(Spoiler Warning!)
People say the plot is basically “Trees good! Capitalism wrong!” and there are plenty of right-wingers freaking out about the message, if not for the supposedly anti-corporate one, for the “new agey” religious message. But really, James Cameron is a friggin’ genius. He has cleverly disguised a movie that is at it’s roots totally in love with conservative thought as leftist propaganda. Why do I say this movie is a bastion of conservative thought?

Please consider the following:
1.) The whole movie is about property rights
2.) Everyone has weapons on Pandora
3.) Everyone on Pandora hunts (and does it well)
4.) It’s obvious in this movie that if there is a U.N.-like structure around, it does nothing
5.) The Na’vi culture is uber-religious, mate-for-life types

Okay, I’m mostly joking about many of these points, but seriously when I walked away from this movie I did say to myself, this is all about property rights. Capitalism as an ideal is a trade system where both parties come to mutually agreed upon terms to exchange goods for currency. It must be a win-win situation, by at least some margin, or else one of the parties would refuse the trade. In this system, property rights must be respected. Taking by force is anti-capitalist in it’s nature. How can you have a trade market if people may simply take by force?

This is not to say that there are never those in a capitalist system that use violence and coercion, but it is morally opposed to the capitalist ideal. The whole idea of being civilized grown ups is living in a world where you must work and pay for what you desire, you cannot just take it from others like a schoolyard bully. In this movie, the bad guys were corporate mercenaries who had driven off a moral cliff like a bunch of lemmings – in fact, they were exposed as merely thieves with serious resources. Of course it’s natural that we should come to loathe them in the movie, despite being the human characters, for they are morally corrupt. They stand squarely against the foundations of a capitalist society – that you must trade not take, and that each party must decide what is beneficial for themselves.

Because the evil-doers in this movie happen to be from a corporation, people think it’s leftist propaganda. But what if the mercenaries were still Marines and they were claiming the resources under eminent domain? I would find it intriguing to read those reviews. The problem is not the organization they happen to be working for, it’s the use of force to steal resources from another. It all comes down to property rights.

As of twenty hours ago, Avatar has made $659.6 million for News Corp (yes, that News Corp). Don’t let James Cameron fool you into thinking he’s some sort of anti-capitalist proletarian. His movie just made two very big statements: 1.) no one has the right to disarm you of your property, even if you’re blue, and 2.) I am so rich I swim in money like Scrooge McDuck.

As a side note, if Jake had just jumped on the giant pterodactyl thing towards the beginning of the movie to show the people he was the sixth chosen one who would bring balance to the Force, he could have easily convinced the Smurf tribe to move to Timbuktu, married Pocahontas, and probably negotiated some sort of clean mining process for Fern Gully. Also, the movie would have only been about an hour long and I’d have two hours of my life back. I’m still never seeing Titanic. That is, unless it’s re-released in 3D. ;-)

Please spread the word on this, this is an excellent retort – and hilarious!

To all the people who hate our democratically elected president because he’s black: please take a long walk off a short pier. Fiscal conservatives don’t need you around making us look mean and dumb all in one fell swoop. Please don’t give Jimmy Carter fodder, because for every hundred or thousand people who are concerned about fiscal policy or growing government control of our lives, there’s going to be a smattering of you around with an offensive sign. Oh, and guess who’s going to end up on the local evening news? Idiots. That’s right, idiots. From Kanye West to Ann Coulter, the media has figured out that the biggest jerk gets the most airtime and thus the most attention and money. LaRouche folks, please stop, have you ever heard of Godwin’s Law? Bush is not Hitler, Obama is not Hitler – calling someone Hitler simply makes people want to punch you in the throat! It’s not helping your cause, and it’s hurting ours. Once you start making personal attacks instead of talking about facts, you lose.

To all the social conservatives with their giant signs of aborted babies or Bible verses: when did you not get the memo? Libertarians, fiscally conservative democrats, objectivists, republicans, and independents cannot accomplish any sort of unified stand if you keep harping on issues they can’t get behind! The message is a fiscal one. Stick to the message. If you want to harp on how much you hate gay people, go start your own damned rally.

To all the Republicans who didn’t start getting pissed off until January 2009: you deserve to be called hypocrites! Admit you were wrong, and move on, but learn. Next time “one of your own” starts expanding government and our deficit, stick to your guns and call them on it! People see us as hypocrites because we didn’t hit the tipping point nearly as early as we should have – frankly, any Republican that supported the bailout or the Patriot Act should be run out of town. And we all should have been knocking on doors and ringing phones before Obama took office – Obama’s only continuing and expanding on things Bush started, and McCain would have probably done the same. An “R” after your name should not give you a free pass, if we had started earlier no one would be saying the whole point of the tea party movement is racism now.

Let’s be consistent. I’m tired of other people telling me what I’m angry about. I want to get my voice out about fiscal policy and government intrusion. With the economic trouble we’re going through, we don’t have time to focus on everyone’s pet issues (legitimate or not). We need to look at what we’re doing, what worked in history, what didn’t, and really think about where we’re sending this country financially. If we were a household, we won’t be arguing about increasing allowances when were about to lose the family home.

Sigh.

Oh, and while I’m at it: media, stop acting like a bunch of 14 year old boys and calling people “teabaggers” with a smug smirk upon your face. They are protesters. You wouldn’t call the original people who took part in the Boston Tea Party “teabaggers,” and most of these people wouldn’t refer to themselves as such, unless they do not understand the implications. Grow up.

We’re enslaving the next generation to pay for our insatiable appetite to spend beyond our means. Tell your friends, repost this video, contact your representatives and promise to stop voting for those who abide by this behavior. Take a stand.