{"id":1569,"date":"2010-02-03T09:44:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-03T13:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/02\/03\/what-avatar-and-atlas-shrugged-have-in-common\/"},"modified":"2010-02-03T09:44:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-03T13:44:00","slug":"what-avatar-and-atlas-shrugged-have-in-common","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/02\/03\/what-avatar-and-atlas-shrugged-have-in-common\/","title":{"rendered":"What Avatar and Atlas Shrugged have in common"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This week, James Cameron’s sci-fi epic “Avatar” was nominated for a best-picture Oscar.<\/p>\n

Avatar is a visually spectacular film, but a lot of critics — especially conservative ones — have blasted its plot and message. <\/p>\n

Here’s John Podhoretz, writing in the Weekly Standard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“The conclusion does ask the audience to root for the defeat of American soldiers at the hands of an insurgency. So it is a deep expression of anti-Americanism-kind of.”<\/p>\n

Even the Vatican weighed in, giving a thumbs-down to the pagan spiritualism practiced by the blue-skinned Na’vi. <\/p>\n

Conservatives (and Christian traditionalists are right to wrestle with Avatar. It may be the most aggressively political blockbuster in Hollywood history.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Cameron’s creation has more in common with “Atlas Shrugged” than “Star Wars”.<\/p>\n

What do I mean?<\/p>\n

Like Atlas Shrugged, Avatar lays out a coherent and serious political message, wrapped in the hugely manipulative guise of a potboiler.<\/p>\n

Both have cardboard heroes and cardboard villains. Neither have particularly original stories, but they sell their worldview brilliantly.<\/p>\n

Like Any Rand, James Cameron treats some of the most pressing issues of our day.<\/p>\n

But they don’t wrestle with the complexities of the issues. They offer simple, concise answers.<\/p>\n

In Rand’s novel, long celebrated as a kind of conservative manifesto, pure unfettered capitalism is unerringly moral, a creative force that can only be sullied by evil government bureaucrats and lazy shirkers.<\/p>\n

Dagny Taggart, her hero, is brave and sexy. In fact, there’s a lot of fairly steamy sex, with some soft-core rough stuff thrown in. <\/p>\n

This isn’t “A Contract With America.” It’s a potboiler, a page-turner, and brilliant propaganda.<\/p>\n

Same goes for Avatar. Cameron, an Obama-era progressive, is making some very specific points:<\/p>\n

-Mercenaries are bad. A lot of critics (including Podhoretz) have gotten this wrong. The soldiers in Avatar aren’t “American” soldiers, they’re Blackwater-style corporate soldiers-for-hire. At a political moment when the US is outsourcing more and more of its national security — and when corporations are running more and more American prisons — it’s compellingly topical.<\/p>\n

-Exploitation for energy is a reality. In the age of post-peak oil, Cameron is laying out a picture of what we’re likely to agree to as a society to grab our own version of ‘unobtainium.’ His message is clear: If we have to bulldoze native tribes to get our fix of energy, that’s what we’ll do. <\/p>\n

-There is morality in nature. Christians are right to be uncomfortable with Cameron’s argument. He’s tapping into a growing post-traditional movement in the US, offering a Rousseauian vision of a society living in synch with its environment.<\/p>\n

-Corporations are bad. They do amoral things because they have an inherent collective purpose (profit) but no inherent collective morality. <\/p>\n

But here’s the interesting part. <\/p>\n

Unlike most recent filmmakers, Cameron’s not just exploring these ideas. He’s making a positive declaration. <\/p>\n

This isn’t art — with all the nuance, ambiguity and depth that that entails. It’s propaganda. <\/p>\n

Cameron’s Neytiri resembles Dagny Taggart in all but her skin color and big yellow eyes. She’s brave, determined and (yes) sexy.<\/p>\n

Because Avatar is really really well made propaganda, it will likely be far more influential than, say, “An Inconvenient Truth.”<\/p>\n

I’m guessing that it the film will outlive Star Wars as a cultural force. Will it outlive Atlas Shrugged? <\/p>\n

No. But I’m guessing the two works will sit on the same shelf together, as classics of popular American polemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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