We are the Avatars

Avatar delivers a strong message that only the people can stop large corporations. The greed for resources is totally destroying all life on Earth.

I was reluctant to see the film. I pictured these flying blue beings in some glorified video game. However, a friend recently commented that he saw the film and said it had ties to the war in Iraq. OK, how can flying blue beings (Navi) from another planet called Pandora have anything to do with the Iraq war here on our blue planet?

For those that haven't seen the film, the computer effects will blow you away, but while that aspect had some bearing of enjoyment, it was the film's message that had the heaviest impact. Many action films have a shallow story based on heroism, romance, and killing of course, but Avatar was much more than that.

The media wonders why audience members leave the theater feeling depressed after viewing Avatar. It is called the Avatar blues. How can anyone who knows anything about reality on this planet be happy about this movie or what's happening in our world? There are very good reasons for being depressed after viewing the movie and it has nothing to do with the film but the message. We are destroying life on Earth and we are the Avatars.

We are over populating the planet beyond our resources and expecting other nations to be developed like the U.S.A. and Europe. Oil is not renewable. Water and food are limited resources. We continue to destroy forests all over the world and are responsible for the sixth extinction. We are also impacting the climate of the planet. How is this sustainable? We currently live in the sixth extinction, where massive numbers of species are becoming extinct in our lifetimes caused primarily by humans due to resource exploitation, lack of habitat, and pollution. This is the largest extinction in humankind's history. This sixth extinction can equate to mass extinctions caused by asteroids and ice ages, only the current asteroid comes in the form of almost seven billion humans on Earth.

Now, that we consider multi-national corporations persons, according to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last week, we may have our fate sealed as money is now considered free speech. We are the disabled wheel chair bound soldier at the mercy of huge corporations because we are desperate for jobs at any cost to survive. We are told that those people over there are terrorists, savages, and sub-human, but they are much like us. They wish to live in peace, but we are using up our resources so we must take resources from others. We call it the war on terror. We believe we are righteous in our religious beliefs and way of life that we must change those who are different from us. We are told by the corporate media that we're spreading freedom and democracy, but instead we help these multi-national corporations steal from other countries in order to make a profit. The "savages" defend themselves (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.). We call it terrorism.

When Jake Sully realizes that the Navi are interconnected to all life in the forest, we reflect on how disconnected we are to all life on our planet. This is why some viewers leave the theater depressed. We wish we were part of a super living organism where we live in harmony. Instead we are part of super human consumerism where we are programmed to destroy all life in order to survive.

We have no idea that our throw away society kills all life on the planet every day. We are blinded by propaganda from media controlled by money machines not by individual human beings that actually want to save our precious planet.

America needs to wake up and face this reality that we are the Avatars and we will face the same demise as the "savages" in the movie. It may not be that dramatic and colorful, but we will lose all our resources if we don't change our ways. We must become active citizens, not absent and apathetic consumers.

The film reminds us of what our ancestors had perpetrated on other cultures like the American Indian, the Aborigine, Africans, and many others because we had the technology to destroy them and their way of life. We took their land and resources because we could, but it didn't mean it was right. We continue to do so.

The ending of the film may have been unrealistic, since the Navi didn't have the technology to confront those with political power and billions upon billions of dollars for sophisticated weapons of mass destruction. However, the film leaves us with hope that if we all work together we can create the change we wish to see in the world, as Ghandi put it.

My hope is that we will. Avatar was more than a movie; it was a political message that we like Sully, must wake up to the reality that we are being dominated and force fed to consume ourselves into extinction. We can do something about. Get active, get educated, and get involved. Use your mind and your resources to make the change to save life on this blue planet. This includes humankind.

We don't have any other blue planets or moons to live upon so this is it! There isn't a Pandora out there that we can just fly to. Earth is our home. What do you want for your children and grandchildren?