Our Avitar

Our Avitar:  Their Movie, Our Matrix

Avitar:  embodiment;  a new personification of a familiar idea; "the embodiment of hope"; "the incarnation of evil"; "the very avatar of cunning"

Sanskrit avat ra,  descent (of a deity from heaven), avatar : ava, downtarati, he crosses; see ter- in Indo-European roots.] +

--Web definitions

First of all, who are “they” and who are “we?” In the largely artificial “left-right-liberal-conservative” paradigm dividing humanity- particularly the USA, “we” are the ones who wish to find ourselves “…hugging trees, dancing in the woods with a loincloth, singing kumbaya, and worshiping Eywa…I mean ‘mother Earth’.”  Very well, then, let’s draw the line there.  And who are “they?”  Describing themselves as paragons of “self reliance,” they claim to detest a “heavy-handed government” that deprives them of their “freedoms,” like gas hogs and central air-conditioning.  Back atcha, “conservatives.”  “Yes, “Avatar” is cinema for the hate America crowd.”

Second, how could anybody “hate America?” It’s a very nice land mass.  They are referring to the USA, which they claim anyone not lock-step with their own addled dogma is “against.”  Such is standard patter in the State of Stupid where public discourse beyond pep-rallies and parades is forbidden.  Let’s not go there.  Instead, we need to seek out real Conservatives, who have some concept of what “conservation” means.  Hard to find, they do exist.  They talk about “localist principles,” Community Supported Agriculture, and things like: “Harmony with nature, respect for food sources, sensitivity to the earth, liturgical vitality, rites of passage, lifelong marriage commitments, horse whispering…” which would also sound “tree-hugger” to the bullet-heads in their drywall suburban cracker-boxes and ChurchMarts.

Third, it’s only a movie. It’s not “liberal blood lust,” even though we can’t deny delight in seeing violent mercs getting their ass handed to them.  It’s what makes Avitar a successful “take-me-away” adventure movie that director Cameron describes.  He’s no raving activist, just a movie merc in the business of making movies that make money.  Why would cracker-box “conservatives” have a problem with that?  Maybe it “took them away” to a place they didn’t want to go.  It’s been hard for them ever since John Wayne headed for the last roundup.  They can’t even enjoy delightful eye-candy any more.  And that’s all it is.

Sure, one could argue that the plot is warmed-over “Saint Kevin and the Indians,” aka “Dances with Wolves,” but that’s where our Matrix comes in.  We Redpill Folk (yeek!  Socialism!) simply have a different Matrix.  Every bit as isolated in our condos and computers as any cracker-box, we tend to recognize the primacy of Earth and Community (aaagh! Kommunism!) a little bit more.  That makes us “kumbaya-singing tree-huggers” and “statists” just as much as their kitsch “patriotism” makes them seem like knuckle-draggers to us.  We must recognize that not all the folks who willingly apply the “conservative” label to themselves are stupid.  We need to realize that self-applied labels are, unfortunately, part of the evolutionary “Human Spark.”

It is unfortunate because in our heavily-mediated Matrix, many of the labels are manipulative memes.  If we bend the silly “right-left” paradigm, it becomes a circle.  Many of us meet at COTO , the Coalition Of The Obvious, where an awareness of deep “conspiracy theory” is a natural outgrowth of the “post-modern paradigm,” or “incredulity at meta-narratives.”  In other words, no mater where we come from, our bullshit-detectors  are still active.  We can still recognize bullshit when we see// hear/ it.  So many things are “obviously” bullshit… like the “left-right” paradigm… or the “two-party system” in the USA.  That’s why there is a strong emotional connection for many of us in the movie, Avitar.  It is instinctual recognition that “we are all one.”

This “oneness” is a hard pill to swallow for self-perceived “rugged individualists” who need piped-in energy and  water.  Scientists are now speculating that dogs have more of the “Human Spark” than even chimps do.  No surprise there.  The Great Paradox is our desire to cooperate, not just tribally, but trans-label, and even trans-species.  That is the endearing quality of the Na’vi, the inhabitants of Pandora, and the human protagonists who are able to do so as well.  The key is empathy.  We must continue to use this in spite of their seeming inability to do so.  We must think like dogs.  We must rely on other senses.  We must learn how to “smell fear.”  We must learn how to sense fear as easily as we sense bullshit.  Maybe they’ll join the “Reality Based Community.”

Fear is a major component of bullshit.