2008
“OK, but what about billionaire Bruce Wayne, from the upcoming film The Dark Knight Rises, releasing in theaters 2012? Or billionaire Tony Stark, from the upcoming film The Avengers, also coming out in theaters that same year?”
– a powerful counter to the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011
Now, I want to make it absolutely clear, I really like Batman and Iron Man! And while I don’t actually believe that Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy or the propelling of former B-list superhero Iron Man to household name status were psy-op campaigns for building public trust and sympathy towards the growing billionaire tech-oligarch class, they certainly didn’t hurt that class’ image, at least.
I feel like ever since Bill Gates became the world’s richest man off of being “good at computers,” the conflation of wealth with intelligence has only grown stronger. Tech was now the quickest path to riches and all those tech guys were the biggest nerds around, ergo, “nerd=smart=rich!” And our fiction follows suit – it’s not enough that Batman is very smart and very wealthy, he must be the smartest, and therefore, the wealthiest! Cue the same for the likes of Tony Stark, Lex Luthor, etc.
And I know the nerds like to espouse, “we can tell the difference between fiction and reality!” but I just feel like if that was the case, Elon Musk would not have so easily convinced every nerd that he was the “REAL Tony Stark!” And maybe, if our pop culture wasn’t inundated with tales of heroic billionaires using their overwhelming wealth, power, and futurist ideals to save the world, we wouldn’t have been so primed to look towards these oligarchs to be our salvation.
– James
