Everyone needs others to understand them.
Harvey Dent believed in Batman, he understood why someone needed to act outside of the law, and do what no one else was willing to.
Harvey was proud of Batman, and thus, was vicariously proud of Bruce.
It goes without saying that Bruce felt extremely grateful to Harvey, in whom he found a kindred spirit to combat criminals, and, more importantly, someone who believed in him and who could be the "noble" face of justice and truth for the despairing people of Gotham city, the face of hope, Bruce felt Batman could never be.
Bruce succeeds in saving Gordon and his family from Harvey's crazed replay of the death of Rachel, only to be faced with yet another soul wrenching decision.
Harvey was Gotham's White Knight, he was the immaculate and noble hero who was going to scour the evil from the city through formal, societally "acceptable" methods in the courtroom, adhering to the established justice system.
He was the hero, Bruce felt Gotham truly needed, a symbol of combating evil in the appropriate, "civilized" way.
Bruce views himself as a necessary, but, by no means, laudable, force in Gotham, fighting criminals "in the trenches", but, never approved, never sanctioned, forever someone feared nearly as much as the ones he takes down.
That Harvey murdered police officers in revenge over the death of Rachel, obliterating a squeaky clean image of pure, incorruptible, compliance with the justice system, hurts Bruce more than all the knife wounds, dog bites, and bullet bruises he received throughout Gotham's latest ordeal..
Harvey was the person who was going to save Gotham in plain sight of everyone, in the bright light of honesty and truth and justice.
Bruce knew he was the person who was going to operate in the darkness, to do what Harvey could not, to bend, or break the rules of society, to dirty his hands with necessary violence, and root out the criminal element into the light, to be defeated gloriously by Harvey.
Bruce bet his hopes for the bright, pure, peaceful Gotham he wishes he could have lived in as a child, on the righteousness of Harvey. He was willing to sacrifice himself for it. And he does so again.
Bruce tells Gordon to lay the blame of the police officer's deaths on Batman's shoulders and makes implicit that nobody can find out Harvey murdered people.
With that, Batman begins his life as a fugitive. Bruce made the decision because he felt that people needed to be protected from the truth, that ignorance is bliss, that the resolve and depth and vision of his fellow human beings was so shallow and undeveloped and stunted they would not be able to absorb the idea that their "incorruptible" White Knight was capable of succumbing to normal human emotions like rage or a desire for revenge.
Bruce feels that everyday, "normal", people need a symbol of absolute nobility, divinity, a God of Light, to forever shine gloriously and benevolently over them, protecting them from all harm and hardship.
Bruce believes that "normal" people are so devoid of courage and the ability to reason that they will collapse if they discover that the one among them who was supposed to be more than a man was, in fact: just a man.
In a society of hero worship, where a single person is held up as an ideal to aspire to, an example of a better human being, shining like a beacon to point to and be comforted by while everyone else, the "normal" people, go about their small affairs, knowing that they will always be protected and sheltered, people never need to grow up, or grow strong themselves.
I would tell Bruce, and Gordon, and Harvey, people do not need heroes, people do not need supermen, people need to feel strong themselves.
Then they can save themselves.
But, Bruce acts from the desperation and fear he sees in the people around him, those feelings he wishes to protect others from.
As Gordon says, "because he can take it." With the unstated implication that other people simply cannot.
In Ancient Rome, during times of crisis, a single man was selected to take the responsibility for protecting the city.
Such a man ultimately bore a great burden, and was filled with a sense of great power, with the capacity of becoming an awesome hero, or a terrible villain.
It is an unfair and unhealthy decision.
One person should not have to shoulder the burden of their species.
“We are all in this together.”
Humanity is comprised of countless individuals and its challenges are so for everyone.
The fair and healthy approach is for everyone to be raised and cultivated to be strong, to carry their portion of the burden, and to take the satisfaction and joy of knowing they are invaluable to their people.
Bruce and Harvey tried to save their city on their own.
I hope that in the next film, the people of Gotham prove to them, they don't have to do it alone.
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