AVATAR

We too went to see it. The Good Guys have blue skin with green stripes, small heads with ugly monkey faces, are very slim and tall, jump from branch to branch in the high canopy or chant in boring Indian ceremonies. The Bad Guy: American White Soldier. The blue monkeys are connected to Gaia, live in a family and talk to the animals. The American Tribe is is a well run organization, with no religion, spirit or sex. The Americans's soul is saved by a Latin woman helicopter pilot, who in the middle of the battle changes sides and attacks friendly troops, and by a sensitive American Marine, who becomes so identified with the natives that leads their attack in the American base. The story is a composite of high school tree-hugging anti-capitalist cliches, and provides three hours of visually impressive computerized fantasy. Its ideological message is so childish that is not worth discussing.

Avatar's magic is not in its infantile weltanschauung. I felt it this morning when I woke with an unusually strong erection. It is the explicit daydream of leaving our heavy and disabled bodies moving painfully, for a young weightless body walking barefoot on the wet soil and jumping and fying around effortlessly in a low-gravity world. For a fat aging person, after a painful and tiring day of climbing dangerous buildings and exploring underground infrastructure tunnels, the phantasy of a young Na'vi physical world of barefoot, effortless running on the tall branches is something. And the sex. Americans have no sex. The Na'vi do. An extremely infantile kind of sex, but they are such infantile kind of savages.

Racially, the Na'vis have small heads and ugly monkey like faces. They live in families and tribes. The Americans are Mediterraneans, mostly white with about ten percent fat black (dressed and part of the American mass) as they really are, with one Nordic face (the necessary stereotype bad guy). The other "Bad man", the CEO of the mining operation, is an olive skinned good-looking man, carrying no physical signs of his evil or sadism, appearing rational and thoughtful. Living in this shitty Middle Eastern country, the American tribe is notable for its perfect organization, everybody knows his job and everything works with no conflicts or failures. But within this corporation there is a conspiracy of dissenters who under leadership will sabotage its effort to the point of turning Na'vi.

Follow Up:
The military confrontation proved ineffective, mostly because of low ideological motivation of the Company's forces: the female helicopter pilot changed sides in the middle of the battle, the agents sent out to the Na'vi went native and joined the enemy, the translator and HQ radio-communication person were secretly collaborating with the conspirators. It is obvious that the Colonel was unfit for the job, he did not inspire loyalty among his soldiers and was unaware of the budding conspiracy. Apparently he had no corporate intelligence nor security personnel to weed out traitors in time. Alternative strategies should have been explored.

The Na'vi had a connection port in their hair (or tail?), they could have been easily connected to a Company computer and re-programmed. The idea of rewarding them with some electronic sex is promising, the company could have developed special Na'vi porn for their enjoyment. Once the connection was established with the Na'v and through them with the rest of Pandora's beings, the whole planet could have been operated as producion unit, just as the Na'vi connected their hair with the birds and they became their robots.

With the correct approach and a good programming team, the whole planet would have joined in the mining operation. Brute force (pic) should be left to adolescents. War must be waged with intelligence.