The Dark Knight Rises is more than just a movie—it's an argument against Occupy Wall Street and other "radical leftist movements," writes Andrew Klavan in the Wall Street Journal. "The movie is a bold apologia for free-market capitalism; a graphic depiction of the tyranny and violence" and "depravity" inherent in such movements, Klavan argues. The film's heroes are those who allow their struggles to improve their character, not those who become mired in resentment. Bruce Wayne may be rich, but he's also a philanthropist—and in addition to lifting people like him, free markets create "a rising tide of money that lifts the rest of us."
The media often celebrate Occupy and denounce the Tea Party, despite the fact that the Tea Party supports the free market while Occupy wants to see "the coiffed corporate multimillionaires who anchor the network newscasts … being hanged from lampposts." The Dark Knight Rises offers a rebuke of these journalists and Hollywood players, all of whom tend to ignore "the widespread vandalism, lawlessness, and grotesque anti-Semitism characteristic of" the Occupy demonstrations. It also declares that those who want to forcibly redistribute wealth are thieves, and that such a redistribution will only lead to chaos. "Free markets lift us all. People's 'revolutions' inevitably result in tyranny," Klavan concludes. Click for Klavan's full column. (More The Dark Knight Rises stories.)