“DZA,” you ask, “Where can *I* learn about imperial hate and destruction?”
Well, you’ve come to the right place. Everything you need to know is embedded in the recent movie Avatar, which you almost certainly have seen, unless you already knew better.
While it’s guaranteed to be an unintentional result of decades of White Man cultural programming, I have to give half a prop to James Cameron just for putting together such a convenient study guide to understanding the mindset of the people that put the world in chains.
For those just joining us, the planet is currently ruled by the legacy of Western European colonialism, which involves mass genocide, slavery, torture, and rape, as well as intellectual and religious justifications for all of the above. The “Eurocentric mind” regards itself as the pinnacle of human and cultural evolution, and regards the rest of the humans on the planet as some type of inferior “savage.”
There are two main categories of savages. The first category is the “Noble Savage,” or as I like to call it, “Savages Save Us.” This type of savage possesses the magic earth powers to save the colonizer from his own fucked up actions and mentality, making it a popular one amongst the inheritors of the Eurocentric mind (white folks, this is you.) Some eurominds still hold out hope that “Native spirituality” can save them from their own bankrupt culture, making American Indians the “Noble Savage” of choice in the popular mind.
The second category of “savages” is the “Evil Savage,” or as I like to call it, “Kill All Savages.” These are the savages that are little better than animals, engage in every kind of perversion and macabre behavior, and therefore deserve only death and enslavement. The current holders of the “Kill All Savages” title are Arabs and Muslims, who I’ve heard are crazy freedom-haters.
BOTH CATEGORIES MAKE US AN “OBJECT” IN THEIR STORIES, INSTEAD OF PEOPLE.
If you couldn’t already guess, Avatar is 100% puro “Savages Save Us.”
The following collection of highlights are but a few of the MANY notes struck by Avatar that reveal it as nothing but another piece of imperial bullshit masquerading as some kind of progressive morality tale.
• Protagonist is a soldier. Militarism, check.
• Opens with fancy spaceship. Western mind lost in fantasies of plastic, metal, and glass, an antiseptic utopia for those who fear and hate body and nature. False ideology of “Progress,” check.
• OMG Special Effects!!!!! Why bother going outside when you can see such vivid nature in the air-conditioned comfort of your own isolation chamber? Body-hate videomind culture worship, check.
• Powerful science woman gets “put in her place” by a corporate herb who later spits racial epithets, to demonstrate “badness” of white man. My ears filled with the sound of my skin, blood, identity, and humanity being insulted, check.
• Cloning aboriginals to live out ultimate pornsick “penetration” fantasy of running around in the literal bodies of the natives. Science psychopathology, check.
• Stabbing, probing, ripping, and destruction of flora and fauna with metal and plastic. Earth rape, check.
• Soldier wants approval from “tough-as-nails” commander. Dudely daddy shit, check.
• Soldier has to be “mothered” in native ways. Dudely mommy shit, check.
• Aboriginal tribe organized with Old Man as “chief” and everyone else under him. Outerspace Patriarchy, check.
• Tutoring of Soldier assigned to Chief’s Daughter – (AS IF) – to provide opportunity for cinematic “romance.” Impending imperial colonization of native woman, check.
• Soldier “bonds for life” with dragon by first subduing it, tying its mouth up, wrestling it to the ground, and penetrating it. Bondage and rape, check.
When the dragon-rape scene rolls around, that’s when it’s time for DZA to walk. And walk I did, dusting my feet off as I went.
You see, since I don’t watch TV, I had no idea what this movie was about when I went with some folks to see it on opening night. It really is a miracle that I hung around to see as much of the movie as I did. If the circumstances under which I went to the movie had been different (i.e. if I’d gone by myself or with a friend instead of with a giant group) I certainly would have walked out when I discovered the protagonist was a soldier. DZA and militarism are irreconcilable.
The next day I saw the dude that invited me, who was asking me why I left early. Not wanting to get into the whole diatribe, I just told him I wasn’t feeling it. Then I proceeded to give him a 15-second blind summary of the remainder of the movie that I “missed,” which had him cracking up.
It might seem amazing to you that I could pack almost 2 hours worth of material into a 15-second summary, but only if we all pretend that these putrid colonizing scum haven’t been telling the exact same stories since they started spreading their poisonous culture virus around the world.
Let me guess. The white dude (in savage body, of course) colonizes the native woman. There’s a big battle. The invaders see the light, or get killed off. Everyone lives happily ever after on a sustainable, environmentally friendly world where everyone gets to have their Prius and drive it too.
Next time you’re thinking of asking me if I want to see “X movie,” the answer is no.
I’m all about celibacy from mass (death) culture.
A few sensible Avatar commentaries:
Please Mount My Hot Blue Alien
Avatar and Waking Up From Dreams
