Thesis- Is Batman an embodiment of an ideal American?

So I promised a thesis entry and then I posted that Brad Pitt story. Well, despite popular belief my thesis is not about Brad Pitt.

It all begins (I think?) with ideas of citizenship. There is the liberal idea of citizenship, which values individual liberty above all- just don't harm anyone else, you can do what you want. Then there is a republican value of citizenship, which stresses the common good and civic duty- think sacrifices for your country. I am more interested in the republican side of citizenship, I suppose, and how it relates to American democracy.

This republican value of citizenship, in America, stems from the Revolutionary War. Hannah Arendt mourns the loss of a "revolutionary spirit," and claims that having no place to channel this in American government is a problem. Now, the spirit of the revolution has two seemingly contradictory parts; there is the “exhilarating awareness of human capacity of beginning” which come with something new, with birth, and a need for stability in the “act of founding a new body politic.” But when the need for stability overshadows that “exhilarating awareness” and that passion that comes with taking action to begin something new, something is wrong. Thomas Jefferson thought that rebellions were a healthy part of democracy, that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed, from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”Perhaps rebellion, revolution, protest, vigilantism, and civic disobedience are all necessary to a healthy democracy.



One force is described as "a symbolic resurgence of the common man's will to resist…a rebirth of the American fighting spirit." This is in a fictional graphic novel, however, and the description is of Batman. Batman is a popular hero in American culture, and I think that American citizens admire vigilantes, rebels, and those who take justice into their own hands, and our fictional heroes reflect our ideal that often the best citizen is the one who takes action against the establishment, or despite the establishment; maybe even that this is what democracy is at its best- and social movements of this sort are what keeps democracy alive.
Questions I can ask about Batman (and what it reflects, embodies, or inspires about real life America, real life icons):
-reasons for taking action on his own - how he relates to the government and society
- the drama of his person and how that helps/hinders his cause-"People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy” from Batman Begins. Can this relate to drastic steps people take against the government/to get the government to act, like black bloc protests at WTO.
- How the government and society react to batman, the effects of Batman- can someone outside of government be the most “patriotic,” in the spirit of American democracy, is this dangerous or destructive?

I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone, least of all me- but hey. Someone from the WSJ thinks that President Bush is Batman (props to Drew for this reference btw). He kind of takes some of the points I use- but I would argue that George Bush is different. Most importantly Batman is NOT the government- that's the whole point. George Bush IS the government.