The crass realities of Avatar
This piece by Josh Schrei over at the Huffington Post is one of the best takes on Avatar I’ve read. The basic premise is that the criticisms of the cheesy lines given to the one-dimensional “baddies” altogether miss the reality that their real-life counterparts actually do utter such unthinkable crap, as they destroy indigenous ecologies. It’s a very fair point, quite revealing of how we fail to take on board some of the stark realities that we’re insulated from, but which destroy lives in remote parts of the world. Well worth a read.
Thanks for that, Gyrus. Personally i loved those one-liners about the only thing worse than looking bad for killing the indigenous is having a bad quarterly balance sheet.
On the ‘killing the indigenous looks bad’, it reminds me of something in corporate Watch’s Corporate Law and Structures report:
For most people, economic values are secondary, and social and to a lesser extent environmental values come first: making money is good but only if it doesn’t conflict with believing it’s wrong to murder, steal or cut down virgin rainforest.
For the corporate ‘environmentalist’, profit is absolute, social and environmental values are relative: their first aim is to make as much money as possible, but given two ways to make that money they choose the one that requires the least murder, blatant theft or environmental destruction. Then they pat themselves on the back for being so responsible.
Merrick - 17th January 2010 @ 17:24