The Joker and V are both painted as villains but its only V that breaks through to what he actually is as seen by the audience: a visionary. A vision of a different form of society then the one in place and willing to do what it takes to get there.

Both are visionaries though; twisted, too much ends justify means, but they are self projections of an alternative vision of the world. "the mob would carve out it's little portion and the cops would try and shut them down and it was so..boring. I dream of a world without batman"

We caught about 60% of Glass last night, the Unbreakable sequel; it has a bizarre M. Night style twist, multiple in fact, but it got my thinking about how society wants to keep things at rest, stable, normal, even if that means ensuring greatness and anti-greatness are stabilized.

Too much darkness/chaos (joker) leads to counter-darkness (batman) in which the two then must exist in order to balance each other out. Glass brings in a 3rd element: Society's desire to not have either faction, in fact its demand to have neither at the expense of both.

The squashing of greatness in order to ensure that anti-greatness doesn't emerge. It reminds me of institutions in a way. Not wanting to allow innovation to transform for fear of the laggards that would necessitate the institution to be pulled dramatically in opposing directions.

This leads to a vanilla-ing. The desire to ensure that both dark and light are squashed together into a grey, hopefully slight shade of light in order to be moving forward, but at a pace that's never too steep as to invoke the laggard's wrath.

We witness laggard's wrath in many forms. Organizations that don't allow virtualization in the face of virtualized economies, those not using version control bc "this is how we've always done it" and the like. The list goes on and on. But I'd argue laggard's wrath is a misnomer.

Laggards exist regardless of how innovative your organization is. Keeping a steady pace forward simply masks the micro-decisions that they make to maintain yesterday. Bright, bold, ahead of the curve thinking illuminates these laggards and brings them into the light faster.

You'll always have them. Just as "the poor will always be among you" you'll always have those that seek to maintain the status quo or worse, last decade's status quo. Don't allow the slowest to dictate the direction of your organization. Don't brush off their concerns but don't sit idle as a result of their need to stay flat footed. The faster you rush toward the infinite, the faster you can pull laggards of today into the steady pace of forward progression of tomorrow.

If anything, the sunlight shining from a lack of vision will more their feet and your whole organization forward as a result. Be that leader in the wilderness. We need not just words but actions to get us to that bright horizon.

For if we don't, I fear the sun shall set on the era of institutions, and all that will remain are corrupted ideals of economies built on code and control, masquerading as innovation. Safety and "security" as innovation. Tracking as "innovation". Data as "innovation".

Institutions can lead to brighter more vibrant tomorrows, if only we push hard enough. Be part of the push to the horizon, and let the laggards follow as they always eventually will. But don't let them drag you backwards into the waters of yesterday.