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How do we make democracy work for the poor?
By Gilad Atzmon · 11 Jan 2010
James Cameron's Anti-War Film
Avatar may well be the biggest anti-war film of all time. It stands against everything the West is identified with. It is against greed and capitalism, it is against interventionism, it is against colonialism and imperialism, it is against technological orientation, it is against America and Britain. It puts Wolfowitz, Blair and Bush on trial without even mentioning their names. It enlightens the true meaning of ethics as a dynamic judgmental process rather than fixed moral guidelines (such as the Ten Commandments or the 1948 Human Right Declaration).
It throws a very dark light on our murderous tendencies towards other people, their belief and rituals. But it doesn’t just stop there. In the same breath, very much like German Leben philosophers, it praises the power of nature and the attempt to bond in harmony with soil, the forest and the wildlife. It advises us all to integrate with our surrounding reality rather than impose ourselves on it. Very much like German Idealists and early Romanticists, it raises questions to do with essence, existence and the absolute. It celebrates the true meaning of life and livelihood. (Lebensphilosophie - German, life philosophy, or philosophy of life. A term for the general emphasis on ‘life’ as an important philosophical vocabulary. Generally speaking the Leben Philosophers stood for paying philosophical attention to life as it is lived ‘from the inside’, as opposed to Kantian abstractions, scientific reductions, positivism and naturalism.)
It is pretty astonishing and cheering to discover Hollywood paving the way to the victorious return of German philosophical thought.
The year is 2154 and the RDA corporation is mining planet Pandora digging for Unobtanium, a unique mineral that defies gravity and sells for top cash. Pandora is a remote planet inhabited by the Na’vi, a species that shares some human features. Like humans the Na’vi have their own developed language and high culture. Yet unlike westerners they integrate with their surrounding reality searching for harmony in nature rather than looking for a means to exploit it. The Na’vi are a few feet taller than humans, they are extremely strong, and they also possess a long impressive tail and a long plait with a unique bond at its end that operates as an organic USB connection.
The bond allows the Na'vi to form a mental and spiritual union with their surrounding organic reality. The Na'vi cherish their planet, they look after it. They also worship a mother goddess called Eywa, who encompasses the integrated spiritual and physical centre of their universe and it's past.
In order to penetrate into the Na'vi, human scientists genetically engineered human-Na'vi hybrid bodies called Avatars. Like in all Western interventionalist and colonial wars, the foreign invader insists on convincing itself that it can create some false needs amongst the indigenous population. The RDA Corporation takes pride in its attempt 'to bring culture to Pandora.' The Avatars are there to communicate with the Na'vi. They are there to teach them English and Western values. They are there to maintain order so that the Na'vi fail to notice that their soil is raped and robbed by the Humans. But as we soon learn, such an attempt is in vein. The Humans have nothing to offer which the Na’vi are willing to take.
Jake Sully a paraplegic former marine is an Avatar. With the support of the appropriate advanced technology and machinery he operates a Na'vi/Avatar hybrid.
Pretty soon Jake, as an Avatar, manages to make contact with the Na'vi. He even manages to infiltrate into their civilization. Colonel Miles Quaritch, the fierce mercenary leader of the security forces, offers Jake to have his legs repaired in exchange for providing intelligence about the Na'vi.
Though Jake is initially happy to provide the goods, it is just a question of time before the ex- marine, changes his league. Through the eyes of the Avatar, Jake sees truthfulness in harmony. However, through his training and life experience he knows what Human genocidal brutality is all about. He prefers harmony over racial brotherhood.
As the plot unfolds, both Jake and the Avatar scientific team understand that the corporation and Colonel Quaritch are preparing for a total war against the Na'vi and their civilization. The scientific team unite together with Jake against the corporation and the mercenary force. They are committed to save the Na'vi. Augustine, the professor behind the Avatar project who is genuinely fascinated by the Pandora magic and motivated by true knowledge seeking, makes up her mind; she says NO to technology. She betrays the company that finances her research and eventually gives her life to her subject of research instead.
As the movie reaches its dramatic peak, Jake, the Avatar, the ex-human spy is leading the Na'vi defensive war against the Humans. As the mercenary colonel is closing in on the sacred site, the Na'vi fight back fiercely against the superior technological might. The Na'vi suffer heavy casualties. When all hope seems lost, the Pandoran wildlife joins the Na'vi and attack the humans in great numbers, overwhelming them in the air and on the ground.
The film ends with Jake being successfully transplanted into his Na'vi Avatar. We also see the remnants of the human army marching to a sky shuttle that will transport them out of Pandora. The message of the 300 million cinematic spectacle is clear: NO to war, NO to greed, NO to intervention, NO to throwing bombs, YES to nature, harmony and respecting the beliefs of others.
I recently learned that Avatar drew some criticism for its alleged 'racist subtext'. "Na'vi might be blue aliens," says one British commentator "but they're also blue aliens with Masai-style necklaces…acted by mostly black actors. They’re also rescued from destruction by a white character – played, of course, by a white actor – who becomes one of them." The idea of a "white liberal man as the saviour of the so-called primitive natives" seems to deliver a 'patronising' message.
I find it hard to take these arguments seriously. The Sci-fi genre is creating an imaginary fantastic reality that thrives on familiarity. James Cameron, the man behind the Avatar spectacle, based the Na'vi on an amalgam of many non-white aspects: African tribal markings, Native American settings, Jamaican hairstyles and so on. Yet, he manages to evoke empathy in us towards the so-called 'alien' rather than towards the Human. This alone should be enough to defy the politically correct accusation of 'racist subtext' behind the film.
However, the criticism against Cameron drew my attention to the role of the Avatar as a double agent. Towards the final scene Colonel Quaritch blames Jake for "betraying his race." Jake indeed changes sides; he is doing it for a good cause. And as it seems, the Na'vi and Pandora couldn’t prevail without him, they needed his leadership. In order to win the battle they needed a leader that is deeply familiar with the enemy's tactics and mode of thought.
One of the reasons that America is defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan is the obvious fact that many Iraqis and Afghans had been educated in American universities and are familiar with the American way, yet, not many within the American elite or military command understand Islam. Not many amongst the American or British leadership are graduates of Kabul or Baghdad universities.
However, as in the case of Avatar, by the time America and Britain will start to train its forces to understand Islam, it may as well be ready for its new enlightened soldiers to change sides once they arrive on the battlefield. I would maintain that to stand up against your own people for an ethical cause is the real meaning of humanism and liberty. Yet, it is pretty astonishing that such an inspiring message is delivered by Hollywood. We may have to admit, once again, that it is the artist and creative mind (rather than the politician) that is there to shape our reality and present a prospect of a better, amicable future by the means of aesthetics.
Aztmon is a writer and jazz musician living in London. His latest CD is In Loving Memory of America.
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Avatar...Just Another Hollywood Story
I can't agree with this review. While Avatar is visually enjoyable, and its message of Bad Corporation is ok, unfortunately it collapses into the usual Hollywood garbage at the end. I don't think it is so easy to dismiss the fact that the 'bringer of consciousness to the natives' is a white man. In the face of imperialist plunder, Avatar suggests all we can do is turn to God for help. They are defeated until God makes a physical intervention. What does that say for us ordinary people in the real world who are really faced with Empire?
That we cannot do anything but turn to religion? I really thought the movie was over when the Hometree fell. After all, wasn't the burning of the libraries in Baghdad an equivalent? There is no returning after that. If the movie had ended there, at least we would have seen part of the reality of Empire in the real world. The only difference is that in Baghdad ordinary people turned to resistance and have kept it up against similarly unequal odds to the extent that Empire does not know how to extricate itself. It was very convenient that the (white, male) human invaders came from another planet so they could be ushered away at the end.
Unfortunately for us, Bush and his ilk remain amongst us on this planet. We have to face that reality. Romanticising the past does us no good. The realy question is how to wrest control of technology out of the hands of private individuals and corporations who use it for anti-social purposes, so that the full value of technology can be put use in the interests of all. We can't return to 'paradise lost' and nor can we continue on the path of alienated technology. What is the alternative? Avatar gives us no answers at all. See http://asubtleknife.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/leaving-the-world-avatar/ for a good, critical review.
