Travis, Dude, it's a movie. It's purpose is to make a butt-load of money for the studio and it's investors.
On Dec 28, 2:56 pm, Travis <[email protected]> wrote: > As I correctly explained about Avatar - the movie is twisted to make several > interpretations: > > 1. America is bad - evil plunderer of civilization > > 2. Modernity is bad -- leave the ancient tribal and spirited lands alone > from plunder (Dances with Wolves) > > 3. Technology is bad -- turns us into evil people > > Etc etc - the movie was visually amazing but am surprised that Cameron took > such an obvious position given his films of past -- a Canuck at that. > > Blue Christmas > > By James Howard Kunstler > on December 21, 2009 7:05 AM > > As the end-credits rolled for James Cameron's new movie, *Avatar*, the > audience burst into rowdy applause. It seemed to me that they were > applauding the sheer computerized dazzlement of the show -- but in the * > story* itself they had just watched the US suffer a humiliating defeat on a > distant planet. In the final frames, American soldiers and the corporate > executives they had failed to protect were shown lined up as > prisoners-of-war about to embark on a death march. > > More to the point, the depiction of our national character through the > whole course of the film was of a thuggish, cruel, cynical, stupid, > detestable, and totally corrupt people bent on the complete destruction of > nature. Nice. And the final irony was that Cameron had used theatrical > technology of the latest and greatest kind to depict America's broader > techno-grandiosity -- as the army's brute robotic warriors fell to the > spears and arrows of the simple blue space aliens. Altogether, it was a > weird moment in entertainment history, and perhaps in the American > experience per se. No doubt audiences overseas will go wild with delight, > too, but perhaps with a clearer notion of what they are clapping for than > the enthralled masses of zombie Americans. > > The infatuation with technology, and the disgusting cockiness that goes > with it (so well-captured in *Avatar*), is but one facet of the psychosis > gripping the nation -- and by that I mean the profound detachment from > reality. We have no idea what is happening to us and, naturally, no idea of > what we are going to do. I sat in a bar Friday evening with a financial > reporter from a national newspaper, trying to explain the peak oil situation > and what it implied for our economy. He had never heard it before. The > relationship between energy resources and massive debt was new to him. (It > also came up in conversation that he could not tell me what the Monroe > Doctrine was about, despite a history degree from Yale.) There you have a > nice snapshot of the mainstream media in this land. > > This year, America can look for a nice lump of coal in its Christmas > stocking. That lump will be called "the recovery." This recovery consists of > a massive self-deception, made up of accounting tricks and falsified > statistics, with a sugar-coating on top of sheer disbelief that the outcome > could be anything but a particular happy ending -- namely, the continued > levitation of the unsustainable. What is most amazing about Mr. Cameron's > holiday blockbuster is the explicit message that America is a society that > deserves to be punished (and humiliated!) by others who manage their own > relations with reality better than we do. I wonder how much that will > secretly account for its popularity. I wonder what the leaders of China will > make of it. > > The other current embodiment of national character failure, Tiger > Woods, golfer, has also dazzled the American public. Personally I find it > much more interesting to learn that he was a really lousy tipper than that > he got a lot of action on the side with opportunistic bar girls, porn stars, > and other denizens of the sports-entertainment netherworld. Is it not also > amusing that golf is even taken seriously as an athletic pursuit? I mean, > why not pancake-flipping? Or dice? Or shooting rats at the landfill? This > is the kind of knucklehead culture we have become after six decades of the > softest life imaginable. Anyway, I'm not shedding any tears for Tiger. Even > if all his endorsements dry up and his ex-wife takes him to the cleaners for > a hundred million or so, he'll still be left with enough cash to pay for > porn stars and lobster tails until the end of time, especially if he keeps > his tipping policy at its current level. > > Next week I'll put out my forecast for the coming year, 2010. But for > now I'd like to leave readers with this Christmas present:* A PREVIEW SCENE > FROM THE SEQUEL TO MY NOVEL OF THE POST-OIL AMERICAN FUTURE, > *<http://www.kunstler.com/Christmas_excerpt09.html> > *WORLD MADE BY HAND <http://www.kunstler.com/Christmas_excerpt09.html>**.... > * <http://www.kunstler.com/Christmas_excerpt09.html> > > http://kunstler.com/blog/2009/12/blue-christmas.html#more -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
