[p2p-research] Fwd: Absolutely must read: FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Avatar

Thu Dec 31 12:06:45 CET 2009

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Thomas Greco <thg at mindspring.com>
Date: Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 10:49 AM
Subject: Re: Absolutely must read: FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Avatar
To: mary rose <maryrose333 at att.net>, Discussion Forum for Global Justice <
discussion at globaljusticemovement.net>, FixGov at yahoogroups.com

I went with a friend to see the Avatar movie in Bangkok a couple weeks ago.
I agree that it's well done, carries an important message, and is well worth
seeing for its sheer entertainment value. The point where it falls short is
in the resolution of the conflict between the exploiters and the exploited.
It always seems to come down to violence.
As the reviewer admits, spears winning out against fire bombs and rockets is
totally unrealistic.

> "Here's where Avatar really becomes fiction, because in the real world,
> spears usually aren't victorious over bullets. And hoards of large
> bullet-proof animals don't stampede to your rescue."
>
Here is a challenge to deeply contemplate the nature of things and how to
align ourselves with Gaia.

Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
+66 (0)88 390 4730 (Thailand Mobile)
PO Box 42663, Tucson, AZ 85733, USA
Website: http://reinventingmoney.com
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Skype: tomazgreco
My latest book, The End of Money and the Future of Civilization, is now
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bookstore.

----- Original Message ----- From: "mary rose" <maryrose333 at att.net>
To: "'Discussion Forum for Global Justice'" <
discussion at globaljusticemovement.net>; <FixGov at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, December 28, 2009 03:01 AM
Subject: Absolutely must read: FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Avatar

 Moving Into:  TOTAL WELLNESS
>
> Thanks to Trading Post Paul for getting this review out to those of us who
> haven't as yet had the opportunity to view this film. Graphics speak louder
> than the written word and we need more films of this type.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net
> [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of
> TradingPostPaul
> Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 8:52 PM
> To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net
> Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Avatar
>
>
> James Cameron's Avatar delivers a powerful message of connectedness with
> Mother Nature
> Saturday, December 26, 2009
> by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com
> http://www.naturalnews.com/027810_Avatar_James_Cameron.html
>
> If you see just one film this holiday season (or even this year), make it
> James Cameron's Avatar. It's a powerful, inspiring film that demonstrates
> movie-making at its best, and it delivers a crucial message for our time:
> That all living beings are connected and that those who seek to exploit
> nature rather than respect it will only destroy themselves.
>
> Much of the press about Avatar has focused on the special effects, the
> motion capture and the 3-D presentation. These are modern filmmaking
> marvels, for certain, but the film succeeds for a far more important
> reason: Its story -- and its message. Others have reviewed the film in a
> more critical light; notably Alex Jones who sees it as more of a propaganda
> piece (http://www.infowars.com/alex-jones-...). But I see the film
> differently, and I think it carries a strong, positive message. (Spoiler
> alert: This article discusses some of the plot elements of the film.)
>
> With Avatar, Cameron has delivered a fast-paced fantasy adventure that
> weaves together a stream of powerful themes that are so important to our
> modern world that they extend far beyond the world of fictional film:
> Issues like corporations destroying nature for profit, the lack of respect
> for living creatures, and the failed policies of "military diplomacy" that
> the USA continues to pursue. The themes in Avatar reflect the greatest
> challenges of our modern world, and the message of Avatar is both deeply
> moving and highly relevant to the future of human civilization.
>
> Not many who view Avatar will understand all this, of course. To the
> younger crowd, Avatar is simply a cool action-adventure film with a
> compelling love story that makes it a great date flick. But to those who've
> been around on this planet a little longer, the story of Avatar is a far
> important story of good versus evil, war versus peace, destruction versus
> healing and isolationism versus interconnectedness. This depth of
> sensitivity to life is rare to find in any film these days, much less a
> blockbuster feature film, but that's what makes Avatar so truly remarkable:
> It speaks to viewers at many different levels, intertwining the core themes
> of human mythology in an extremely tight, fast-paced screenplay that
> doesn't let a second go to waste.
>
> That's classic James Cameron, of course: Cutting scenes, dialog and seconds
> out of the film until it becomes a polished, tightly-presented story that
> transports you into the on-screen world and doesn't let go of you until the
> credits roll. It's an emotional story, too. Much like Titanic, Avatar
> convincingly pulls you into the minds and hearts of the key characters,
> delivering an authentic emotional connection with the on-screen characters
> even though their skin is blue.
>
> Colonialism
> The overriding theme of Avatar is one of western Colonialism, where western
> nations use their military might to invade lesser developed countries,
> terrorize their people and pillage their lands for valuable natural
> resources.
>
> And yet these acts of military imperialism are always justified by the
> imperialists. As the top military commander says in the film in response to
> the natives resisting their lands being pillages, "We'll fight terror with
> terror!"
>
> It remains the standard operating procedure of any military imperialist
> nation: Invade whatever country you wish, and if the locals fight back,
> condemn them as terrorists and use that as an excuse to turn up the heat
> with even more bombs and weapons.
>
> Gaia and the interconnectedness of nature
> One of the more interesting elements in Avatar is the neural connection
> fibers that each living creature is born with on the planet. Animals,
> humanoids and even the trees have these neural connection fibers, allowing
> all living creatures to "plug in" to each other's neural networks. Once
> connected, they can feel each other's emotions and thoughts. They are, in
> essence, operating as one single being with expanded sensory awareness.
>
> This plot element is largely thought of as fiction, but in reality, it is
> merely a representation of something that's very real in our world: The
> interconnectedness of all living systems through methods that science
> hasn't yet identified. Although science won't admit it, there does exist
> some medium of communication between living things right here on planet
> Earth.
>
> Plants, for example, really do talk to each other through their roots and
> other sensory systems. The study of this field of science is called Plant
> Neurobiology, and the world's top research facility is the International
> Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology in Italy. There, it has long been
> established that plants are, in fact, intelligent.
> (http://www.wired.com/science/discov...)
>
> Recent research actually demonstrates that plants communicate over their
> own "chat networks" where important information is exchanged about what's
> happening in their immediate environment.
> (http://www.physorg.com/news10994483...)
>
> The world depicted in Avatar also demonstrates the healing power of Mother
> Nature as the key character Jack Sully has his consciousness transferred
> from his broken human body to his much stronger alien body through the help
> of a healing tree (into which all the natives are neurologically plugged
> in, too).
>
> The concept of Gaia is also unleashed in the film, although it's never
> referred to as Gaia. At one point in the film when all hope seems lost for
> the natives, Jack Sully prays to Gaia to help save them, at which point the
> female character Na'vi says, "[Mother Nautre] doesn't take sides. She only
> maintains the balance of life." This demonstrates a much deeper
> understanding of the role of nature than most modern humans grasp.
>
> Avatar and the Amazon Rainforest
> Much of what takes place in Avatar could be described as a very accurate
> reflection of the struggle between petroleum companies and the indigenous
> populations of the Amazon rainforest.
>
> As someone who lives in Ecuador full time, I am particularly aware of some
> of the local details of this struggle. It is essentially the same setup as
> Avatar: Native people live in harmony with the environment, respecting the
> life around them, and then a western corporation shows up and destroys
> their ecosystem, poisons the people and exploits the land in order to mine
> it for valuable natural resources. The people fight back and they're met
> with military force.
>
> This reflects the very modern story of the indigenous Ecuadorian Indians
> versus Chevron and its oil drilling agenda. Read more about this conflict
> between Chevron and the people of the Amazon here:
> http://chevrontoxico.com/
>
> Fighting back
> What's satisfying about Avatar, of course, is that the natives fight back.
> Rather than allowing their lands to be destroyed by corporate greed, they
> fight the imperialists with intelligence and a network of willing animals
> operating via land and air -- animals who ultimately allow the natives to
> defend themselves against the invaders.
>
> Here's where Avatar really becomes fiction, because in the real world,
> spears usually aren't victorious over bullets. And hoards of large
> bullet-proof animals don't stampede to your rescue. But that's Hollywood,
> and it makes for a great story even if it's not an accurate reflection of
> what happens in our world.
>
> There's a level of violence in Avatar, but it's not gratuitous, bloody
> violence. It's not gore, and the military action violence that takes place
> in the story always moves the story forward. James Cameron never uses
> violence solely for the sake of violence -- he uses it in the film as a
> crucial part of the story.
>
> Technology and emotions
> The reason Avatar works is because the technology has advanced enough for
> CG (computer graphics) to accurately capture and render the subtleties of
> facial expressions. As human beings, we are hard-wired to read and
> interpret subtle facial expressions as emotional content, and without the
> subtleties, computer-animated characters look stale and plastic.
>
> But thanks to the remarkable technology that Cameron has applied to Avatar,
> facial expressions are convincingly carried through the computer-rendered
> alien characters (no doubt with a fair bit of 3D modeling work to help
> augment the motion capture). The result is a level of human authenticity
> (in alien-looking characters) that has never been achieved before... in any
> film!
>
> Remember, though, that technology alone never makes a great film. It's the
> story that really makes it work. Technology just makes the story
> convincing.
>
> Go see Avatar
> If you love nature, and you love to see beautiful alien worlds depicted in
> breathtaking scenery, go see Avatar. If you love action films, or a
> touching romance, or science fiction, go see Avatar. In my opinion, it is
> easily the best film of the year, and perhaps even the best film of James
> Cameron's career.
>
> It also delivers a message that feels right at home to NaturalNews readers:
> The love of nature, the interconnectedness between all living things, and
> the victory of good over military might. Avatar is much more than an action
> flick. It's much more than a love story, too. In my view, it's an urgent
> message for our modern world where many of the atrocities committed by the
> human invaders in Avatar are being carried out right now against our own
> planet.
>
> When it comes to planet Earth, after all, humans are the imperialists. We
> have destroyed much of the natural habitat on our planet; we've poisoned
> the rivers and oceans; we've polluted the sky and burned up much of the
> planet's natural resources. In our quest for more energy, more consumption
> and more profit, we are stupidly destroying our own planet... and
> destroying our own future in the process.
>
> We are, in effect, both the invaders and the natives on this planet, and
> through our misguided collective consumption, we are destroying our own
> land, our own trees and our own home. And because life is so delicately
> interconnected, in destroying our own planet, we are only destroying
> ourselves.
>
> This is one of the many messages that Avatar delivers. Go see the film
> yourself to catch the rest.
>
>
>

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