In a New York Times blog post that explores the political message The Dark Knight might carry, the hunt for the Joker and its sacrifices are compared to the War on Terror the Bush administration has been waging.

There is a long history in critical and cultural studies research on reading texts in popular culture, including television series, movies, etc., and exploring its implications for the political milieu. In a classic essay “The Triumph of Mass Idols”, Lowenthal examined popular biographies over time, and argued how the kind of people covered in these biographies evolved from ‘serious’ people to increasingly ‘mass’ idols, and as such, suggested the degradation of culture. I imagine he would have a field day analyzing the public’s adoration of contemporary idols, such as Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. More recently, Anna McCarthy, who was a visiting scholar at Annenberg, argued how the rise of reality television has to be seen in line with the rise, and legitimization of, neoliberalism, with its emphasis on individual responsibility. Both scholars make the case for the importance of interrogating popular culture in understanding how it shapes and influences the political beliefs of the public.

Sometimes, however, the analysis can simply go overboard. Yglesias *pwnes* (sorry, I have no better word for it) those who use the story of the Dark Knight to justify the war policies of the Bush administration:

“I think Cheney would look at the movie and say ’see — this is what we’re doing,’” Yglesias writes on his blog for The Atlantic. “I look at the movie and say ’see — if you were fighting a comic book bad guy and you were a comic book hero then your policies would make sense.’ ”

(hat tip to cbigman)