Avatar

This is not a movie review. However, what it is is a sort of spiritual analysis that relates to what's going on right now.

In the movie, the main premise is that we need to respect the environment, and that dehumanizing people is an easy way to divide and conquer. Both of those are more prevalent than ever right now. But on a deeper level, I think there's a meaning nobody seems to discuss, hence why I'm writing this.

There's an exterior part and and interior part, and I'll focus on the former first. The film arrived in 2009, around the time most people had cell phones. I don't think the timing was a coincidence. Fast forward 10 or so years and virtual reality is a thing being pushed everywhere. My take on the whole thing is that for years people have been individualized and isolated. It's a "screw you, I'm doing me" society. Wasn't there are Drake song a few years back with those exact lyrics? Anyways, the point here is people have been convinced that sulking and wading in self-pity, depression, anxiety and the like is perfectly normal. Thus, they hate their lives, there's no such thing as community, and it drives them to technology. Like I said, around 2010 was when everyone and their dog started to have phones, and not just phones but "smart phones". I won't even get into the agenda going forward with the current issues, but social interaction has died quicker than many would have thought. Even before that oxymoronic term of staying away from people, young people in particular already weren't particularly outgoing or social. It was either stay at home and consume mindless entertainment, get messed up on alcohol or drugs, or have one "special friend" or maybe a few same gender friends that you socialize with. I've spent time on reddit this year, which is an incredibly sad place that reflects what I'm talking about here, and people are actually embracing not leaving the house and not having any semblance of social interaction. It's sad. This brings me to the VR stuff. In the movie, the main character doesn't have use of his legs, so he's gonna be happy with going into a "new world" where he can be himself, even if he's blue. This is what the VR stuff is. Black Mirror also adapts the theme in at least a few of the episodes, such as "White Christmas", "Vipers", and "San Junipero". I mean shoot, almost all the episodes now that I think about it relate to this topic, if I'm not mistaken. The point here is people are so reliant on technology and hate their lives that they live in a virtual world, isolated from others and no longer "human". Personally, I think we've as a human consciousness made life way too complicated. Trying to have an androgynous, mixed race society where everyone's "equal" is way too unrealistic, and it just makes everyone resent each other and nobody can be happy. Mind you, if the world is in fact dying, we're all concerning ourselves with nonsense on a daily basis anyways. My take is we need to connect with ourselves and nature, which brings me to my next point.

I think what bothers me most about the way people are thinking and acting this year (it's been coming, to be fair) is how easily manipulated people are. One thing, diving into the final sentence of the last paragraph, is how rather than using this newfound free time to connect with themselves spiritually and explore nature, people would rather stay glued to their devices and cower in their homes. It's like, the dichotomy of rich and poor is being polarized more than ever, yet people are more focused on external factors than ever. For instance, why is anyone watching the news? I've said this for years. If you want to know the weather, take your lazy ass outside. Who gives a shit what's going on in places you aren't at? Are you going there? Exactly. I learned in a media studies class in like 2013 that the news is overwhelmingly negative, and that was 7 years ago. Social media is negative and mainly focuses on comparing ourselves to others, an completely unhealthy activity. Don't even get me started on porn and the garbage music that's been churned out over the past 10-20 years. To tie this back to Avatar and spirituality, I think the majority of people are missing the point. Life is fleeting, yet more than ever we're being overwhelmed with technology and inundated with stuff about our human bodies. Our bodies are like avatars, hence the name of the film. We are taught, for some odd reason, to identify with our gender, race, and other physical characteristics, but in reality we're spirits. You can interchange soul with spirit if you like. The point is, and this is never more relevant than now with the fear tactics that have been going on this entire year, we as a society are focused entirely on the wrong things. Even religious people are delusional. We're all going to die. That's inevitable. Almost everything we do here on earth is irrelevant. I can't tell other people what matters, but it isn't the superficial shit we seem to stress on a daily basis. At the end of the day it won't matter if you were "successful" in the traditional sense. What should matter is the human connections we make and the ability to ascend spiritually. To me, that's something I didn't even know about due to ignorance until this year. And that's what really irks me. There's a quote by someone smart that says something about "worrying" about things in our control, and whatever external stuff happens you just roll with it. Instead, it seems the average person is carried by what they're told to think and do, and worry about what every external thing. I'd also wager that this is why things like anxiety and depression are so prevalent. People don't go outside, take care of their avatars, connect with others, or do ANY sort of spiritual work.

The last thing before wrapping up is this virus situation isn't even that serious. Look at how many people are dying. Not cases, which are easily manipulated like any statistic, and stop watching the damn news. The state of humanity is so off from what it should be, I have no idea how an actual disaster situation would be handled. At the end of the day, the whole point of spirituality is to accept that you're going to die, and figure out how to life so that when the day comes you can go as peacefully as possible. Freaking out on a daily basis and living in a state of panic does the opposite of that, just FYI.

Long story short, the movie Avatar brings up some good points. There's the obvious "save the earth" message, as well as having compassion for others, which seems a thing of the past. In "hard times", which I'd argue this isn't really even that, in the grand scheme, we're meant to come together and improve, as well as connect to our internal selves. That's not happening, generally, and it's why things aren't in a good state. I do it, and I know others that do it, but by and large society is in that "sheep mentality" more than ever. I'm trying to get to the point where I can have my little group living in peace, but that's a process.