Decentralize.tv

With success comes criticism, and Avatar has been no exception. One of the more popular articles critical of this movie is by New York Times journalist David Brooks and can be found here: (Link)

I think some of what he said needs to be addressed, so here it goes.

David Brooks claims,

“It rests on the stereotype that white people are rationalist and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic.”

Not all of the people who were invading were white, nor were all the humans who decided to help the Na’vi. I think Brooks is confusing a culture with a race.

Since strong female characters have been a recurring theme in James Cameron films (Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor, etc) it would have been great to see that continued in Avatar, or expanded upon by having a strong Latina or Black woman be the main character, but I don’t think it’s rational to call the movie racist just because Sam Worthington (a white man) was chosen for the role. Worthington was living in his car before auditioning for Avatar, so it’s nice that Hollywood’s money isn’t going to only rich people all the time.

I personally would have liked Avatar better if the hero of the story was one of the natives (this was a great aspect of “Apocalypto”) but Cameron wanted to make a movie about self maturation and acceptance, so he had to use a human as the main character; because, if he had used a native Read the rest of this entry »

By Sublett of the BAAM Newsletter

A curious property evident in the discussion of insurrection in the United States is that it gets more respect the further it occurs from home. Anarchists who would never dream of complaining that the Thessaloniki Food not Bombs is being neglected while its members amuse themselves burning banks, who could never conceive of suggesting that the Somali pirates stop seizing ships for ransom in order to start a bike repair collective, have no problem criticizing their own friends and comrades for shortchanging local projects to attend semi-annual mass mobilizations. This is a shame, because a look at the broader picture reveals that summit demos are taking an ongoing toll on the ruling class, even when they are tactically unsuccessful.

Just for starters, any city hosting a summit has to impose de facto martial law for the duration of the meetings. Miles-long steel security fences, bag searches on the subway, black helicopters in the sky, armor-clad riot cops on every corner, among other measures, make a mockery of the myth of “civil rights.” By employing such repressive tactics just to keep a few summit delegates from being confronted by those they claim to be helping, authority reveals its true nature, undisguised by the usual lies and propaganda. People who claim that we should abandon summit protests because we can never replicate the WTO (World Trade Organization) riots in Seattle are missing this point. Read the rest of this entry »

After reading the New York Times article this morning, I quickly read the first few pages of comments to see if anyone else was as confused/outraged as I was. Here are my favorites:

As a liberal, I’m getting dismayed at the Nobel Committee. Henry Kissinger a war criminal, responsible for the deaths of umpteen number of cambodians and vietnamese got the nobel peace prize. While not quite on the same scale, Obama is hemming and hawing while Iraqis and Afghans die needlessly by US troop presence. Even more, his hesitance at holding accountable those who engaged in torture at Gitmo or other secret camps makes this award dubious and questionable.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Looks like I accidentally opened The Onion instead of the New York Times this morning.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

It is indeed a shock that Obama, barely months into office, would win the award. Ironically it comes one day after it was officially acknowledged that he is considering sending more than 40,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan — bringing the U.S. total to more than 100,000.

Read the rest of this entry »