It can be fun and insightful to translate fiction through metaphors. One metaphor for Batman is spycraft and intelligence agencies. Society condones their convert operations and secrecy. They work with the state, using black budgets, without meaningful oversight.
Project MKUltra, also called the CIA mind control program, used numerous methods to manipulate people's mental states and alter brain functions, including the surreptitious administration of drugs (especially LSD) and other chemicals, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation and verbal abuse, as well as other forms of psychological torture.
Batman: The Movie came out in 1966, as MKUltra projects were starting to wind down, but 10 years before they were brought to public attention by the Church Committee. Some might consider this an example of predictive programming.
Here’s the whole interesting scene with Batman, Robin, and The Penguin...
P - Why don’t you take me there?
R - You’d be willing to submit yourself to a test.
P - Why of course it might be an amusing experience don’t you know.
B - Stand by to catch him, Robin. I’ll give him the bat gas.
P - Ho ho what’s that? Bat gas?
B - A harmless anesthetic, necessary to prevent you from seeing the entrance to the bat cave.
R - If anyone knew that, they could pierce the secret of our true identities.
B - Ready, Commodore?
P - Oh I say, what dutily strange customs you colonials have. Well I’m ready.
B - To the Batmobile, this could be the break we’ve been looking for.
R - He’s The Penguin alright, I wonder why he let us bring him here.
B - We’ll soon find out.
R - I’ll setup the anti-crime eye checker.
B - Stay on the alert, Robin. After I give him the Bat Wake, we must be ready for anything.
P - Oh it’s you. We’re here, right? I see. Oh yes. This. Oh see. This is extraordinary! It’s absolutely extraordinary! I must say that your laboratory exceeds the limits of man’s wildest imagination. Absolutely.
And could I trouble you for a glass of water? Your Bat Gas seems to have left me with a somewhat parched sensation.
B - Over there. The drinking water dispenser is clearly marked.
P - Alright. Thank you. Thank you sir. Thank you very much sir. Thank you sir.
B - Help yourself, Commodore. Slight your thirst. You’ll have worse than a parched sensation when we’re through with you.
P - Perhaps, perhaps. But I am appalled by your attitude, sir, and condemning me before the facts have been authoritatively established! Uh. You are abrogating my constitutional rights, sir!
R - All set, Batman.
B - Come on, Penguin, time to rip off your false feathers.
P - Coming, Batman. I’m coming at once.
R - HOLY HALLUCINATION!
B - I wish it were Robin, but it’s not. It’s five dehydrated pirates, re-hydrated!
P - [ ??? ] Shiv ’em from stem to stern! … Attack them you faltering [fit?]!
R - Pirates, they’re gone! Popped like balloons! How’d it happen?
B - Whoever dehydrated those pirates could not have foreseen their accidental re-hydration with the heavy water we use in recharging the atomic pile.
R - Which naturally left them in a highly unstable condition!
B - You saw it yourself, Robin. The slightest impact was sufficient to instantly reduce them to antimatter.
R - Antimatter? You mean they won’t be coming back?
B - No, probably not in this universe. Let that be an object lesson in the dangers of tampering with the laws of mother nature. My apologies, Commodore Shmidlap. It’s clear that I’ve done you a cruel injustice.
P - You have?
B - You were duped, brainwashed, the criminals planted those dehydrated thugs on your person. You were obviously under the influence of post-hypnotic suggestion when you re-hydrated them.
Come on down Commodore. Another sniff of Bat Gas and we’ll all return to the city.
Cross-Posted: http://wikiworldorder.org/2018/03/13/1966-batman-mentions-hallucinations-and-post-hypnotic-suggestion/
