Avatar, Depression, and New Age Shit
I went to see Avatar the other day, and loved it. I loved it because it had a good, simple story, was in 3D, was extremely well made, was totally new, and because it was beautiful. Beautiful not just visually, but also in the way that it showed a way of life that is so totally opposite from ours, after seeing it, some people want to kill themselves. Seriously.
There are a number of these articles - here's one in English .
What's interesting about all of these is that they all talk about the depression as a result of the realisation that we don't live in a world as beautiful as Pandora. But they don't mean physically - although that is also true (and boy, would I love to live in a world where giant mushrooms glow as you hit them) - they mean mentally, or rather, spiritually.
The Na'vi (the people who inhabit Pandora) are a race who are 'in sync'; they are perhaps similar to Native Americans (just the first that came to my head); they respect each other, the land, animals (whether or not they're just tried to kill them), their elders and their ancestors. They live in harmony, with love, respect, and honour. I won't go in to detail about how they still can tune in to the voices of their ancestors, as that's beyond my point, but you get the idea; they are a peaceful, spiritual race.
And this is what gets people sad. Which makes me sad. Why is this so beyond us? Why on earth are people thinking suicidal thoughts ("Alt, hvad jeg har lavet på det seneste, er, at søge mere information om Avatar på internettet. Jeg går ud fra, at det hjælper. Det er så hårdt, at jeg ikke kan tvinge mig selv til at tænke, at det bare er en film og komme over det. At det at leve som navierne aldrig vil blive til virkelighed.") when you don't have to look any further than yourself.
This is when I'm going to get a little new age.
Don't kill yourself; change yourself (and not just by not eating meat). If you think the world in which you live is grey and depressing, which it can oh-so-easily be, then try to make it a little better. Be nice. Respect your elders. Respect all living things. Love. Don't judge. Be honest. Be brave. Be yourself.
We don't have to live in a world where people want to top themselves because of a frakking movie. Now that is drepressing. It part amuses me, and part worries me that we currently do live in such a world. You can't be 100% OK if you do watch a film that makes you so amazingly depressed about the world that you actually consider taking your own life. Where is our identity? Where is our trust in self? How on earth can people have got to the point where they aspire to be fictional characters more than themselves? Here's my new age icing on the cake; learn to love yourself.
"If you don't love yourself, you cannot love others. You will not be able to love others. If you have no compassion for yourself then you are not able of developing compassion for others." Thanks, Dalai Lama. I think the Na'vi would agree.
If you can't dig the new age shit - just get the hell over it. Avatar ain't real, and it never will be.
Love, peace and all that jazz.
