Joker and the Need for Family
by Kody Wayne Cooper, Public Discourse:
Setting the box office record for an October release, the new film Joker is a worldwide phenomenon. Before its release and since, discussion of the film has been obsessed with the debate over whether the portrayal of a disaffected white man violently lashing out at society might bleed over into real life by breeding copycats or if such suggestions are the overreach of woke culture. Major reviewers have judged the film to be “empty,” “foggy,” and a “bad movie,” that “leaves you numb.” But critics have missed what seems to me a central message of the story: the descent into madness begins with the breakdown of the family.
As Scott Yenor has pointed out, it is the great accomplishment of social science to establish “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the decline in marriage is connected to a wide range of social ills. We know that children from intact, married homes fare better than children from single-parent and cohabiting homes on a wide range of outcomes, including GPA, negative and delinquent behaviors like lying and cheating, rates of incarceration, economic earning power and mobility, the likelihood of being victimized by domestic abuse, and physical and psychological health. The film explores the latter three outcomes of Arthur’s fatherlessness in particular.
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