Mesa Community Central
March 3, 2010 show
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO PANDORA
The Social and Political Messages of Avatar
by H. Micheal Wright - Publisher
Humanists and religionists have one thing in common: they all seek a vision of a better world. Some agitate for it; some presume it must be found in another, promised world; some just struggle to keep the present world from deteriorating; most feel no control over conditions in the world and therefore don’t aspire
for change. Cynics seem to rule when it comes to attempts at social architecture.
This is not intended to be a traditional review of the movie Avatar. There have been many of them; mostly praising of the visual feast that Cameron has brought us while dis-ing the predictability of the story. I personally found the movie to be amazing: action-packed, highly artistic and the charm of its Na’vi humanoids was heartwarming.
But my purpose is to use the model of Pandoran life to comment on the message underlying the contrast between the callous corporate-militarism of the human mining venture and the utopian Eden-like society of the Na’vi indigents of Pandora. In doing this I realize that I am pretty much stating the obvious — one of the criticisms of contrarians who have reviewed the movie attack it for the predictability of its political subtexts of global ruination, racial prejudice and greedy exploitive corporatism. But perhaps the writers did not realize that these themes would be so very relevant to the state of our country today. So at the risk of simple pedagogy (hopefully not pegagoguery) I will comment on what I consider the aspects of the movie that, to me, are even more compelling than its masterful visual effects. Of course, as an old liberal, I tend to look for the social justice implications in most stories in literature and film. In Avatar I found a feast.
Let us start with the setting: in some future time, a mining mega-corporation, escorted by a heavy-handed over-powered military regiment, enterprises to extract a rare metal found on the lush planet Pandora. They are also accompanied by a small band of scientists devoted to the anthropological research opportunities, whose true purpose is to make nice with the locals so that the corporation can keep them out of its hair while it scrapes its threatening way toward the natives’ home village.
The natural world of Pandora has a soul, or life-force, connected to all living things, a sort of feminine spiritual pantheistic Diety that is somehow comprised of a spiritual neural essence mixed with the souls of ancestors, who (which) is called Eywa. “Eywa protects the balance” of nature. The people of Pandora, the Na’vi, are a childlike, highly emotional (in the “feeling” sense, not the behavioral sense) simple-living humanoid species who have perfected their skills at hunting. But not hunting like some “pry-from-my-cold-dead-fingers” redneck, but hunters who respect life and bond with their prey with the finesse of true Eywa-esque reverence.
The plot: the humans want to mine the Pandoran metal, civilization-be-damned. But the richest mother-lode happens to lie underneath a Na’vi clan’s Home Tree where they live in a communal city-state of peace and refined cooperation. The corporate strategy: transform some of the anthropologists into Na’vi-like creatures to teach them English, gain their confidence, hold them at bay and then raze the Home Tree. The Na’vi’s goal: to resist the military aggression despite their lack of technology or sophisticated weaponry and protect the purity of their Eden-like existence. Two obviously inconsistent and irresolvable positions; each faction intractable. And the semi-Na’vi anthropologists are caught in the middle. This is complicated by the fact that the leading man, one of the dual-natured transformed ones, falls in love with a sassy, svelte young female who happens to be the daughter of the head Na’vi and his shaman wife, as well as a proficient hunter herself. Thus, we have the hearts-and-flowers, the pulling-power and the against-great-odds clash of war that would make Tolstoyian students smile.
Of course, in the end, the evil colonialists are defeated by the pure and loving Na’vi; the weaker Na’vi turn out to be stronger than their aggressors because, well, they are pure and brave of heart, and they have the help of Eywa. The soul force of nature turns out to prevail over the technological power of man; undefiled and advanced-on-its-own bio-science is the author of its own survival.
There are sub-themes galore in this story, many of which are socio-political: the threat of global ruination; the virtues of peace-loving community life and the inter-dependence of humanity (or, should I say, Na’vianity); the ugliness of militarism and corporate greed; the ability of science and spirituality to cohere where there is reverence for the sacredness of life; soul-nourishing nature over soul-destroying technology; the harsh logic of technology as inferior to the intuitive feelings of nature and creation; reverence for life; honoring the values and traditions of our ancestors; race relations; humility over hubris.
Perhaps the over-riding theme of this great adventure story is found in a more subtle message: the hope of mankind is to return to a natural state, a less-aggressive, nature-honoring, community-supportive, gentler (feminine?) cooperative existence. What application can be made of the lessons from Pandora is up to us. In the end, we may have to rise up Na’vi-like against the polluting, forceful self-interest of the corporatist power structure that threatens peace and overcome it through a change of philosophy and preservation of values. We may have to return to Eden.
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H. Micheal Wright - Publisher
Larry John - C.E.O.
Michal John - Editor in Chief
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