Batman

    From a utilitarian point of view, Batman is the dumbest superhero. After the Joker kills dozens or hundreds of people, Batman tracks him down, beats him up, and sticks him in prison. A prison system that doesn't work, where the Joker always escapes. Then, the Joker kills dozens, hundreds, or billions (in some comics) more. Repeat ad infinitum. This goes for not just the Joker, but for every criminal in Gotham. While this makes for a good storyline (where you don't have to introduce a new bad guy every comic), it is a bit ridiculous. Good thing Batman didn't kill that grunt for stealing a purse, he only pushed him off a building and paralyzed him for life. Now, comic book stans will disagree, with some derivative of "wow it is so cool how morally complex Bruce is, he can't kill because he knows that if he does he won't be able to stop." Other people like The Punisher. Common movie trope: Evil Guy orchestrates a horrific attack on innocent people that kills hundreds. Good Guy fights his way through dozens of low-level bad guys (often brutally killing them) in order to get to the Evil Guy. Good Guy beats Evil Guy and has a chance to kill him. In act act of heroism, Good Guy refuses. Then either the Evil Guy dies anyway or he is locked away (where he often later escapes and kills more people). That is Hollywood, folks.

    I don't want to a world where vigilante justice reigns. In fact, I didn't make this post to lament about superheroes. I wanted to prompt a thought experiment: if you made it your life's mission to decrease the amount of gang violence in the city of Chicago, how much could you accomplish? You could spend every minute calling and emailing politicians, or you could try to run for office. You could work very hard in a high paying profession and donate 50% of your salary to organizations that you believe would decrease crime. What would you do? Think about it for a minute. Whatever it is, I would guess that you would be unlikely to make a big impact. Ken Griffin, billionaire hedge fund founder, couldn't make a dent. How much of an impact could a university make? The University of Chicago, one of the most prestigious universities in the world, can't even protect its students. What could you, personally, hope to accomplish? Without billionaire status or near-superhuman training, you couldn't even be an effective vigilante (Batman or Punisher). Plus, I doubt even an effective vigilante could make dent in a city of almost three million people. Would a real-world Batman fix Chicago? What if he killed people? In both cases, this is a pretty clear "no." Even if Ken Griffin put on the suit and started blasting, I'm pretty sure things would not get any better. Crime is complex. Selling drugs is lucrative. Guns are widely available. Many gang-related shootings are a form of vigilante justice, payback from a previous killing. There are over 100,000 gang members in Chicago. You are just one person. This isn't meant to be a depressing question. Just because your impact might be small doesn't mean that it is worthless. We should still strive for a safer world, regardless of the difficulty. There are no recurring villains in the real world. No easy answers (hey, Batman should just kill people). There are more effective ways to have an impact, but that impact is destined to be small.