What does Avatar have to do with God and TARP?

I read a blog post by an independent bookseller in my community today that took jabs at the simple plot of Avatar and mocked the masses who were captivated with the film. The writer, assuming the smug tone that all intelligent people share his thoughts, called the movie a “grade-school primer” and accused Avatar creator James Cameron of remaking his older movies like Titanic and Terminator rather than creating new ones.

Now I don’t pretend to know the political ideals of this blogger, but I bet if I guessed left-of-center, My odds would be more than 50% correct. His post represents the complications of yielding to the misguided principle that the world has no black and white, just gray. Things are.. well…complicated.

James Cameron has tapped into something primal with us, so primal that his films have grossed $5.75 billion worldwide. Avatar was nominated for nine and won three Academy Awards. Avatar was credited for Cameron’s advanced cinematography and technological breakthroughs. Despite the long anticipation of new 3D cameras, we are a people so accustomed to communicating and organizing our lives with invisible signals that travel to outer space and back, that I just don’t buy that we spent our money to see the technology of Avatar.

If Hollywood executives can be credited with anything culturally significant, it is that they know how to place their corporate finger on the pulse of America, or humanity. So what does Avatar’s success tell us about the pulse of America? What are we collectively thinking and feeling to find such common ground with a film?

The world has turned so gray, and well....complicated, that for many of us, Avatar represents a return to black and white (under the guise of beauty and blue); a simple moral struggle and of course, a honorable love story complete with a Pandora-style temple marriage. Avatar represents a return to a time when things were simpler. I believe Avatar triggered a complex nostalgia by mass proportions; some truth resonating in our souls that we are all familiar with and find comfort in.

We are a people longing for a reason to find God. On Avatar’s Pandora, she is called Eywa. We are a people longing for a pure connection to each other and the world around us. We long to hear and believe the truth that God/Eywa hears prayers and protects the balance of life.

Progressive messaging that liberals promote and subscribe to negates the good/evil notions that humans have held for thousands of years. This new messaging tells us things are complicated, there is no such thing as good and evil, just webs and webs of complicated structures and decisions. This is where TARP is rooted. This sweeping action that extended mercy while removing justice, appears tender and heart-felt and those who question are labeled cold-hearted right-winged monsters. Perhaps winged “Last-Shadows” is a better metaphor.

Deep down, each of us is born with the intuitive understanding that mercy cannot rob justice. Avatar reminds us of this fact, even if many of us are not yet in touch with it. If we would leave our Avatars to apply the principles we are so fond of in Avatar into our earthly lives, we may restore the beauty lost by liberal bulldozers over the faith in our Republic.

~ H.L. Whitley