AVATAR'S SAVAGE MESSAGE
and/or www.mantra.com/jai
By Edward Hudgins
The Atlas Society
December 24, 2009 - James Cameron's new film Avatar is loaded with
fresh, eye-popping special effects, all in a new, cutting-edge 3-D
that sets the standard in cinema technology. It is also loaded with
tired, mind-numbing leftist clich�s embedded in old, reactionary
themes that set a new low for political propaganda.
The plot as avatar
An avatar is, originally, the embodiment of a Hindu god. Today the
term also refers to an embodiment or personification of some
principle, attitude, or view of life; online it's a graphic image
that represents some person or thing. Cameron's movie is filled with
avatars, but not just the strange, hybrid creatures to which the
title refers. We also see them in the silly, subtle-as-a-brick-to-
the-head parallels that he makes between current events and his
imagined world. Let's turn to the story. (Warning: Spoilers ahead!)
The planet Pandora, a beautiful, verdant jungle paradise, is an
avatar for anywhere the American military might show up. It contains
the costly and rare substance Unobtainium, an avatar for oil, which
is critical to the Earth's economy. The private company Resources
Development Administration, an avatar for Halliburton, has set up
operations to ravage the planet to extract that substance. The
problem is that this planet is inhabited by ten-foot-tall blue aliens
called the Na'vi, living in primitive, pre-technological conditions.
The company employs a private army, an avatar for Blackwater as well
as the American military. As is explained, "Back home they fight for
freedom. Here they're hired guns for the corporation." The
mercenaries are led by the evil Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who
gives cartoon villains a bad name. He's gung ho simply to clean out
the "savages" by force, an attitude avatar representing how Cameron
and his ilk see American history and foreign policy. See, it's the
evil military-industrial complex in your face!
The company's administrator on Pandora says that the corporation's
investors would prefer to avoid the bad PR that they'd garner by
killing off all the Na'vi, but they're even more concerned about
avoiding a bad balance sheet. See, capitalism leads to killing!
The corporation has made half-hearted attempts to win the hearts and
minds of the Na'vi by teaching them English and setting up schools
and roads for them. How white of them! But it hasn't worked. Still,
it would be better to figure out what the "blue monkeys" (see,
Americans are racist!) want and somehow to get them to leave the
potential prospecting property.
Mind to body
Enter the scientists. A team led by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney
Weaver) has mixed human and Na'vi DNA to produce avatars. These Na'vi
bodies can be operated by the human whose DNA is used. The human's
mind is linked to and controls the avatar as the human rests on a
techno-bed to which he or she is wired. Humans can't breathe the
atmosphere of Pandora, but their avatars can. So perhaps an avatar
can re-contact the Na'vi, who aren't very fond of the nasty, callous,
heartless American�err, sorry, Earthling--soldiers who tend to gun
them down at the least imagined provocation.
Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a crippled ex-Marine who volunteers
to operate an avatar. His dual mission is to look for a peaceful way
to move the Na'vi out and to provide military intelligence to the
evil colonel for the probable removal of the Na'vi by force.
Pandora living paradise
Jake is thrilled with his avatar body, which allows him to walk and
run again on healthy albeit alien legs. But he becomes lost in the
jungle and captured by the Na'vi who, rather than execute him, decide
to show him their ways in spite of their suspicions about this
"dreamwalker," this demon who's part human and somehow controlled
from afar.
You can predict the rest of the story from here. Jake goes native in
an interplanetary Dances with Wolves. Here Cameron can't offer a
parallel with the real targets of America and its military today.
After all, Islamists are bloodthirsty fanatics who will chop off your
head for having ideas that differ from their own primitive
superstitions, who treat women like chattel, and who see it as the
height of virtue to blow up other people's children. Cameron instead
gives us (in the Na'vi) a cross between how he imagines American
Indians and tribes of the rain forest to be. Much more sympathetic!
Jake wins the trust and respect of the Na'vi by passing all the
challenges required to be a warrior. He is declared one of The
People. And he falls in love with the Na'vi woman who helped him
along his path.
One with the world
In the process, Jake learns about the Na'vis' religion and their
unique relationship to their world. When they hunt and kill an animal
they thank it for its body as its spirit goes to Eyra, their god.
When they ride or fly on the backs of Pandora's fantastic fauna, the
Na'vi must entwine special nerve threads at the ends of their long
hair with those of the animals in order to form a mental and
spiritual bond. They also can entwine their nerve hairs with a tree
that allows them to hear the memories of their ancestors. They are
literally one with nature!
The Na'vi talk incessantly about flows of energy. And there's the
Tree of Souls at the center of their world. The scientists who
created the avatars find that it has a strange, unexplainable flux
field around it. Can you say, "May the Force be with you?"
Needless to say, the military moves in with helicopter gunships and
heavily armed infantry to lay waste to the forest and the Na'vi. So
the Na'vi, lead by Jake in his avatar, unite with other tribes and,
like the army of primitive desert "Fremen" in Dune or the teddy-bear
Ewoks in Return of the Jedi, use their command of the environment and
its animals to beat the evil masters of technology. In the end, the
Na'vi load the captured Earthlings onto their ships to send them back
to their dying world on which all that was green has been destroyed.
Savage myth
In Avatar Cameron perpetuates the enduring, seductive, yet morally
false myth of a Garden of Eden or lost paradise inhabited by noble
savages. This myth has done no end of harm to humanity. In modern
times, it found its voice in Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
In the eighteenth century the Enlightenment had dragged Europe out of
the Dark Ages, setting individual happiness as a legitimate moral
goal, showing that the human mind could understand the movements of
the planets and the biology of the human body, and discovering ways
to produce the material means for prosperity. Then Rousseau stood
before human progress and shouted, "Stop!"
He argued that in the state of nature humans were governed by two
instincts: self-preservation and pity for others. We thus lived in
idyllic harmony with our fellows and our world. But when we started
to think, to use our minds, we worried about the future. That's when
all the trouble began. We sought private property to give us personal
security. In the process, we became selfish and put ourselves as
individuals in conflict with others. We created creature comforts
that cut us off from our natural world and our natural selves.
Civilization was the enemy of our virtue.
This, of course, is moral nonsense. A look at primitive peoples from
the prehistoric to the original inhabitants of America to the odd
jungle tribe today shows brutality, superstition that leads to
ostracism and murder, and institutionalized human sacrifice along
with the occasional "respect" for animal spirits. And, in fact,
virtue consists in disciplining our appetites and urges, in the light
of reason, toward our individual well-being, which will also lead us
to respect our fellows and deal with them based on mutual consent.
There are noble and virtuous individuals in primitive as well as
advanced societies. But there's nothing noble about ignorance of
one's world. There's nothing noble about the impotence over one's
world that comes from one's ignorance. There's nothing noble about
being unable to build adequate shelters against the forces of nature,
produce adequate food against famines, or discover adequate medicines
against illness.
It is the height of irony -- to say nothing of hypocrisy�for Cameron,
the master of movie-making technology, to have as the theme of this
movie the utter evil of technology.
Talk to the trees
In Avatar, Cameron helps the modern environmental movement continue
to morph into a new religion of Gaia worship that, disguised as a
love for nature, is anti-human in its essence.
This new cult treats "nature" itself as a conscious, living entity at
odds with and morally superior to human beings. Of course, a strong
counterargument is that the world itself, the environment itself, is
not a conscious entity. Only we humans are self-conscious, living,
breathing creatures with free will who must choose to act and to seek
values. Human life is our standard of value, and to survive and
flourish we must make use of the materials of our world.
In Avatar, Cameron gives us a sci-fi version of the Gaia
superstition, showing the Na'vi living in an animate and conscious
world, in which animal and human minds can join, in which we can talk
to the trees as we would with our friends and family. Of course,
that's not the reality. That's not the world. But powerful images
like those in Avatar have nothing to do with reality. Unlike rational
arguments, they can create and reinforce deadly ideas in a culture.
If you want great special effects and an action-packed popcorn
thriller, you'll certainly enjoy Avatar. But hopefully Cameron has so
overplayed his hand with his politically correct plot that audiences
will leave the comfort of the theater with an appreciation for
technology and no desire to flee to a jungle or support the sort of
public policies that would reduce our civilization to savagery.
- - -
Hudgins directs advocacy and is a senior scholar at The Atlas Society, the center for Objectivism.
For further reading:
Edward Hudgins, "Star Wars and the politics of republics." May 21, 2002.
http://www.atlassociety.org/cth--511-Star_Wars_and_politics_republics.aspx
Edward Hudgins, "Star Wars: Are the Sith Selfish?" May 25, 2005.
http://www.atlassociety.org/cth--1610-Star_Wars_Are_the_Sith_Selfish.aspx
More at:
http://www.atlassociety.org/cth-43-2267-Avatar.aspx
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
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Arindam Banerjee
>
> In Avatar Cameron perpetuates the enduring, seductive, yet morally
> false myth of a Garden of Eden or lost paradise inhabited by noble
> savages. This myth has done no end of harm to humanity. In modern
> times, it found its voice in Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Humanity meaning pirates and prostitutes?
Cheers,
Arindam Banerjee
Mbruno
Maharaj) wrote:
> Avatar's Savage Message
>
> By Edward Hudgins
> The Atlas Society
> Talk to the trees
>
> In Avatar, Cameron helps the modern environmental movement continue
> to morph into a new religion of Gaia worship that, disguised as a
> love for nature, is anti-human in its essence.
>
I must say I agree with most of the OP's analysis regarding the
"Avatar" plot. I disagree however with the opinion that Cameron is
overtly promoting a pantheistic, Gaian religion as some right-wing
observers claim.
There is no doubt that, from the Na'vi perspective, "Eywa" is their
goddess. However, the Na'vi point of view doesn't necessarily have to
coincidence with that of the human observers (anthropologists,
linguists, biologists or ordinary lay people) who study or are exposed
to their culture. Grace makes this point very clear when she talks to
Parker about the importance of not destroying the tree of souls. As I
recall it, she distinctly mentions she is not referring to some kind
of "pagan voodoo", but rather to a scientifically meaningful
phenomenon that had been observed to be taking place "biologically" in
the Pandoran flora, namely the flow of bioelectric signals through the
tree roots forming a moon-wide neural net that appeared to have
reached sentience.
Hence, what the Na'vi , in their culture, perceive as a "spiritual
connection" or "bond" with nature is perceived by Grace, the human
scientist, as a biochemical/biophysical phenomenon that can be
explained logically, just like science can explain the movement of the
planets, rainfall, earthquakes, or the alternation of light and
darkness, day and night. Looking from that point of view, Cameron is
less of a "Gaian" or pantheist than, for example, George Lucas, who,
in Star Wars, offers no alternative scientific explanation for the
mysterious "Force" the Jedi can tap into, unlike the bio-computer tree
from Avatar.
Of course, there are some outstanding issues that still need to be
addressed. First, one must ask him/herself whether the emergence of a
planet-wide biological conscience as seen in Avatar would be plausible
under normal Darwinian evolution. I'm not an expert on such matters
and don't consider myself properly equipped to answer that question,
but judging from the scientific debate on the Gaian hypothesis here on
Earth, I would assume some real experts like Richard Dawkins would
probably say "No".
The second question, which is a more philosophical one, is the true
nature of
Eywa's (the planetary neural net's) conscience. "Eywa" doesn't seem to
intervene to protect the Na'vi or the Pandoran environment until it
is directly threatened by the imminent destruction of the tree of
souls by the RDA. In a sense, it is merely acting then in self-
defense, rather than in the interests of the Na'vi people or other
Pandoran animals. How far though does the biological neural net's
degree of sentience go ? Is it fully aware of the Na'vi's existence
and of the fact that they worship it as a deity ? Superficially, the
answer should be "yes", given that the memories and conscience of
deceased (and, perhaps, sometimes living) Na'vi have been uploaded to
the network throughout the centuries. A database can, however, be just
that, i.e. a mere depository of knowledge which cannot necessarily act
on or process the knowledge it stores. More broadly, is the sentient
neural net capable of articulating moral decisions ? Does it willingly
exploit the Na'vi by posing as a deity ? Or does it relationship with
the Na'vi is one of passive indifference ? I hope Cameron might
address those issues on "Avatar 2".
Obveeus
"Mbruno" <br...@ele.ita.br> wrote:
> Hence, what the Na'vi , in their culture, perceive as a "spiritual
> connection" or "bond" with nature is perceived by Grace, the human
> scientist, as a biochemical/biophysical phenomenon that can be
> explained logically,
Agreed.
> Looking from that point of view, Cameron is
> less of a "Gaian" or pantheist than, for example, George Lucas, who,
> in Star Wars, offers no alternative scientific explanation for the
> mysterious "Force" the Jedi can tap into, unlike the bio-computer tree
> from Avatar.
The Jedi 'force' thing became biological in the follow-up prequels. It was
identified as a concentration of 'midichlorians': a biological organism that
lived inside everything else that was alive.
> Of course, there are some outstanding issues that still need to be
> addressed. First, one must ask him/herself whether the emergence of a
> planet-wide biological conscience as seen in Avatar would be plausible
> under normal Darwinian evolution. I'm not an expert on such matters
> and don't consider myself properly equipped to answer that question,
> but judging from the scientific debate on the Gaian hypothesis here on
> Earth, I would assume some real experts like Richard Dawkins would
> probably say "No".
There is a 'mushroom' living in the Northeastern US that covers thousands of
square miles.
> The second question, which is a more philosophical one, is the true
> nature of
> Eywa's (the planetary neural net's) conscience. "Eywa" doesn't seem to
> intervene to protect the Na'vi or the Pandoran environment until it
> is directly threatened by the imminent destruction of the tree of
> souls by the RDA. In a sense, it is merely acting then in self-
> defense, rather than in the interests of the Na'vi people or other
> Pandoran animals. How far though does the biological neural net's
> degree of sentience go ? Is it fully aware of the Na'vi's existence
> and of the fact that they worship it as a deity ? Superficially, the
> answer should be "yes", given that the memories and conscience of
> deceased (and, perhaps, sometimes living) Na'vi have been uploaded to
> the network throughout the centuries. A database can, however, be just
> that, i.e. a mere depository of knowledge which cannot necessarily act
> on or process the knowledge it stores. More broadly, is the sentient
> neural net capable of articulating moral decisions ? Does it willingly
> exploit the Na'vi by posing as a deity ? Or does it relationship with
> the Na'vi is one of passive indifference ? I hope Cameron might
> address those issues on "Avatar 2".
I agree that there is religious/philisophical/biological ground left to
cover. Of course, no matter what answers were offered, it would annoy some
subset of viewers, so it is far more likely that there will not be any
specific answers to that type of questioning.
P. Rajah
> On 7 fev, 22:59, use...@mantra.com and/or www.mantra.com/jai (Dr. Jai
> Maharaj) wrote:
>> Avatar's Savage Message
>>
>> By Edward Hudgins
>> The Atlas Society
>
>> Talk to the trees
>>
>> In Avatar, Cameron helps the modern environmental movement continue
>> to morph into a new religion of Gaia worship that, disguised as a
>> love for nature, is anti-human in its essence.
>>
>
> I must say I agree with most of the OP's analysis regarding the
> "Avatar" plot.
Actually, "OP", a decrepit thing calling itself Jay Maharaj(also known
as Jay Stevens) and claiming to be an asstrolloger, offered no analysis
whatsoever, lacking any native intelligence. Instead, what you read was
Jay Stevens-Maharaj's cut-and-paste job of the article by Ed Hudgins.
And I'm willing to bet that Jay hasn't even seen the film. His apparent
dislike of the movie may stem from any number of reasons: his failure to
generate any interest in his alleged(and, if they exist at all, very
likely fifth-rate at best) movie scripts, his hatred of Hollywood, the
US, Christians, Jews, etc., possibly perceived slights to pagan
traditions(he masquerades also as a self-appointed "protector" of
paganism in the vedic tradition) or just plain jealousy.
harmony
"Mbruno" <br...@ele.ita.br> wrote in message
news:253ace7b-8629-461e...@36g2000yqu.googlegroups.com...
avatar 2, the la clippers will try to recruit a power center.
and/or www.mantra.com/jai
"harmony" <a...@hotmail.com> posted:
>
> "Mbruno" <br...@ele.ita.br> wrote in message
> news:253ace7b-8629-461e...@36g2000yqu.googlegroups.com...
> > Dr. Jai Maharaj posted:
Cameron is reportedly working on a movie about Hiroshima-Nagasaki.
The working title is probably "Pearl Harbor II".
TBerk
What a bunch of bullshit, 'anti-human' indeed. Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
Gia, superstitious yet Nobel Savages, this one has it all.
It wasn't anti-human, it was anti greed. Anti-unsustainability. If you
have nerve endings that tie into the world around you you tend not to
invent things that destroy said environment you need to survive in.
This guy takes perfectly reasonable understandings and tacks on an
insidious twist on each one.
Interpretive Christian stance on our stewardship of the planet, that
we are to be fruitful and multiply, that we own the resources, that
human trumps everything so it's OK to burn rain forest and burn off
'waste' gases at the local refinery because, well we can. Hubris,
conceit,
And, of course, there is the cross-posting: rec.arts.movies.current-
films,alt.fan.jai-
maharaj,misc.writing.screenplays,soc.culture.indian,rec.arts.movies.local.indian
berk