"The Way We Fear Now"

or "The Search for Humanity Continues." I was struck by the contrast between Gary Hart's (remember him?) reflection on the shooting in Colorado with Ross Douthat's reflection.

Hart: "[W]hen one human kills a dozen or more other humans who represent no threat to him, nothing seems to make sense, nothing is reasonable or rational.  It causes us to question ... whether there is a dark side to human nature beyond the reach of reason and sanity ..."

In contrast, knowing that there is a dark side to human nature Douthat can name the particular manifestation of evil: "Nolan’s films are ... effective dramatizations of the Way We Fear Now. Their villains are inscrutable, protean, appearing from nowhere to terrorize, seeking no higher end than chaos, no higher thrill than fear. Their hero fights, not for truth, justice and the American Way, but for a more basic form of civilizational order: He knows his society — his Gotham, our America — is decadent and corrupt in many ways, but he also knows that the alternatives are almost infinitely worse."

And, Douthat can offer a response: "the most important defense of civilization takes place only after tragedy has struck, and innocents have perished. And the real heroes are neither police nor politicians nor an imaginary batsuited billionaire, but the people — whether in Columbine or Lower Manhattan or now Aurora, Colo. — who carry one another through the valley of the shadow of death, and by their conduct ensure that the Jokers and James Holmeses of the world win only temporary victories."