Monday, April 26, 2010

If we pity the Pandorans...

The "moral" of Avatar is that scroogy, colonialist, secular, technocratic humankind should ultimately root for a more eco-friendly, more spiritual, more primitive society. If the Navi are seen as archetypes for what humans could be in their primal authenticity, why is their grasp of "deep natural religion" praised as "profoundly human" but something like Christianity is scorned as total bunkum?

MORE TO COME when I get a chance to sit down...

3 comments:

Michael Turton said...

Probably because Christianity has spent the last 2000 years crushing the life out of such religions? If ya'll hadn't aligned your religion with the colonialists....

Codgitator (Cadgertator) said...

Hi, Michael,

So there you are. My post, truncated as it is, might not convey what I'm getting at, which is my confusion at the sappy affection a lot of otherwise secular people have for the Navi qua archly pre-scientific rational agents. Your point is merely historical and not to my point, which, I admit, is not fully expressed. So let me get at it by asking you: Do you honestly endorse the rational standards of the Navi?

Best,

Codgitator (Cadgertator) said...

Michael:

I had hoped sniping was beneath you. If not in the past then at least by now. Oh well. ;)