verbality/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Arthur;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward all involved in or exposed to his act of Prejudgment — Wayne and especially toward Arthur herself;

4. In terms of sacrifice and actualization, to the extent that he really does believe in the substance of his own self-flattering day-dream and proceeds to actualize his own practices, the big risk that Arthur is taking through letting himself get carried away on those big pink fantasy-clouds of seductive self-elevating bliss, is that he risks sacrificing his prospects of a having a normal (more neutral and down-to-earth) sort of Golden Rule-compliant relationship with Murray, as well as with the people who happen to make up the host his audience. Now, due to the special sort of fan of Murray he stands to see himself being (a bit more), Arthur might just feel himself entitled to receive a special red-carpet sort of treatment coming from Murray as well as the host his audience (or, if seeking to follow in his big hero’s footsteps, maybe even Arthur’s own possible future audience). |4.2)

And so now the big question is, how would he respond if such first-class sort of treatment fails to be forthcoming? How would Arthur react if people refuse to shower him with the praise, the special kind, which he implies feeling entitled to? How would he handle the disappointment? Does he have the mental resources to prevent it from transmuting into vindictiveness?

Let’s assume that Arthur’s reverie followed naturally from his own Narcissistic needs. That is, Arthur naturally yearns for praise directed at his person. In an ideal sense, Arthur wants to be the object of praise, he wants other people to smile at him and praise him, especially for his prior manifested own efforts to present himself with gaiety. This is also inline with what his mother drilled into him, that his (singular) purpose in life is to spread joy and laughter; and he would therefore naturally appreciate it if his attempts to make other people feel better by making them laugh and enjoy themselves, were acknowledged by those people, preferably by them responding in kind, by smiling and cheering at him in a blissful mutually-beneficial quid-pro-quo kind of reciprocity.

Arthur’s mission in life–one wholly consistent with his Narcissistic drive–would then be wanting to be lauded by other people, wanting to be at the center of celebratory attention — praise, praise, oh lovely showers of praise, endlessly deep-and-wide avalanches of wonderfully-soothing and luxuriously-nourishing praise; nothing else on this whole wide world ranks anywhere near rivaling top-quality and unadulterated praise to make the pain of living melt away like snow in a warm spring sun.

But what if–heaven forbid–a smiling and joyful Arthur would encounter someone who refuses to smile at him in return, who is either unable or unwilling to give what Arthur could very well be used to receive, rewards for his ongoing general efforts to raise the spirits of people? What if Arthur would come across someone who fails to reflect Arthur in merriment? — someone who has the nerve to fail handing over to Arthur his dose of duly-expected praise, a fix of his preferred immaterial sort of drug? How would Arthur deal with disappointment of such a nature? Can he even cope? Might he stand to become perhaps a wee bit vindictive for being left at want, for being denied his fix, for being put in a state of cold-turkey withdrawal a little bit more.

From the point of view of such reluctant type of person, whose failure to reflect the happy-go-lucky likes of young Arthur might be due to suffering from a personal (yet concealed and private) state of sorrow or pain, Arthur’s efforts to force that person to do something against their will, might naturally have an offensive ring to it for that person. Indeed, if Arthur would persist in his efforts–egged on not just by his mother to keep wearing those smiles but perhaps also by a tad sense of stubborn personal vindictiveness–this other person might then even be led to think that Arthur was being a tad bit pushy, if not to say cruel, sadistic; that, in the eyes of that person, young Arthur–in his unrelenting efforts to appear amusing, to be found amusing–might just appear to be amusing at this other person’s expense; that–in this particular person’s eyes–Arthur seems to gain pleasure from promoting the other’s misery and suffering; that Arthur, a young then predatory Arthur, were seeking to selfishly raise his own spirits at this other person’s expense.

Such is the general problem instilled by Arthur’s mother: without taking into consideration the natural emotional fluctuability and versatility (ups and downs) of the–after all–very human people which, at any given time, might be found in the immediate vicinity of Arthur, that the exercise of spreading blanket joy and laughter, together with its carefree spirit-uplifting lighthearted function, also risks bringing with it a darker and more ominous side.

When a person in a bad mood is confronted by someone like young Arthur the clown, they might just–at some point–give in to the temptation to redefine the juvenile goofball in terms of being a nuisance, a burden rather than a blessing, a liability rather than someone merely busy spreading innocent joy and laughter. Let’s furthermore assume that this person would feel entitled to redeem themselves for what they then would imply to feel is being victimized by Arthur, entitled to seek compensation for sustained alleged personal grievances, and do so in the form of resorting what to that person is punitive defensiveness. As such, Arthur now all-of-a-sudden has opened himself up to abuse, which the abuser would be inclined to egosyntonically reinterpret as only being a justified sort of treatment (for dealing with an annoying pain-in-the-ass kind of kid).

5.Getting an instrument of destructive power

Arthur is again in the locker room of Ha-Ha Talent Booking, sitting on the bench next to the lockers, turned outwardly, minding his own business. He’s wearing nothing above the waist. The bruises sustained during his latest beat-down are clearly visible when Randall enters the locker room and walks over to where the battered other is busy fumbling around with his shoes.

Randall: “You okay?“
A fellow party clown, Randall (mid 50’s), big bear of a know-it-all, is opening his own locker putting his dry-cleaned clown suit inside.
Randall: “I heard about the beat down you took. Fucking savages.“
Arthur: “It was just a bunch of kids. I should have left them alone.“
Randall searches through his messy locker, going through all the bags inside–
Randall: “No, they’ll take everything from you if you do that, all the crazy shit out there, they’re animals,–“
Arthur: (nods) “My mother says that people nowadays lack empathy.“
Randall: “What’s empathy?“
Arthur: “It means like ‘feeling for other people.’”
Randall: “Like sympathy?“
Arthur: “Kind of. But different.“
Randall comes over, hands Arthur a brown paper bag– Arthur looks inside, sees a GUN, a .38 snub-nosed revolver. Arthur looks back up at Randall, confused–
Randall: “Take it. You gotta protect yourself out there. Otherwise, you’re gonna get fucked.“
As Arthur stares at the gun–
Arthur: (whispering) “Randall, I’m not supposed to have a gun.“
Randall: “Don’t sweat it, Art. No one has to know. And you can pay me back some other time. You know you’re my boy.“
That lands with Arthur, he smiles to himself. Stuffs the brown paper bag into his locker and continues getting dressed. Randall leans over and nudges Arthur, motioning to another clown, Gary (30’s), a dwarf, coming into the locker room from their boss’s office–
Gary: “Arthur,– Hoyt wants to see you in his office.“
Before Arthur can ask why, Randall interrupts him–
Randall: “Hey Gary, you know what I’ve always wondered?“
Gary: (knows what’s coming) “What?“
Randall: “Do you people call it miniature golf, or is it just golf to you?“

Randall chuckles at his own joke and Arthur–while putting on his shirt on his way over to his boss’ office–only joins the other with ever more articulated laughter, albeit of a slightly disturbed and artificial note.

Hoyt is sitting in his office doing some paper work when Arthur knocks on his door. “The office is a complete mess, newspapers and files litter the desk. A giant ashtray filled with cigarette butts. A calendar of booking hangs on the wall. A scribbled, jumbled mess.“

Arthur: “Hello Hoyt. Gary said you wanted to see me.“
Hoyt: (without even looking up) “How’s the comedy career? Are you a famous stand-up yet?“
Arthur: “Not quite. Just been working my material.“
This business is all about fine-tuning. Now Hoyt looks up. Takes a drag from his cigarette. Arthur goes to sit down–
Hoyt: “Don’t sit. This will be quick.“
Arthur stops in his tracks.
Hoyt: “Look, I like you, Arthur. A lot of the guys here, think you’re a freak. But I like you. I don’t even know why I like you. But I got another complaint. And it’s starting to piss me off. Kenny’s Music. The guy said you disappeared. Never even returned his sign.“
Arthur: “Because, I got jumped. Didn’t you hear?“
Hoyt: “For a sign? That’s bullshit. It doesn’t even make sense, just give him his sign back. He’s going out of business, for god’s sake Arthur.” (5.1)
Arthur: (interrupting) “Why would I keep his sign?“
Hoyt: (snaps) “How the fuck do I know, why doesn’t anybody do anything? If you don’t return the sign, I gotta take it outta your paycheck. . . . Are we clear?” (5.2)
Arthur just looks back at Hoyt and keeps smiling, like it hurts his face.
Hoyt: “Listen, I’m trying to help you. . . Okay? And I’ll tell you something else, the other guys, they don’t feel comfortable around you, Arthur. Because, people think you’re weird. Okay? And I can’t have that around me. . .“

As his egosyntonically-ranting nonchalantly-sadistic supervisor shoots his stinging string of self-salutary syllables, in response to having to endure a largely unreasonable burst of personal critique, Arthur is left standing there like an untended sack of potatoes in the dreary cold rain, only to be led to the slaughter at the dreadful altar of shame like a powerless scapegoated sacrificial lamb. While being forced to passively witness his boss’ humiliating ego-trip at his expense, Arthur’s face progressively contorts into a strangely eerie sort of smile, superficially covering up what looks to be an increasingly despondent sort of inner state, adrift ever deeper into his own mental world of injustice-induced torment.

Instead of even being willing to point the finger of accusation at the abusive little gang of juvenile actual culprits, while at the same time showing compassion for his employee being left all black-and-blue, the boss is quick to blame Arthur for some retarded and purely materialistic silly little reason — and it is strictly left in a state of doubt as to whether he even acknowledges that his employee was the victim of group-level physical abuse. Again, Arthur is being blamed for an undeserved and unjust reason, effectively punished while being victim, chastened for yet again daring to have put his best foot forward trying to do good — a theme of tragedy which seems to describe his depressing life with ever more justification and fidelity.

A moment later we can make out Arthur’s energetically animated silhouette in a stuffed and littered dark back alley outside of Ha-Ha’s — piles of garbage bags and other refuse clog the place up, while he’s busy “furiously kicking and stomping on something…” “We don’t hear anything. And we can’t make out what it is that he’s so violently beating down.” Arthur is acting out in a cathartic way, taking all of his bottled up frustrations and anger while unleashing it on various rejected material objects, and is thereby causing only a marginal bit of damage — which is relatively fortunate, karmically-speaking, since–apart from garbage men being burdened for having to clear somewhat more scattered and disintegrated refuse–no-one ends up victimized by his purgative outburst.

5.1 In terms of idolatry. . .

(5| Hoyt’s two committed moral infractions may be captured by the following two truncated scripts (stage four is given at the end).

(5.1| Insisting that his employee would be guilty of having stolen the sign (for whatever necessarily absurd self-sabotaging reason that then would be), while also implicitly denying or neglecting the other’s nevertheless undeniably real black-and-blue state of victimhood, Hoyt shows to tenaciously hold on to a distorted and disparaging (negative) mental image impression of Arthur; and then–rather than being willing to even go anywhere near acknowledging the full autonomous human nature of Arthur, including entitlement to explain and defend himself by offering an alternative and possibly conflicting account of events–the boss only goes to inflate, to such extreme extent, the attributed importance of the twisted–and factually fictitious and unjust sort of–mental image impression he has of Arthur, that it serves to provide the supervisor with a false sense of entitlement to berate and judge his scapegoated employee.

As such, by heedlessly exploiting his own unjust and incorrect interpretation of Arthur, it may be said that Hoyt initiated an implicit potential practice of Abstract Negative Arthur-idolatry, with attributes that paint him as someone having stolen the sign, who might not have been jumped at all.

In addition, though somewhat more subtly, Hoyt also lays claim to the opportunity to show Arthur, as well as–in an indirect secondary sense–the rest of his employees, that the boss would be cut from the kind that does not mess around, who does not let himself getting taken advantage of by any of his employees whenever a client comes around to the shop to complain. In effect, by disciplining Arthur for a fabricated and therefore unjust type of charge, Hoyt exploits the occasion to promote a distorted and boosted image impression of his own person, depicting himself not so much as a compassionate, considerate, charitable, charming and most of all fair and reasonable sort of boss, but rather one who commands power, ready and willing to punish (justified by decree, instead of by verifiable narrative) any of his employees whenever he feels they are misbehaving, stepping out of line. As such, by effectively and implicitly promoting an unjustly elevated image impression of himself, it may be said that Hoyt initiated an implicit potential practice of Abstract Positive Hoyt-idolatry.

In more succinct yet more comprehensive language, this act of deception on Hoyt’s part yields the following truncated script:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Deceptive kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Hoyt; Audience = Victims = Hoyt&Arthur;

1. Incoming-stage: Hoyt initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Hoyt-idolatry:[M] On to his employee named Arthur for prematurely walking away from an assignment at Kenny’s Music; [X] basically stealing their sign;
{–} Arthur-idolatry:[M] Suddenly and rashly disappeared from my assignment at Kenny’s Music for no good reason; [X] stole their sign also;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Hoyt initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Hoyt-idolatry: Superior by Lying to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied to by Hoyt/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied about by Hoyt/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Hoyt/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Hoyt initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Hoyt-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Audience-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied to by Hoyt/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Victims-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied about by Hoyt/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Hoyt/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Hoyt incurs authentic guilt toward everyone whom he involves in his deception — Arthur and especially toward Hoyt himself; |5.1)

When Hoyt orders Arthur to return the sign that had been smashed to smithereens, if we assume that it was therefore destroyed and couldn’t be retrieved and returned, he was giving his employee the sort of order that was immoral by necessity (since its execution was simply impossible). Hoyt’s immoral order may be captured by the following script:

(5.2| i. Psychic Abuse of the 2-party Immoral Order with 2-party Conditional Threat kind: Level = grievous Moral Error; Perp = Hoyt; Victim = Arthur; Audience = Hoyt&Arthur;

1. Incoming-stage: Hoyt initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Hoyt-idolatry: [X] To have Arthur return the sign of Kenny’s Music, or else have him pay for it from his own paycheck;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: [X] To return Kenny’s sign to its rightful owner, or else Hoyt will make me pay for it from my own paycheck;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Hoyt initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Hoyt-idolatry: Superior by Immorally Ordering and Conditionally Threatening Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Hoyt/ Immorally Ordering and Conditionally Threatening Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Immorally Ordered and Conditionally Threatened by Hoyt/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to others of Audience, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Hoyt initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Hoyt-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Immorally Order and Conditionally Threaten Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Hoyt/ Immorally Ordering and Conditionally Threatening Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Immorally Ordered and Conditionally Threatened by Hoyt/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Hoyt incurs authentic guilt toward all involved in passing his Immoral Order and Conditional Threat — Arthur and especially toward Hoyt himself; |5.2)

4. In terms of actualization, a Hoyt blinded by a lust for predatory power, as to the particularity specificity, may be assumed to be willing to actualize his own practices, and eagerly so. In sharp contrast, despite his masochistic leanings, Arthur gives off the impression to feel treated unfairly and may therefore be expected to be unwilling to actualize Hoyt’s practices. As to the generality specificity, the danger for Hoyt now is that he takes an inordinate liking as to flexing his muscles in the capacity of being a supervisor. He may be tempted to delude himself into believing (a little bit more) that not just Arthur but other people as well, especially other employees, deserve to be pulled right back on track should they “demonstrate” having the nerve to step out of line. 

In terms of conscience, Hoyt obviously did not act with Golden Rule-compliance in mind. His reflexive and impatient treatment of Arthur shows an underlying effective lack of care and love for Arthur. Even though he claims to want to help his employee, he is helping himself more than anything; and his care extends to Arthur only to the extent that the employee would be willing to be obedient and compliant to the instruction of his boss. In other words, Hoyt shows to want to push Arthur into his own behavioral mold and yet have to nerve to call it only being helpful, in an obvious attempt to morally whitewash his actually unwarranted exercise of power. Hence, Hoyt’s actions make little sense with respect to his authentic conscience, but makes a whole lot more sense in terms of his inauthentic power-seeking conscience: he gets to play the part of the boss who doesn’t kid around, veritably vigilant and feisty, and sanctifies his show of power by painting it in a color of altruism, which of course has a principledly honorable and commendable sort of sheen.

In terms of sacrifice, in his undue fit of muscle-flexing supervisory, trying to make himself look unreasonably good at the other’s expense, Hoyt goes to sacrifice some of the quality of the relationship between himself and his employee; their professional relationship stands to only see a measure of deterioration, and it is all the fault of a blind and incompassionate Hoyt that it is turning away from Golden Rule-compliance (and instead is possibly now veering toward a more sadomasochistic one, where the boss plays the part of <guilt-projecting> sadist, and Arthur the <guilt-absorbing> masochist). As a result, their day-to-day relationship–from Hoyt’s end–has now become fraught with a little bit more uneasiness and tension, especially for the boss it is now tilting in the direction of being a burden; and in order to do himself a favor, egosyntonic favor, might just be tempted to as of yet start looking for excuses to rid (relieve) himself of Arthur. |5)

With all the abuse he already has experienced thus far, being treated–on several occasions–like shit for no real defensible reason at the hands of selfish and unfair people basically high on power, Arthur is evidently left yearning for deliverance from his persistent personal predicament, one in which he hardly can even tell being alive; dying for redemption in the form of being able to attach to someone famous, someone who may be able to lift him up from his dire existential misery of being a virtual persona non existentia, someone who will show the whole wide world that he is somebody after all, someone like Murray.

6.Meeting Sophie in the awful elevator of their awful building

In that same tired old fashion, also perfectly symbolic of his tired old life, with lifelessly-hanging tired old shoulders, he once again scales that same long tired old staircase on his way home; once more drags his tired old body through that same prehistoric street leading up to his stone-age apartment complex; on arrival, once again finds no mail in his worn-out rusty old mailbox; yet one more time enters that same ramshackle antediluvian elevator, presses the button by perfect tired old rote to yet again take him to his medieval floor — now hearing, however, someone calling out from within the tired old hallway, maybe twenty – thirty feet away, wanting him to stop the doors from closing.

Arthur holds it open by casually sticking his still quite tired old foot out against the doors, just in time before they are about to completely slide shut.

Clutching a large paper bag of groceries to her chest, a black woman in her late twenties by the name of Sophie whispers – “thank you” – as she rushes in together with her daughter of about five years old. The doors again close and they are transported up, both heading to the same floor as it happens — which makes them practical neighbors. When the rickety-rackety elevator inadvertently stalls for a moment, it inspires an already downcast Sophie to lament to a perfectly-compatible dejected-looking Arthur about the general evident state of their shared dilapidated housing building. She goes on to further affirm her dispiriting observation by slowly bringing a hand to her head, orients the fingers into a configuration that resembles the outlining of a gun, and motions her thumb such that it simulates the releasing of a cocked hammer (albeit in implicitly tongue-and-cheek sort of melodramatic fashion). A worn Arthur seems to take it all in understandingly and even manages to crack a faint smile.

When they arrive at their floor, the doors open and she bids him goodnight as she walks passed him, leaving the elevator first. With Sophie and her daughter going out in one direction, while he in the other, the sullen aspiring jokesmith suddenly stops somewhere in the course of his way to swirl around; yells – “hey!“ – to reclaim her attention; and when she looks, goes to repeat Sophie’s quasi-suicidal symbolic gesture of despairing dissatisfaction; thus signaling sympathetic affection with her in a certainly more forceful yet likewise quasi-pessimistic sort of way. Sophie flashes half a smile in return and then disappears into her apartment with the little girl.

7.Mother expressing lack of faith in son’s comedy career

Arthur is giving his mother a bath when she suggests that the mailman could have a habit, even though of a decidedly nefarious note if true, of throwing away each and everyone of the letters she had ever mailed to Wayne.

Arthur: “Mom, why are these letters so important to you? What do you think he’s gonna do?“
Penny: “He’s gonna help us.“
Arthur: “Help us how?“
Penny: “Get us out of here, take me away from this place and these– these people.“
Arthur: “You worked for him over 30 years ago. Why would he help us?“
Penny looks at him with conviction, water dripping down her face, into her eyes. She wipes it away with her hands–
Penny: “Because Thomas Wayne is a good man. If he knew how we were living, if he saw this place, it would make him sick. I can’t explain it to you any better than that.” (7.1)
Arthur nods. Annoyed, but not worth the argument.
Arthur: “I don’t want you worrying about money, mom — or me. Everybody’s been telling me they think my stand-up is ready for the big clubs. It’s just a matter of time before I get a break.“
Penny: “But Happy, what makes you think you could do that?” (7.2)
Arthur: “What do you mean?“
And then she lets it out, without a seeming care in the world.
Penny: “I mean, don’t you have to be funny to be a comedian?“

In other words, by implicitly judging him to be unfunny, his mother shows–in offhandedly and relatively quite brutal fashion–to have no faith in her son’s efforts to become a stand-up comedian. It’s a strange twisted message coming from his mother: on the one hand, all throughout his life she seems to have manifested a penchant for reminding him of what would be his default purpose in life: putting smiles on the faces of people, spreading laughter and joy to the people around him, a maternal habit arguably already somewhat of an overbearing nature, all-the-more so when she shows to also have a habit of casually affirming and emphasizing his destined comedic mission in life every time she addresses him by her preferred little nickname, Happy; and yet on the other hand, as if it would be no more than the most trivial of matters, as if discussing entirely inconsequential issues of non-gravitas like arctic weather, she now lets him know to not have any confidence in his talents for making people crack up the way (garden-variety professional) comedians can.

It is also apparent that Thomas Wayne, for all practical purposes, serves as Penny’s idol, not just functioning in an ideal wishful-thinking sort of sense as–what will shortly become clear is–her own “extraordinary“ and “very powerful“ personal sort of savior, but she also showed earlier to regard him as a more general sort of liberator when claiming that only he can “save this city” and that he moreover owed fulfilling such a noble task to the people of Gotham. She once again confirms to idolize Wayne by nonchalantly declaring him to be a “good man“, whom–if he happened to come over and see what their living conditions were like–would be disgusted by “this place“.

7.1.In terms of idolatry . . .

(7.1| Penny shows to altogether ignore the complex and multivariate real human nature of Wayne by otherwise acknowledging that he, like everyone else in principle, has good personal qualities about him as well as bad ones. Instead, Penny focuses on a few of the good qualities he were to have, and then goes to magnify the attributed importance of those alleged personal qualities to a wildly exaggerated extent; and yet just the same imply that it could still serve to accurately define what sort of person he is in reality: good, a sure savior, great mayor material — such is the essence of Penny’s specific explicit potential practice of Abstract Positive Wayne-idolatry.

To the extent that he–just like his mother–has a habit of basing his general assessment of any random person out there, by focusing on an (idolatrous and intrinsically shallow) image impression of that person rather than acknowledging the potentially arbitrarily-complex full human and authentic substantial nature belonging to that same person, it may now be tempting for Arthur to start harboring envy toward Wayne; because here is his mother, owing to her apparent resolve to positively idolize her former employer, dryly implying to place much more worth in Wayne than she does in her own son.

In an obvious attempt to offset his mother’s efforts to make Wayne look good while making him look bad by inference, now seeking to make Wayne look bad while making himself look good in comparison, Arthur would then be enacting a likely for-the-time-being private (strictly self-actualized) practice of Abstract Negative Wayne-idolatry, having invariably negative attributes of whatever kind, ones in which his most defining personal assets–his fame and fortune–stand to be used and held against him.

But this latter part about a tacitly reactive Arthur possibly negatively idolizing Wayne is unconfirmed speculation. What we can say is that Penny’s act of positive idolization of Wayne may be described as an act of prejudgment on her part. The corresponding script would then read:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Penny; Victim = Wayne; Audience = Penny&Arthur;

1. Incoming-stage: Penny initiates a potential practice of Abstract Positive Wayne-idolatry: [X] Being a good man, [X] who would get sick if confronted with the impoverished nature of Penny and Arthur’s apartment;
Abstract Wayne-Pidol is disseminated over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Penny initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted …
{+} Penny-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging Wayne/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Penny-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Penny/ Prejudging Wayne/ in front of Audience/;
Penny exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to Arthur, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Penny initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Penny-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudging Wayne/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Penny-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Penny/ Prejudging Wayne/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Wayne-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Penny/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Penny incurs authentic guilt toward all involved in or exposed to her act of Prejudgment — Arthur, Wayne and especially toward Penny herself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, by way of positively idolizing Wayne, Penny ends up progressively sacrificing the prospects from her end to have a normal and healthy Golden Rule-compliant relationship with her former employer. By again-and-again (unthinkingly and reflexively) touting him as the hero savior he would be, she naturally builds up an expectation for her hero savior in mind to also be that hero savior in reality, the sort of hero savior that would naturally care for her in a for her fitting way; basically a suitable reward as to the favorable light she likes to see him in and advertise him as such. If this train of thought makes sense, she places an inordinate amount of hope on and expectation from Wayne, while at the same time, the nevertheless still quite human object of her idolatry remains completely in the dark as to such matter, completely unaware that Penny has turned him into an idealized and elevated object of attachment and expectation.

In terms of actualization, unlike Penny herself, it is doubtful if Arthur shares in his mother’s positive reception of Wayne and it is therefore doubtful that he is willing to actualize her polarity practices. Since they are poor and Wayne is rich, he might even be tempted to reject her excessively flowery take of Wayne merely on such difference. 

In terms of conscience, egged on by sycophantic television media people sucking up to the captain of industry in focus, Penny’s reflexive resolve to positively idolize Wayne clashes with the Golden Rule and is therefore hard to explain in terms of her authentic conscience; but relative to her possibly existing inauthentic status-seeking conscience, making her trying to attach to men of status, men of power, it makes a whole lot more sense. |7.1)

(7.2| Every time Penny calls her son by her preferred chosen appellation, Happy, it may be said that she reinforces a little explicit potential practice of Abstract Positive Arthur-idolatry, with its attribute obviously being happy. Now if Arthur would be the type of kid who is (robotically) happy all the time, there might not be a problem. But what if–heaven forbid–one godforsaken day (a more humanly-appearing) Arthur just so happens to not feel quite so happy? — or worse, the exact opposite of happy? And yet, here is his mother calling him such, by apparent rote, by blind mechanical habit, one which then stands to easily become annoying to the still very human object. Might it be that he ends up feeling a tad bit mocked and humiliated at such precise moments of personal referral? — quite possibly feeling then as if his mother was (deliberately) putting him down, however subtly, and automatically came out looking relatively on top herself, all at his necessary expense (which might reek a little bit of sadism coming from mommy dearest).

Each time Penny calls Arthur Happy, she tries to brainwash her son into accepting her idealized image impression of him. Her subtly tyrannical act may be interpreted as an act of prejudgment, to be captured by the following script:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Penny; Victim = Arthur; Audience = Penny&Arthur;

1. Incoming-stage: Penny initiates a potential practice of Abstract Positive Arthur-idolatry: [X] Being happy;
Abstract Arthur-Pidol is disseminated over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Penny initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted …
{+} Penny-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Penny-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Penny/ Prejudging Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Prejudged by Penny/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Penny initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Penny-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Penny-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Penny/ Prejudging Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Penny/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Penny incurs authentic guilt toward all involved in or exposed to her act of Prejudgment — Arthur and especially toward Penny herself;

4. In terms of actualization, it is fairly safe to say that, while Penny likely does actualize her own practices, such is unlikely the case with Arthur — if for no other reason than that he does not behave as someone smitten by eternal radiatory happiness (this should already be obvious to the astute observer but Arthur will explicitly affirm as much in front of his mother later on).

In terms of conscience, her attempts to brainwash Arthur into being “happy”, and thereby casually disregard the true (organic, non-robotic, naturally-fluctuating) human nature of her son, makes no sense if she would really be in tune with her authentic Golden Rule-compliant conscience. But by calling him Happy and thereby impose her will upon him to behave in ways that ultimately first-and-foremost please her, she implies to hope to exercise a subtle persistent power over her son; and so in terms of her possibly existing inauthentic power-seeking conscience it makes more sense.

By heedlessly hammering her chosen-yet-subtly-demeaning nickname down the poor lad’s skull in faithful time-honored time-and-again fashion, each time she calls him Happy, Penny raises a concomitant (tacit) expectation for him to present himself as such, if need be force presenting himself in a state of clearly-discernible happiness; and she thereby shows to recklessly brush aside her normal human–and certainly maternal–duty to take into account his possibly fluctuating mood, his uncensored, spontaneous and true emotional state of being (unlikely to always tilt in the direction of happy).

Hence, in terms of sacrifice, Penny–as if wearing pink blinders as to the way she perceives her son–ends up sacrificing the prospects of having a normally-balanced Golden Rule-compliant sort of relationship with Arthur. Rather than dropping her penchant to prejudge her son and instead show willingness to accept him as a full flesh-and-blood fellow human being, one who is of equal worth to herself, one who is not a robot that can be programmed to act in ways that please her — her relationship with him now is such that she prejudges him to be a moldable humanoid object, but one that preferably and specifically has a perpetual smile plastered on his face.

Whenever–throughout all of his life–he were to have presented himself to her in a state of unhappiness, would she ever have been able and willing to truly recognize and accept him as such? What impact would it have had on him, on his developing self, if she failed to recognize him in a state of unhappiness? — or if she, heaven forbid, perhaps only went to interpret it as a superficial encouragement from her end to try and force him to present himself in a state of happiness (or “happiness”) by precisely upping-the-ante of her (manipulative, brainwashing) habit to call him happy? As a result of being subjected to a subtly burdensome relationship with his mother, Arthur might just have grown increasingly prone to warm up to the idea (however unconscious he would have remained of it) that if his mother would just go away, he might grieve but he might also feel relief. |7.2)

8.Accidentally discharging gun at home

It is evening. Arthur is sitting alone in the living room, holding in his hand the gun he recently obtained from Randall. He has a disdainful sort of look on his face that seems fitting for someone who has just become aware of having made the quantum leap of going from a dim and shimmering low-down position of fragile persistent victimhood all the way upward unto a lucid and bright blissfully-elevated robust position of redeeming power — finally freed from a pitiful fate of perpetual suffering because he now knows what it means, relative to his socially interacting self, of having gained an instrument of raw destructive power under his immediate control. Arthur stands up and–with that same hard scornful look on his face–starts to dance a little to the tune that is coming from the TV, a song from the 1930s called Slap that Bass by Fred Astaire and Ensemble.

He then begins a conversation with an imaginary other person, whom he also vocally represents; and as the imaginary other goes to pay him an imaginary compliment for his purported manifested dancing skill, Arthur, full of pride, suspiciously radiating newfound self-confidence, goes to positively affirm the other’s imaginary gesture; is quick to follow up with the question, “You know who’s not?“; refers to yet another imaginary person when answering, “him“; and–in an obvious attempt to shame into permanent silence the deemed intolerably-unworthy imaginary latter–points and pulls the trigger of his nevertheless very real gun.

BLAM!

The poor bastard startles, jumps in the air and rolls on the floor as if to dodge a rapidly approaching flying object of overwhelming danger, albeit of an invisible kind. “What the fuck!? He looks around in a panic. His hands shaking. He shot a hole in the wall.“ The mother immediately responds by crying out from her bedroom, inquiring with articulated intent and urgency in her voice about the sudden sharp pulse of offensive noise which so rudely yet temporarily had gone to invade her peace of mind, quite possibly of a dreaming kind. Arthur rejoins in kindred spirit by shouting in her broad direction that–in an attempt to avoid a crucial portion of culpability–he would only be doing no more indictable a thing than “watching an old war movie” (obvious bullshit). His mother–in that same vein of intent and urgency, readily asserting superseding power–reciprocates by ordering him to turn down the volume of the television, the ostensible implied source of the burst of auditory overload. The aspiring comedian then disappears into his mother’s bedroom in a presumed further bid to pacify her, albeit necessarily with a good further dose of attention-misdirecting and shame-avoiding disingenuinity.

Later that night, Arthur again is sitting alone in the kitchen, “writing in his journal. He speaks softly to himself as he writes“: “Why didn’t Randall tell me the gun was loaded? I could have killed someone“; “I could have killed myself.“ He then crosses out the word — “could” — in the last sentence, replaces it with “should“; studies his self-corrected sentence, “I should have killed myself“; and mentally endorses it, “I should kill myself.“

9.Stalking Sophie and taking notes at pogo’s Comedy Club

It is early in the morning. Sophie is dropping off her daughter, GiGi, at school and a hooded Arthur is stealthily watching them from a distance. As she walks away from the school, he starts secretly following her; but after having tailed her while traveling by subway all the way to Gotham’s down-town financial district, Arthur loses his nerve and altogether quits his stalking adventure when Sophie disappears into what seems like a bank.

That evening, we find “Arthur sitting in the middle of a dark, crowded comedy club. People on dates. Groups of friends. All here to watch the stand-up. He sits at a small table by himself, watching the act on stage. The comic on stage is killing it. The whole room is laughing and applauding. Everyone except Arthur. He’s watching. Studying. Diligently jotting down notes in his notebook.“

Later that night, his mother already being “dead asleep“, Arthur is again writing in his notebook. As he scribbles down the not insignificant–indeed, rather astute–observation that the “worst part about having a mental illness is that people expect you to behave as if you don’t“, the doorbell rings.

When he opens the door, he sees “Sophie standing there with attitude, leaning up against the door frame.” After saying hi to one another, she hits him with it:

Sophie: “Were you following me today?“
Arthur: (embarrassed) “Yeah.“
Sophie: “I thought that was you. I was hoping you’d come in and rob the place.“
Arthur: (leans in, quietly) “I have a gun. I could come by tomorrow.“
Sophie: (laughing) “You’re so funny, Arthur.“
Arthur: “You know, I do stand-up comedy. You should maybe come see a show sometime.“

After telling him she could do that and he agrees to tell her when, she turns around and walks away. Arthur steps outside of his apartment for a second in order to gaze at her while she is walking back to her own apartment. They both then again disappear into their respective apartments.

It is remarkable that Sophie failed to inquire as to why Arthur would even have wanted to pursue her in the first place.

Theoretically, though lacking rationality, it might be that she beforehand had resigned herself to what would then be the self-short-selling sort of prejudice that the actual reason for him stalking her, is supposedly none of her business, when it of course is — if for no other reason than that it had been her own person who was the object of stalking. To the extent that such reason is valid and on point, why so superficial? — why didn’t she hold his feet to the fire, so to speak?

One other possibility as to why taking no apparent offense, is that she precisely did not mind him stalking her; thinking that he might be a bit too shy to have the guts to walk up to her, freely, on his own initiative; that he therefore might be served with a little bit of help of the nudging kind; and so that’s why she’s now taking the lead by ringing his doorbell — a visit, brief though it was, resulting in her gaining the hope that he would now have enough courage to reciprocate by walking over, stalking over, to her door some time in the near foreseeable future and to boldly proceed to “rob the place“, tongue-in-cheek of course.

10.If you’re happy and you know it, stomp your feet . . .

One afternoon, Arthur may be found in the Children’s Ward of Gotham’s General Hospital. He’s on a cheer-up assignment for health-compromised kiddies and is wearing a white lab coat on top of his standard clown regalia. Under the supervision of several nurses in attendance, the room is filled with sick children seated on chairs and on beds placed to the sides. Arthur is standing in the center doing what clowns do, in this case drolly dancing around to the familiar tune of an old sing-along song about being happy, also being aware of such and clapping hands as well as stomping feet to show as much.

As he is diligently clapping and stomping around, merrily miming the lyrics of the music, it so happens that at some point, his revolver–which he apparently had stashed somewhere in his pants–slips and clatters on the floor. They all can’t help but stare at the gun, such an unusual artifact sported by a clown; even worse – put on sudden open display in front of minors, and is thus bound to be found an at-once incriminating piece of evidence already qualifying to accuse Arthur. The clumsy yet consistently theatrical staying-in-character sort of clown suddenly stops dead in his tracks; lets out a typically clownish yell of embarrassment and surprise; quickly fetches the exposed .38 from the ground using one arm–but only after first seemingly inadvertently kicking it over the floor a few feet away–then rapidly yet clownishly moves it out of sight by shoving the hand holding the piece right under his coat, and brings his closed other hand to his mouth with only his stretched index finger touching his lips in order to clownishly shush every possible witness into no-tell silence.

A little while later, in spite of his deliberate yet clownish efforts to draw everyone in the room into a conspiracy of silence at his behest, Arthur–still wearing his clown outfit–is standing inside of a phone-booth outside, talking to his boss, trying to explain himself as to what had just transpired.

Arthur: (pleading) “Hoyt, please. I love this job.“
Hoyt: (adamant) “Arthur, I need to know why you brought a gun into a kid’s hospital.“
Arthur: (innocent) “It’s a prop. It’s part of my act now.“
Hoyt: (spiteful) “That’s bullshit, bullshit. What kinda clown carries a fucking gun? Besides, Randall told me you tried to buy a .38 off him last week.” (10.1)
Arthur’s taken aback that Randall would do that to him.
Arthur: (juvenile innocence) “Randall told you that?“
Hoyt: (power-tripping) “You’re a fuck-up, Arthur. And a liar. You’re fired.” (10.2)

In response to suffering yet another (albeit this time particularly profound) blow to his already depressing life, Arthur brings his head to a glass pane of the booth and then headbutts it with enough force that he damages the glass, leaving the pane having a typical shattered-glass sort of texture.

Hoyt, by virtue of being boss, is entirely in his right to consider a gun to be inadmissible as a clown prop, especially in the vicinity of children. And so, even though I personally think he’s acting too harshly, Hoyt would not be in the wrong for firing an employee on the grounds of said employee flashing a gun on any of the assignments which ultimately he supervises and carries responsibility for. However, it is possible that Hoyt may stoop to acts of misuse of power when he himself ends up slipping in errors of judgement while exercising his power as boss — calling Arthur a fuck-up, instead of the more appropriate Golden Rule-compliant alternative of telling him he had fucked up, already may count as a hint of misuse of power.

Let’s go over the possibilities. There are two actors involved in this brief exchange, each making statements that are either true or false.

1a) Arthur was telling the truth about the gun being a prop. Hoyt would therefore be lying himself when claiming that Arthur was lying;
1b) Arthur was lying about the gun being prop. Hoyt would then be telling the truth when claiming that Arthur was lying;
2a) Hoyt was telling the truth when claiming that Randall told Hoyt that Arthur tried to buy a .38 from Randall. Randall was therefore lying, but Hoyt himself was effectively also lying by propagating Randall’s lie unto Arthur;
2b) Hoyt was lying when claiming that Randall told Hoyt that Arthur tried to buy a .38 from Randall. Randall was telling the truth (telling his boss having given the gun to Arthur, with Hoyt now misrepresenting Randall);

The above two scenarios (1&2) each having two options (a&b), yield four permutations of possibility:

1a+2a) Since Arthur did not lie – whereas Hoyt lied once (as well as Randall), the relative justification for Hoyt firing Arthur is low (but not lowest);
1a+2b) Since Arthur did not lie (as well as Randall) – whereas Hoyt now lied twice, the relative justification for Hoyt firing Arthur is lowest;
1b+2a) Since Arthur lied once (as well as Randall) – whereas Hoyt did not, the relative justification for Hoyt firing Arthur is highest;
1b+2b) Since Arthur lied once – whereas Hoyt also lied once, the relative justification for Hoyt firing Arthur is high (but not highest);

As for Randall, if he had been lying to Hoyt about the gun, then why? — why hadn’t he told the simple truth to Hoyt? Well, if he would have admitted to having provided Arthur with the gun, on his own initiative mind you, then also this other clown might have reason to fear losing his job — that’s the feeling I’m getting here. However, protecting one’s own clown-ass is one thing, protecting one’s own clown-ass while betraying someone else’s clown-ass is quite another, especially if that ass belongs to someone you also go around calling your friend. It goes to show that Randall cannot be relied upon as a friend, that (at least concerning Arthur) he is no stand-up kind of guy, that he seems quick to betray friendships if feeling–what to him seems to be–a compelling need to cover his own shame-soiled clown-ass.

10.1.In terms of idolatry . . .

(10| The more errors of judgment he slips into his act of sacking, the lower the justification for firing Arthur is, the more it may be said that Hoyt seeks to promote (albeit implicitly) an undue image impression of himself as a righteous and noble sort of boss, vigilant and punitive but (ostensibly) just in doing so — as such, it may be said that Hoyt initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract Positive Person-idolatry with himself for object of worship.

Since it as yet is unknown who is lying and who is telling the truth, the moral infractions due to deception committed in this part, may be described by the following script taking into account all four contingencies corresponding to the four permutations listed above:

(10.1| i. Psychic Abuse of the Deceptive kind: Level = Moral Error; Audience = Hoyt&Arthur;

1. Incoming-stage:
1a) Perp = Hoyt; Victims1 = Arthur&Hoyt; Hoyt initiates a potential practice of Abstract…

{–} Arthur-idolatry:[X] My gun being a prop is bullshit (2x); [M] I am a liar;
{+} Hoyt-idolatry:[X] It’s bullshit (2x) that Arthur’s gun is a prop; [M] I am a just and truthful boss;

1b) Perp = Arthur; Victims1 = Arthur&Hoyt; Arthur initiates a potential practice of Abstract…

{+} Arthur-idolatry:[X] My gun is a prop, part of my act now; [M] Less culpable than I am in reality;
{–} Hoyt-idolatry:[M] Excessively accusatory as to Arthur;

2a) Perp = Hoyt; Victims2 = Arthur&Randall; Hoyt initiates a potential practice of Abstract…

{–} Arthur-idolatry:[X] I tried to buy a .38 from Randall last week;
{+} Randall-idolatry:[X] Arthur tried to buy a .38 from me last week; [M] I am innocent;

2b) Perp = Hoyt; Victims2 = Arthur&Randall&Hoyt; Hoyt initiates a potential practice of Abstract…

{–} Arthur-idolatry:[X] I tried to buy a .38 from Randall last week;
{+} Randall-idolatry:[X] Arthur tried to buy a .38 from me last week;
{+} Hoyt-idolatry:[X] Was told by Randall that Arthur tried to buy a .38 from Randall last week; [M] I am truthful and sincere;

Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;
Victims = Victims1&Victims2 = Arthur&Hoyt&Randall;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: [note that 1a+2a|1a+2b) stands for: 1a+2a) OR 1a+2b), and thus covers two contingencies]

1a+2a|1a+2b) { Hoyt initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Hoyt-idolatry: Superior by Lying to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt&Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied to by Hoyt/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt&Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied about by Hoyt/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Hoyt/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/; }

1b+2a|1b+2b) {{ 1b] Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Lying to Audience/ about Victims1/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt&Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied to by Arthur/ Lying about Victims1/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt&Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied about by Arthur/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims1/;

2] Hoyt initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Hoyt-idolatry: Superior by Lying to Audience/ about Victims2/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt&Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied to by Hoyt/ Lying about Victims2/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied about by Hoyt/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt-idolatry: Inferior by Being Lied about by Hoyt/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/; 2b) only
{–} Hoyt-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Hoyt/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims2/; }}

Since they are talking to each-other over the phone, each exposes his PrimePidol only audially to the other as well as their own self;

3. Rationalization-stage:

1a+2a|1a+2b) { Hoyt initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Hoyt-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt&Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied to by Hoyt/ Lying about Victims/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt&Arthur&Randall-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied about by Hoyt/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Hoyt/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims/; }

1b+2a|1b+2b) {{ 1b] Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Lie to Audience/ about Victims1/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt&Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied to by Arthur/ Lying about Victims1/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt&Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied about by Arthur/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims1/;

2] Hoyt initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Hoyt-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Lie to Audience/ about Victims2/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt&Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied to by Hoyt/ Lying about Victims2/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur&Randall-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied about by Hoyt/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Lied about by Hoyt/ Lying to Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/; 2b) only
{–} Hoyt-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Hoyt/ to Lie to Audience/ about Victims2/; }}

Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Hoyt incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his act of Deception — Randall, more so toward Arthur and especially toward Hoyt himself; if Arthur did lie, then he incurs authentic guilt toward Hoyt and especially toward himself;

4. In terms of actualization, at this stage nothing can be said who believes the lies and who is aware of the lies and is yet willing to rationalize it away.

In terms of conscience, since there are no lives at stake due to having to deal with some credible atmosphere of emergency, even though his deception would make little sense in terms of his authentic conscience, a Hoyt engaged in either lying explicitly or passing on Randall’s lie may be (better) understandable relative to his inauthentic power-seeking conscience; likewise, if Arthur did lie, it would be better understandable relative to his inauthentic shame-avoiding conscience, hoping to avoid the shame of getting fired (which didn’t quite work out well though).

In terms of sacrifice, the liars (singular or plural) incur guilt and now have to fear reproach because of their efforts to draw the people exposed to their lies away from the perfect truth and away from perfect sanity. As such, the liars make it harder to relate to their victims in the kind of carefree spontaneity and openness they would otherwise be able to had they not lied to them and or about them. By lying, they put their trustworthiness and credibility on the line (a little bit more). |10.1)

(10.2| In addition, by calling Arthur a fuck-up, by judging the totality of his person to be failure, by exaggerating one particular flaw of the clown and then wildly inflating the importance he seeks to attribute to it (and to have it attributed to by others) such that it ostensibly still could serve to validly represent the entirety of the person, Hoyt may be held to account for initiating an explicit potential practice of Abstract Negative Arthur-idolatry, its attribute being “failure” (fuck-up); an optional or conditional attribute being: being a “liar” — if it indeed turns out that Arthur was lying.

Hoyt’s name-calling act may interpreted as an act of prejudgment and may therefore be captured by the following script:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = Hoyt; Victim = Arthur; Audience = Arthur&Hoyt;

1. Incoming-stage: Hoyt initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Hoyt-idolatry:[M] I am a just boss, vigilant too;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: [X] I am a fuck-up;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Hoyt initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Hoyt-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Hoyt/ to Prejudge Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Prejudged by Hoyt/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audially to the other and self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Hoyt initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Hoyt-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} Hoyt-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by Hoyt/ Prejudging Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Hoyt/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Hoyt incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his act of Prejudgment — Arthur and especially toward Hoyt himself; |10.2)

4. In terms of sacrifice, it’s obvious that–as the price for gaining the relief for ridding the one employee he was left feeling uneasy about, due to, mind you, his own leadership error–Hoyt sacrifices the prospect from his end to have a normal future Golden Rule-compliant sort of relationship with his now former employee. In addition, by terminating Arthur’s employment, Hoyt might also cause Arthur to sacrifice some of the quality of his relationship with his own self; i.e., Hoyt should then also be held responsible for facilitating Arthur–if agreeing to see himself as the fuck-up that Hoyt makes him out to be–to suffer a reduction in self-esteem. Also, if Arthur now lands into trouble due to having lost his job, then Hoyt, might be held responsible for facilitating such unfortunate secondary developments, the extent of which depends on which permutation in the above scene is applicable.

In terms of actualization, as to the particularity specificity, Hoyt probably goes to actualize his own practices (not seeing himself acting prejudicially at all but rather as a sound judge), whereas Arthur probably won’t join Hoyt in actualization, and it remains to be seen whether his colleagues will side with their boss (Gary probably not, but he might be a minority since Arthur is generally found weird over at Ha-Ha’s, according to Hoyt at least). As to the generality specificity, while riding a delusional bubble of self-righteousness floated by himself through his heedless act of prejudgment, Hoyt risks seeing himself justified a little bit more to “judge” others like Arthur should they “fuck up” in ways which he deems as similar to Arthur.  

In terms of conscience, Hoyt’s act of prejudgment is hard to explain in terms of his authentic Golden Rule-compliant conscience since there obviously is no love or care to be found in it; but relative to his inauthentic power-seeking conscience, it might just make a whole lot more sense, since it gives the boss a chance to display power and a sense of personal moral superiority (even though it is artificial and disingenuous). |10)

11.Send in the Clowns

Not long after, a saddened Arthur is sitting in a subway train traveling home, contemplating the employment tragedy that has just swallowed up his life. He’s still wearing his costume, face still painted when at some stop, three Wall Street guys get on the virtually empty car; they are clearly drunk, already obnoxious, planting themselves in the immediate space of a young woman minding her own business while sitting silently reading a book all by herself; inspiring Arthur to start watching with interest this new scene initially playing out in his periphery, taking place some twenty feet away from him. “One of them is eating some French fries out of a greasy McDonald’s bag. He flops down on the bench across from the young woman, and checks her out.“

Even though the other two in the beginning are discussing some unrelated issue involving some apparent other girl, with Arthur silently being “impressed by their confidence and easy-going camaraderie“, they nonetheless drop the matter when their remaining companion decides there might be some type of reward to be found in trying to get the attention of the woman reader with some of his arguably less-enticing brought-along bunch of French fries.

Wall Street #3: (to the girl) “Hey. You want some French fries?“
He holds out his McDonald’s bag and shakes it to get her attention. The other two share a look. Arthur watches from his seat.
Wall Street #3: “Hello? I’m talking to you. You want some fries?“
She looks up and shakes her head, polite smile.
Young Woman: “No, thank you.“
The other two guys crack up at this apparent blow-off. The third Wall Street guy shakes his head, embarrassed, and starts softly flinging fries at the young woman. (11.1)
Wall Street #3: “You sure? They’re really good.“
She makes a valiant effort to continue reading when one of the other Wall Street guys comes to the rescue of his turned-down buddy.
Wall Street #2: (to the girl) “Don’t ignore him. He’s being nice to you.“
While being used for target practice with French fries, she looks down toward Arthur, looking to see if he’s going to do something or say something– Arthur just sits there nervous. Not sure what to do, or even if he wants to do anything at all. And he just bursts out laughing.(11.2) They all look over– What the fuck is this clown laughing at?
Wall Street #1: (annoyed) “Something funny, asshole?” (11.3)
With their attention diverted, the young woman gets up and walks away, presumably heading to either another car, or to exit the train altogether. A deflated and disillusioned Wall Street #3 nonchalantly throws his grease bag in her receding broad direction.
Wall Street #3: (shouts after her) “BITCH!“ (11.4)
He laughs even harder. The Wall Street guys turn to him sitting by himself. Arthur sees them staring. One of the guys heads down the car toward Arthur, starts singing “Send in the Clowns” as he approaches–
Wall Street #1: (singing) “Isn’t it rich? Are we a pair? Me here, at last on the ground. You in mid-air. Send in the clowns.“
The others crack up and follow after him. One of them soon plops down next to Arthur, while the singing one goes to stand right in front of him, both of them intimidatingly invading his space.
Arthur Fleck: (shakes his head, stifling the laughter) “Please. Don’t.“
Wall Street #1: (continues singing to him) “Isn’t it bliss? Don’t you approve? One who keeps tearing around. One who can’t move. Where are the clowns? There ought to be clowns.“
As he finishes the song, Arthur’s laughing fit is coming to an end.
Wall Street #1: (menacing) “So tell us, buddy. What’s so fucking funny?“
Arthur Fleck: (apologetic) “Nothing.” (laughs) “I have a condition–“

Arthur–in between obstructive bursts of nervous chuckling–reaches into his shopping bag to get out one of his “Forgive my laughter” cards, but WS #1 beats him to the punch by aggressively grabbing the bag from him. A brief tussle takes place in which WS#3 quickly seizes Arthur by the arms from behind. By being bearhugged, not able to defend himself with his upper limbs, he tries to kick WS #1. The latter responds by ordering WS #3 to hold Arthur steady; and then delivers a solid right hook in the confined clown’s face — thus making him fall to the floor, blood oozing from the nose. All three of them immediately start kicking their helpless victim, sadistically, a ritual of pain Arthur is quite familiar with; (11.5) and might just have been left unable to do anything about, unable to prevent himself from getting abused and punished yet one more time. . . had it not been for the fact that, quite unlike before, he now has the means to defend himself and–indeed–strike back with overwhelming power.

A few seconds into the episode of abuse, we suddenly hear a shot ring out and WS #1 falls back, fatally wounded to the head. Two more shots pierce the bustling air and WS #2 also drops down dead. A panicking WS #3 tries to get out of harm’s away by running to an adjacent car, but Arthur manages to beforehand wound him in the leg with another shot, thus crippling this last remaining assailant and thereby also crippling his capacity to save himself on his own. When the train stops at the next station and a bleeding WS #3 limps out into an otherwise completely deserted platform, Arthur–having abruptly turned the tables on his bullies (courtesy of his .38 and the determination to use it)–the prey-turned-predator also gets out, stalks his victim and ends up unloading the last four rounds of his cute little snub-nosed revolver unto a WS #3 busy trying in vain to save his sorry ass from pending personal doom. (11.6)

Who is responsible for all this carnage? Who is culpable for this tragically bloody turn of events?

First off, it may be argued that Arthur’s act of self-defense was overblown. Had it really been necessary to off the Wall Street guys? Yes, they were obnoxious, and yes, they were abusive already to the woman and especially toward Arthur, but did they really have to pay with their lives for it? Arthur could alternatively have threatened them with the gun and, if need be, fire a round in the air as a warning shot. If that hadn’t worked, then maybe it would have been necessary to inflict bodily harm, but he could have shot one (or more) of them in non-lethal parts of the bodies, like limbs. But I admit that this all is arm-chair theorizing done from a safe and comfortable emotionally-uninvolved distance. In the fog of abuse, victims may not be able to command such clarity of discernment, produced by then a relaxed and unperturbed mind. Instead, while under the crushing strain of personal terror, critical life-changing decisions might have to be made in mere split seconds, ones in which morally-clean theoretical solutions stand to end up casualties of actually-deployed practical counterparts.

While the Wall Street guys need not have paid with their lives for the abuse they inflicted, they–of course–did bring their bloody ends on themselves in large part. Rather than winding up factually predating on Arthur, they could’ve instead chosen to stay on their part of the car and continued minding their own business. Then again, they wouldn’t have come over to begin with, if Arthur hadn’t started laughing out loudly, implying to ridicule them. Then again still, Arthur wouldn’t have started laughing if WS#3 had refrained from his pathetic and at-any-rate detestable attempt at courting the woman reader.

Furthermore, complicating the situation even more, Randall too deserves blame, culpability for providing Arthur with lethal fire power the other day, although the latter had first even explicitly advised against the former doing so, assuring Randall–after all–that his mentally-tormented and manifoldly-medicated kooky clown colleague was “not supposed to have a gun.” Indeed, Randall’s guilt is apparent yet even more so because he–after all–had assured Arthur, down in Ha-Ha’s locker-room, that the world out there (or Gotham at least) is a dangerous place, with lots of “crazy shit“ going on, filled with people–the “animals“, they would be–who will “take everything from you“ if you only let them. Hence, according to Randall’s gung-ho fear-mongering gun-slinging gospel, being able to defend yourself from all those cut-throat jungle cats running wild out there, using powerful (material) means of self-defense were to make perfect sense, or else “you’re gonna get fucked.”

On a minor plus side, Randall also does deserves credit for providing Arthur with the gun: commendation for indirectly making sure that Arthur did not end up badly wounded, by indeed being able to defend himself (whether carried-out in a dubiously-overblown way or not). Who’s to say, after all, that Arthur would not have wound up in hospital (or worse, in the morgue) from all of the abuse he might have gone on to suffer if those three grown men had continued, in unimpeded inebriated fashion, with their willy-nilly stomping aggression directed at his undefended skinny and frail body?

Whereas Randall does deserve to be inculpated for facilitating all the negative Karma that belongs to Arthur moving to execute his three assailants, the now-quondam clown colleague also deserves credit for facilitating the occasion of the three Wall Street guys having had the relative fortune of avoiding to incur all of the negative Karma that would have been brought into reality if they had managed to inflict on Arthur arbitrarily grave battering trauma — this latter salvaging scenario refers to something which you might call imaginary (disaster avoiding) positive Karma; and constitutes a type of event which Randall does deserve to have attributed to his overall metaphysical account which should be thought of as being expressly dedicated to tracking his individual moral conduct over the course of his entire personal history — spanning the entire string of, at least, all the consecutive human lives he has ever lived (an intangible not-of-this-physical-world sort of record that covers individual moral life, which–a little birdie tells me–may be thought to be managed, from behind the scenes of physical reality, by the metaphysical God of Karma, if you will — but all while under the ultimate auspices of God Almighty).

11.1.In terms of idolatry . . .

The immoral interactions between the various characters generate a bunch of scripts which will be given in truncated form. The two pertinent stage four discussions will be given at the conclusion of the last script of the Wall Street guys versus Arthur.

(11.1| Let’s start with the Wall Street guys. When WS#3–seeking apparent revenge for feeling rejected (and losing face due to it, in front of his buddies)–started flinging french fries at the woman reader, it may be said that–by physically flinging french fries at the PrimePidol of the woman reader–he initiated a physically non-threatening but psychologically all-the-more significant exercise of humiliation and intimidation.

His immoral act, understood to be tacitly supported by his two companions, may be described by the following truncated script:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Intimidation and Humiliation kind: Level = grievous Moral Error; Perp = WS#3; Victim = WReader; Audience = WS#1&WS#2&WS#3&Arthur&WReader;

1. Incoming-stage: WS#3, on behalf of all three WS guys, incurs authentic guilt toward WReader (through flinging french fries at her);

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: WS#3, on behalf of all three WS guys, initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted …
{+} WS#3-idolatry: Superior by Intimidating and Humiliating WReader/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} WS#3-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by WS#3/ Intimidating and Humiliating WReader/ in front of Audience/;
{–} WReader-idolatry: Inferior by Being Insulted by WS#3/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Each exposes their PrimePidol audiovisually to others of Audience, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: WS#3, on behalf of all three WS guys, initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} WS#3-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Intimidate and Humiliate WReader/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} WS#3-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by WS#3/ Intimidating and Humiliating WReader/ in front of Audience/;
{–} WReader-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Intimidated and Humiliated by WS#3/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, WS#3, on behalf of all three WS guys, incurs authentic guilt toward all involved in or exposed to his abuse effort — Arthur, WS#2, WS#3 and more so toward WReader and especially toward WS#3 himself; However, since WS#3 enjoys support from both of them, his other two buddies get to share in the guilt incurred by WS#3 so that all WS guys end up bearing the same amount of guilt; |11.1)

(11.2| Arthur’s haphazard laughing response may be interpreted as an act of nonverbal prejudgment on his part, describable by the following truncated script:

i. Psychic Abuse of the Prejudgment kind: Level = dubious Moral Action; Perp = Arthur; Victim = WS#3; Audience = WS#1.2.3&Arthur&WReader;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Abstract…
{–} WS#3-idolatry:[M] Being ridiculous; not worthy of being taken seriously or sympathetically (at all);
{+} Arthur-idolatry:[M] The opposite of being ridiculous; worthy of being taken seriously and sympathetically;
Abstract Pidols are distributed over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Prejudging WS#3/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ to Prejudge WS#3/ in front of Audience/;
{–} WS#3-idolatry: Inferior by Being Prejudged by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Each exposes his PrimePidol audiovisually to the other, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Prejudge WS#3/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Prejudging WS#3/ in front of Audience/;
{–} WS#3-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Prejudged by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his nonverbal act of ridiculing Prejudgment — WS#1.2, WReader, but more so toward WS#3 and especially toward Arthur himself; |11.2)

(11.3| i. Psychic Abuse of the Insult kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = WS#1; Victim = Arthur; Audience = WS#1.2.3&WReader&Arthur;

1. Incoming-stage: WS#1, on behalf of all three WS guys, initiates an explicit potential practice of Abstract Negative Arthur-idolatry: Being an asshole;
Abstract Arthur-Pidol is disseminated over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: WS#1, on behalf of all three WS guys, initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted …
{+} WS#1-idolatry: Superior by Insulting Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} WS#1-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by WS#1/ Insulting Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Insulted by WS#1/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to others of Audience, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: WS#1, on behalf of all three WS guys, initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} WS#1-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Insult Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} WS#1-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by WS#1/ Insulting Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Insulted by WS#1/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, WS#1–on behalf of all three WS guys–incurs authentic guilt toward all exposed to his Insult — WReader&WS#2.3, more so toward Arthur and especially toward WS#1 himself; However, since WS#1 enjoys support from both of them, his other two buddies get to share in the guilt incurred by WS#1 so that all WS guys end up bearing the same amount of guilt; |11.3)

(11.4| i. Psychic Abuse of the Insult kind: Level = Moral Error; Perp = WS#3; Victim = WReader; Audience = WS#1.2.3&WReader&Arthur;

1. Incoming-stage: WS#3, on behalf of WS#1.2.3, initiates an explicit potential practice of Abstract Negative WReader-idolatry: Being an bitch;
Abstract WReader-Pidol is disseminated over Audience;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: WS#3, on behalf of all three WS guys, initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted …
{+} WS#3-idolatry: Superior by Insulting WReader/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} WS#3-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by WS#3/ Insulting WReader/ in front of Audience/;
{–} WReader-idolatry: Inferior by Being Insulted by WS#3/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to others of Audience, and audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: WS#3, on behalf of all three WS guys, initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} WS#3-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Insult WReader/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
{–} WS#3-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Verbality&Name&Body/ by WS#3/ Insulting WReader/ in front of Audience/;
{–} WReader-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Insulted by WS#3/ in front of Audience/ – Using Verbality&Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are disseminated over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, WS#3–on behalf of all three WS guys–incurs authentic guilt toward all exposed to his Insult — Arthur&WS#1.2, more so toward WReader and especially toward WS#3 himself; However, since WS#3 enjoys support from both of them, his other two buddies get to share in the guilt incurred by WS#3 so that all WS guys end up bearing the same amount of guilt; |11.4)

(11.5| The actual physical abuse of Arthur by the three Wall Street guys, may be described by the following script:

i. Physical Abuse of the Body kind: Level = grievous Moral Crime; Perps = WS#1.2.3; Victim = Arthur; Audience = WS#1.2.3&Arthur;

1. Incoming-stage:
WS#1, on behalf of all three WS guys, incurs authentic guilt toward Arthur for punching him in the face, and for kicking a prostrate Arthur about half a dozen times;
WS#2, on behalf of all three WS guys, incurs authentic guilt toward Arthur for kicking a prostrate Arthur about half a dozen times;
WS#3, on behalf of all three WS guys, incurs authentic guilt toward Arthur for denying him autonomy by bear-hugging him from behind, and for kicking a prostrate Arthur about half-a-dozen times;

WSguy = WS#1 or WS#2 or WS#3;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: WSguy, on behalf of all three WS guys, initiates a practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} WSguy-idolatry: Superior by Bodily Abusing Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} WSguy-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by WSguy/ Bodily Abusing Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Getting Bodily Abused by WSguy/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the others of Audience, audially to self;

3. Rationalization-stage: WSguy, on behalf of all three WS guys, initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} WSguy-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Bodily Abuse Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} WSguy-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by WSguy/ Bodily Abusing Arthur/ in front of Audience/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Bodily Abused by WSguy/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are cast over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, WSguy–on behalf of all three WS guys–incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his act of Physical Abuse — the other two WS guys, more so toward Arthur, and especially to WSguy himself; However, since each WSguy enjoys support from them, his other two buddies get to share in the guilt incurred by each WS guy so that all WS guys end up bearing the same amount of guilt;

4. In terms of sacrifice, let’s start with the woman reader. Unfortunately for everyone involved, by engaging in their subtle exercises of humiliation and intimidation, the three WS guys–especially the instigating WS#3–went to sacrifice a substantial portion of quality as to the future relationship they might have had with the target of their silly practices of idolatry; including WS#3 offhandedly calling her a bitch as she walked away from them (in disgust). If they would have been able to meet the woman in the future, she is expected to unlikely be partial to any of their (amicable) advances to her; a Golden Rule-compliant sort of interaction may therefore be expected to be improbable, unless they of course first were to apologize to her. As for Arthur is concerned, by insulting him and moreover by beating him up, now also the Wall Street guys from their end showed a commitment to sacrifice (a good chunk of) the quality of the relationship they might have had in the future with Arthur, had they survived their encounter with the killer clown.

In terms of actualization, it’s self-explanatory that the WS guys were prone to actualize their own practices; in stark contrast to the woman reader and Arthur in particular. Indeed, by inflicting visually-verifiable blemishes on Arthur’s PrimePidol by way of their abuse (bruises, busted nose and the like), the Wall Street guys may also be held responsible for initiating any possible follow-up implicit potential practices of Abstract Negative Arthur-idolatry as well as potential practices of Abstract Positive Person-idolatry based on the WS guys — practices in which the WS guys, effectively, posthumously, invite all those folks who happen to now observe Arthur’s battered body after-the-fact, to go ahead and identify not with Arthur – the victim, but with them instead – the abusers; thus inviting folks to interpret Arthur as someone ostensibly having deserved their abuse, an ostensibly justified sort of punishment when viewed through the troubled lens of trauma bonding between witnesses and the perps, the WS guys (identification with the aggressors — Stockholm Syndrome).

Indeed, in the run-up to their physically abusive treatment of Arthur, it is likely that the Wall Street guys resolved to view their pending victim as entirely deserving of what was about to come to him. As argued in this section up above, by showing to ridicule them, openly and loudly, Arthur wound up practically begging to leave an image impression of himself in the minds of his pending assailants as someone being insufferably annoying, someone who sought to sadistically prosper from the sight of one of them getting blown off by the woman reader; and Arthur therefore–in their eyes–automatically went to qualify himself for a likewise sadistic countervailing treatment aimed to redeem his offensive behavior seemingly aimed at victimizing them first (through his ventilated apparent ridicule).

By willfully and prejudicially disregarding (an ignorant action, egosyntonic in a predatory way) Arthur’s possible medical condition causing him to laugh at undue and inopportune moments (he was about to explain himself by trying to get out one of his cards containing his alibi in writing), the Wall Street guys instead focused on their victim’s outward behavior, went to magnify its attributed importance to extreme extent and took it to serve as an accurate definition of what kind of person Arthur would be (for the moment): insufferably annoying. Each of them therefore effectively may be said to have engaged in an a priori private (nonarticulated) practice of Abstract Negative Arthur-idolatry. By shaming him in their minds first, they each mentally prepared the way for their follow-up episode of collectively-executed physical shaming. In other words, their prior private mental shaming exercise thus served to validate and facilitate their subsequent physical shaming exercise (in vulgar lingo: a designated piece-of-shit deserves to be treated as, in fact, a piece-of-shit).

In terms of conscience, since there obviously is no love or care to be found in their victimizing interactions with woman reader and Arthur, their infractions make no sense in terms of their authentic consciences; but would make more sense in their inauthentic ones aiming for praise and or power: i.e., their praise-seeking and or power-seeking inauthentic consciences. |11.5)

(11.6| As for Arthur’s lethal retaliatory strike, his murders may be described by the following script:

i. Physical Abuse of the Body kind: Level = grievous Moral Crime; Perp = Arthur; Victims = WS#1.2.3; Audience = WS#1.2.3&Arthur;

1. Incoming-stage: Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward WS#1 for shooting him once in the head, thus killing him; toward WS#2 for shooting him twice in the body, thus killing him; toward WS#3 for shooting him once in a leg and four times in the body, thus killing him;

2. Scene of Immorality-stage: Arthur initiates a potential practice of Concrete PrimePidol-targeted…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Superior by Bodily Abusing WSguy/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Inferior by Being Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Bodily Abusing WSguy/ in front of Audience/;
{–} WSguy-idolatry: Inferior by Getting Bodily Abused by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Each exposes PrimePidol audiovisually to the others of Audience, audially to self; 

3. Rationalization-stage: Arthur initiates an implicit potential practice of Abstract…
{+} Arthur-idolatry: Righteous and Entitled to Bodily Abuse WSguy/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
{–} Arthur-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Used in Name&Body/ by Arthur/ Bodily Abusing WSguy/ in front of Audience/;
{–} WSguy-idolatry: Unrighteous and Deserving to be Bodily Abused by Arthur/ in front of Audience/ – Using Name&Body/;
Abstract Pidols are cast over Audience;

In summary, qualitatively, Arthur incurs authentic guilt toward everyone involved in his act of Physical Abuse — WS#1.2.3 and especially to Arthur himself;

4. In terms of sacrifice, in case the WS guys would have survived their encounter with the killer clown, Arthur too showed a commitment to sacrifice some of the quality of the relationship he might have been able to enjoy in the future with any of them (and to lesser extent, by haplessly and indiscriminately more-or-less also lumping her in as to his articulated bout of ridicule, with the woman reader too). Should they meet again in the future, if such were possible, then a Golden Rule-compliant encounter would be less likely, now thanks to Arthur.

By his triply-lethal action, Arthur went to first sacrifice the remainder of the lives of the victims. As a result, Arthur also went to also sacrifice the relationships the WS guys had with any of their friends or family-members or colleagues or those who were otherwise positively related to the departed; and so he is responsible for all the grief and pain experienced by all those loved ones and acquainted people suddenly left in a state of mourning. Wayne’s company also suddenly loses three employees, a sacrifice which Arthur forced them to make.

In terms of actualization, by inflicting visually-verifiable bloody blemishes on the PrimePidols of the killed victims, Arthur may also be held responsible for initiating any possible follow-up implicit potential practices of Abstract Negative Person-idolatry with the victims for objects; as well as a potential practice of Abstract Positive Person-idolatry based on himself, though with unrevealed identity, identifiable only by his clown-like alter-ego appearance — practices in which Arthur, effectively invite all those folks who happen to get a look at the dead bodies of the WS guys, soiled in permanent bloody shame, to go ahead and identify not with them – the victims – but with him, his partially anonymous self, instead – the killer clown; thus inviting such witnesses to interpret the WS guys as people who ostensibly deserved their lethal abuse, an ostensibly justified sort of punishment when viewed through the troubled lens of trauma bonding happening now between the witnesses and Arthur, the yet-to-be-unveiled killer clown.

In terms of conscience, although there clearly is a redeeming element of self-defense in his killing actions, his prior laughing response and the overblown portion of his killing actions are difficult to explain in terms of his authentic Golden Rule-compliant conscience; but make more sense to his inauthentic conscience connected to power-seeking and, although not yet apparent, also due to a penchant for praise-seeking (Narcissism). |11.6)

12.Catharsis in public bathroom, finding self-confidence, seeking solace with Sophie

After getting his shit together, Arthur leaves the crime scene in a hurry by hauling ass “up the stairs, rushing out of the station“, running down the street like a bat out of hell.

Flashing a look back to make sure of not being followed, he bursts into the first public bathroom he comes across, “out of breath. Overwhelmed, vibrating with emotions. He leans his forehead against the door, sweat dripping down his face, and catches his breath. Arthur feels all those emotions running through his body, can feel them all. He sticks his right foot out and starts to slowly turn, his right arm rising slowly above his head as his right foot leads, turning like something is awakening inside of him“, starting to move around gently, slowly, cathartically, as if to music that is strangely comforting and calming, easy to the ear but which only he can hear.

After finishing his cathartic caper, his purgative prance, his diverting dance, standing in front of a large mirror now, unapologetically raising his arms, triumphantly, as if to show personal victory to an audience consisting of him alone — the time has come to go home.

The elevator doors swing open and Arthur walks out, it’s his floor, almost home — still wearing that same clown outfit, that same clown make-up, with his demeanor–however–radiating newfound determination and composure, oozing self-confidence. Instead of walking to his own apartment, he virtually floats down the hallway in the other direction, tosses his shopping bag nonchalantly to the side just before, as if in a dream, knocking on Sophie’s door. A second later she opens, “sees Arthur standing there, and before Sophie can say anything Arthur leans and kisses her; Sophie kisses him back and pulls him inside her apartment, closing the door behind them“.