Zeitgeist Patrol

Teally interesting post. I was watching avatar yesterday and the line that stuck out the most for me was when Sully was praying to Shewa (sp?) and told her that the humans had destroyed their own earth, that there was no green left on it. It was subtle, but for a movie that only takes place 150 years in the future, it was certainly a bold statement. On a stylistic note, try seeing avatar in IMAX 3D. It’s quite something.

**Really interesting post. Oh typos…

Sure Americans will like this movie, they will enjoy it and they will pay for it too. It already made $1Billion (a Hollywood franchise is nothing if it does not make the mark of Billion Dollars) and large part of the gusher will be coming from overseas too. That is the thing. Naturally like everyone else Hollywood producers also know where the money is – outside USA, primarily in Asia. No offense taken if these Hollywood guys go after that Asian Money with vengeance. Least it will add few jobs in LA area and they better inoculate themselves for the probable on-slaughter of Bollywood and other movies from Asia.

So when the objective is so clear, it matters less if the script of Avatar is so weak. It is poor. If one were to compare other recent Sci-Fi in 2009; StarTrek movie had great story as well as District 9. Cameron fails on that account.

But the real significance of the movie is in it’s technological impact. It will be very difficult, going forward, to make money in USA unless you are talking about such cutting age 3D delivery technology as well as complete ‘image processing’ as applied to characters in the movie. That is the revolution Cameron has brought in (even though there were inklings of this in LOR and other franchises).

With Media channels announcing 3D programming, Asian TV makers gearing for 3D models and American distributors getting ready to start conquering this great expanse of still virgin market of 3D TV with Internet; we are on the cusp of some dramatic changes in American Living Room.

Are we talking here some nice little sector potentially reviving American Economy at least in that silo? May be so. For sure that is what Americans will be more interested in, with jobs still so scare.

I myself prefer 3-D stage plays. 3-D plays were originally conceived by Leonardo Di Vinci in the early 16th century. Their popularity hit their peak in France during the reign of Louis XIV.

Unfortunately, Lincoln’s assassination in 1865 during a 3-D performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre was the nail in the coffin for 3-D plays in America (Had Lincoln realized in time that actor John Wilkes Booth was really standing in his theater box history may have been different).

Although a 1908 Broadway production of Cyrano de Bergerac in 3-D was supposedly spectacular…

Joe, if you were amazed that the Americans were the bad guys intent on strip mining the environment and dismissive of other cultures, you don’t need to go to the movies more often. You need to read the news.

You mean I’ve been worshipping the Jolly Green Giant all these years???

Sorry but we don’t do media criticism here outside of the narrow focus of the national news. This post is a reference to the political implications of the story. Perhaps you confused us with James P’s media blog.

Ho, ho, ho…

Better finish my peas then.

…the Americans were the bad guys.

Not all of them, remember? Still, the plot was a bit too much Dances with Aliens.

Gotta second the suggestion to see the IMAX presentation. Wow…just wow.

Santa says the same thing. Giant Green. Santa Red. There’s more to this story than meets the eye.

The message that big trees are good and bulldozers are evil seems rather timely.

That’s one take. Another message was that corporate-sponsored warfare committed in order to deprive native populations of their resources is pretty evil as well.

Kind of reminds me of the corporate sponsored assault on health-care. Obviously the Americans here have something in common with those teabaggers getting off those Americans for Prosperity and Freedomworks buses to wage town hall battles.

DFBH. Kill em’ all and let the corporate sponsers sort em’ out.

Blue Hippies! Funny!

Corporate exploitation is an old theme: Cameron addressed it much better in Aliens (the anti-villian Burke wanted to use the aliens for military weaponry). Rollerball (the original) and Robocop are among my faves. Nevermind Robocop himself, look at the background story: what happens when a police force is privatized …and then one of the top brass breaks the law? (Imagine if we really had private police depts.., as I frequently whined about to KT in her past HCR posts, but those thoughts never got any traction here, alas.)

Eh, I could have done without the cheap, “Cyrano’s-nose-in-your-face” gimmickry that usually mars most 3D fare.

Big alien Smurfs.

I’m pushing it here but…
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How do Smurfs reproduce?
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They smuck.

Well we know what happens when we privatize the military. Funny, the past administration patterned so much of their strategy after Jack Bauer and 24, yet the seem to have skipped all of the story lines about the dangers of private military.

[...] Zeitgeist Patrol – Swampland – TIME.com [...]

sacredh
According to a recent Rasmussen survey [12-22-2009]
74% of US citizens view America as a fair and decent country.
17% do not view America as fair and decent
9% don’t know.
You are part of a small minority. In my 71 years, I have traveled all over the world and America is by far the best country in the world in which to live. We have done more good for our citizens and poor people around the world than any other country in the world.
If you don’t like it here why don’t you leave.

Any truth in the rumor that Timothy Geitner is going to be replaced by Sen Dodd, Joe?

@3xfire3
Where in the world have you been going then? Most of my relatives live in Switzerland and Germany and have positions very similar to my families, their standard of living seems quite a bit higher than mine. Compared to many nations the United States may be a good place to live but it is not unqualifiedly (if that’s not a word it should be) the best place to live.

Joe:

The movie Avatar is not about the war on the environment and evil bulldozers and tree gods. I think it’s about American adventurism/imperialism and it’s war against muslim extremism. The war on terror but set in space and this time the Blue Na’Vi are supposed to be in the role of muslims.

Just as in the movie when the humans destroy the Navi Tree Home and justified it with some pre-emptive attack-nonsense about “attacking there instead of them attacking us here.” Many Americans can only see one side of this conflict. They don’t seem to realize that we started this war on terror with decades of bombing campaigns in various middle east countries. It always just seemed like our right to do this. No one complained or worried too much about this when it was just Muslims being bombed in far away lands. If they had been Christians or if they were white, maybe someone would have cared, but the weren’t Christians and they don’t look or act like us (they might as well be aliens with blue skin), so we didn’t care. But when those people who had no tanks or fighter planes to fight back with resorted to the only style of retaliation available to them, and finally we took notice.

Now consider what it must be like for them. Let us imagine the roles reversed. Lets say that 100 years ago, a very powerful invader came in to conquer and occupied all of North America. Then they divided it up as they liked. They made Mexico and Texas one country, they made California and the western states one country. They made Utah one country. They separated the South from the New England states, they made eastern Canada one country, they made Alaska and western Canada to be one country, and they sold Hawaii to the Japanese. This is what Britain (and friends) did throughout Africa and the middle east in very recent history.

Now imagine if our land (America) was divided by foreigners like this, but then they didn’t just leave. Instead, just 40 years ago, a powerful expansionist empire like The Soviet Union decided to build military bases throughout our entire land and the neighboring countries. And over the last 40 years they have built more and more bases in our homeland and they have used these bases again and again over the years to bomb us — sometimes they bomb California, sometimes New York, but over time they attack just about everyone in our great divided land. Even though our people resented the foreigners rape and carving up of our country, the expansionist empire; through threats and bribery manages to build dozens of military bases all over north America, on the nearby islands, and in South and Latin America. If our people resent foreign interference, how can the foreigner be invited to build military bases all over our land? Easy, the foreigner will promise to prop up unpopular kings so that they can keep their crown against the will of the people. The people don’t want you? no problem, let us build bases in your land, we’ll guarantee your rule. This is what America has done throughout the middle east: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, and a few others. The people there hate our overlordship, they resent the millions of deaths we’ve caused over the years, and they hate those local governments that have allowed us to kill their friends and families from bases in their own land.

If we did not resist the foreigners who have been abusing us this way for decades, if we gave our loyalty to the foreigner’s puppets, wouldn’t we be traitors? You know the answer. Then you should understand that any Muslim that sympathises with the invader is a traitor. You should realize, that although many people have misgivings about targeting civilians, the alternative is unconditional as well as personal, national, and cultural suicide. Involving civilians in Iraq was the beginning of a great hardship for the invader. Besides, the invader kills 100 times as many civilians as the freedom fighters do, so concentrate on those civilian deaths which number in the millions, those are dead because of the invader (in reality, we are that invader).

If this was our own history. If we had no tanks or planes to fight with, don’t you think our good ol’ country boys and our hardened inner city dwellers would occasionally group up with some of our radical intellectuals and organize pockets of resistance? Sometimes that would mean attacks against local governments that have decided to invite the foreigners to build bases here. Sometimes we’d attack the foreigners directly, sometimes we’d even attack our own citizens who decided their loyalty is with the foreigners directly or indirectly through loyalty to local governments that serve the foreigners. That is the sort of hatred Saudis, Iraqis, Afghanis, etc have for their own corrupt puppet kings who rule only because we keep them in power.

Now if we had to suffer decades of foreign interference. If they had killed millions of our people, destroyed our prospects for the future, stolen resources, and starved us. If they had constantly threatened us and treated us like animals, if they had stolen Kansas, kicked out the Americans and renamed it Israel, don’t you think we might harbor just a little bit ill will? And what would we fight them with? The answer is, anything we could get our hands on. And how long would we fight them? The answer is, forever.

Many of my fellow Americans think we are 100% right and any Muslim that fights us is 100% wrong. That couldn’t possibly be true, there are two sides to this story, and quite clearly we are the ones who started this war. Over the decades we have pushed Muslims further and further back against the wall. Only after years of abuse did they ever push back. Please consult history. Our rape of the Muslim world was taking place long before we ever suffered any terrorism. We have antagonized them for decades, and now we suffer retaliation and hatred, isn’t that appropriate? Countries like Brazil and Japan are not bombing and building military bases all over the middle east and so they suffer no retaliations. See how that works? We started this war, over the decades as our power grew we constantly increase the pressures of this war. Now our power has reached it’s peek, it’s downhill from here. One day many of our leaders will be in The Hague trying to explain why millions of Muslims (mostly civilians) died. They’re going to say, “I didn’t give the order”. Well you, dear reader, also didn’t give the order. But you went along with it.

Basically just like the Na’vi, I beileve it will be very hard for the US to defeat the enemy (Taliban in Afganistan and Alqueada around everywhere).

It’s about resistance. It will never finish. At least not in our lifetimes.

Well, there was this little movie called Dances With Wolves. And another called Star Trek : Insurrection. Actually you could take any episode of any show of Star Trek and it could be a parable for big business and government malfeasance. The second highest grossing movie of all time, which was, if I’m not mistaken, The Dark Knight was certainly anti-Bush. Yes, Batman goes above the law, but beating the Joker to a pulp does not work in saving anybody and his phonetapping idea goes too far, as he recognizes. Plus the scenes on the boat where the prisoners and the civilians do not do the instinctual, knee jerk thing of blowing each other up even if it could means saving themselves.

All of this is to say that anti-one administration, anti-military and anti-corporate movies have been around for a long time. Look at any anti-war film, or the Godfather or anything really. Too much anti, but hopefully my point is made.

I cannot believe that I am only the second respondent to your comment!
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Absolute genius, very funny, many thanks.

NewsBusters: Joe Klein Hopeful Avatar’s Liberal Message Will ‘Ripple’ In ‘Enviro-Theistic Ways’
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2010/01/07/joe-klein-hopeful-avatars-liberal-message-will-ripple-enviro-theistic-

3xfire3: You are mistaken. I consider myself to be in the 74% of Americans that look at America as a fair and decent country. I do not believe that we are perfect however. We are and have always been a work-in-progress.
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150 years ago it was legal to literally own another person in this country and consider them as property. We fought a Civil War over that. We corrected a greivous error. 100 years ago women could not vote and were 2nd class citizens. We corrected that. In my own lifetime we had to pass laws that gave our citizens protections to allow them vote and do away with Jim Crow laws. More tragic errors corrected. There were states that did not allow marriage between the races. Another horrible injustice corrected.
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We are still maturing as a country and a society. 50 years from now I expect and hope that things will be even better than they are now. It’s called change. I do like it here and have no plans to leave. I am not afraid to admit and recognize that we still have a long way to go. I criticize the system because I love it and hope for better from it. It’s called freedom.
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If I recall correctly, you are a Navy veteran. Reverend Jerimiah Wright is a Marine veteran. I see very little difference between you and him. You both served your country but fail to understand what it represents. Both of your attitudes are abhorrent to me and an insult to our great nation.
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It takes far more courage to stand up to injustices than to tolerate and prolong them. This is where I actually stand, not where you think I stand.

Sacredh. Your statements in your last posting are basically the same beliefs I have about our country. We are not perfect and will always be a work in process. Being perfect is not possible. What is important is that we are moving forward and we are continuing to improve. Progress towards perfection should always be our goal.
I may have been to quick to judge you on your first posting. I sometimes get frustrated by all the hateful comments made on this website about our country and anyone who doesn’t follow the extreme Liberal line. Progress is made when people with different views work together to solve problems. Most of the commenters on this website tend to demonize anyone who does not share their views. This type of attitude actually makes it very difficult to make needed improvements.

3xfire3: Most Americans want the same thing and have the same hopes and dreams. It is only the path toward those goals that differ in significant ways. freeinpa and I had sniped at each other until we actually compared who we are as individuals and what we did as individuals. We are obviously at opposite ends of the political spectrum but we found out that we have many similarities personally. We both want the same things for ourselves and our country. How and who can achieve those goals is where we differ.
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In 40 years whites will no longer be in the majority in the US. The last thing I want is for my grandchildren or great grand children to wonder why there are so few people who look like them serving on the Supreme Court or in congress. If we don’t start treating people the same regardless of their race, ethnicity or sex, we are going to pay a stiff price in the future.
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40 years is a long time and the chances are almost nil that I’ll be around then, but I remember vividly what things looked like 40 years ago. I don’t like all of the changes that have occurred since then but some things are just going to happen whether we like them or not. We’re either going to go forward and prosper as one nation and one people or else we’ll wind up as a second rate nation with a fractured society. I don’t want my grandchildren to have to live with that.

sacredh. As a grandfather of 10 grandchildren, 3 of which are bi-racial [Black and white] and 2 of which are Hispanic, I want a colorless world. I have found people are people regardless of their color or national origin. We are all children of God.
Also Jerimiah Wright in my opinion is a racist and a hustler. I am neither.

I agree that Wright is a racist. I have no tolerance for either racism or bigotry. My comparison was based on your comment about “if you don’t like it here why don’t you leave?”. I may be an incurable optimist, but I’ve always felt that there is room for many opinions and differences among the people as long as we realize that we are one people.

[...] Time columnist and avowed liberal Joe Klein: But that wasn’t the most amazing thing about the movie: the Americans were the bad guys. They [...]

[...] are precisely the thoughts so expertly laid out in post by Joe Klein on our sister blog Swampland. [...]

[...] while many of the Liberal/Democrat arguments in favor of the movie used that as a talking point. Neither seemed to really reference the likeness of Giovanni Ribisi’s character to that of [...]

[...] showing of the left-wing fantasy pic “Avatar,” and came home rearin’ to write about it. Why, the film was a wonder to behold, Klein decided. Why was it so good? Because “the Americans were the bad guys,” Klein gushed. He [...]

[...] showing of the left-wing fantasy pic “Avatar,” and came home rearin’ to write about it. Why, the film was a wonder to behold, Klein decided. Why was it so good? Because “the Americans were the bad guys” Klein gushed. He [...]

[...] JOE KLEIN Mr. Klein, Time columnist, TV pundit and author, reviewed Avatar earlier this year and found the dialogue was awful; the characterizations were crude. [...]