Avatar – Liberal Propaganda? – A Libertarian Perspective

I received a comment from a reader on a recent post about the film Avatar, where he remarked that:

Well I look past the entertainment value and look at the message, particularly films aimed at a younger audience. Im not about to hand out my hard earned money on films aimed on brainwashing our youth (Propaganda). Public schools are bad enough. Only way Hollywood will get the message is by them losing money. You want to reward them, that is your right.

My commentor, in a true libertarian fashion which I applaud, afforded me my personal right to reward Hollywood as I so choose.  Kudos to you Elric.  After consideration of the basic story, however, I do take issue with his description of the film as “leftist propaganda”  (this was remarked  in a comment previous to the one quoted above).  I  believe that it is more consistent with a libertarian perspective than it is liberal perspective.

Without delving into the film too deeply, at first glance to me it is a story about the Navi… an indigenous people who live on the planet Pandora.  A technologically superior civilization from earth (I don’t believe that it is mentioned in the film from which country they come), is on the planet extracting minerals.  Their hunger for these minerals drive them to wanton destruction of the habitat of the Navi, and the Navi themselves.

I see two major themes here. 1) habitat destruction and 2) personal liberty.

With regard to habitat destruction, there is little doubt in my mind that as the superior being on this planet we have a responsibility for the stewardship of the earth itself and the creatures that share it with us.  The rape and pillage of a planet is as irresponsible and wrong as is the rape and pillage of an individual or a group of individuals.

Since property rights are an important part of personal liberty, one may do with his property as he wishes, but he or she may not do something on his property that pollutes the property of his neighbor.  This would become an invasion of his neighbors’ property rights.

In the film, the driving force behind the planetary occupation is greed.  Recognizing greed or appetite as a driving force of our existence, we are yet social creatures whose overarching right is individual liberty.  This liberty extends to our person and our property.  As a group, we may play in the sandbox with our own shovel and bucket, but we may not dump the sand outside the sandbox so that only we may play with it, and we may not throw up or defecate in the sand, or we have removed the right of others to enjoy the sand that belongs to all of us.

I ask then, is the promulgation of the idea of stewardship liberal propaganda?  I think not.  Today there is little doubt that many of the ideas and warnings surrounding “Human Induced Global Warming” have their basis more in a propaganda promulgated by the liberal eco-movement than are they based on science, but that does not mean that the fundamental idea of stewardship, or living in an ecologically friendly fashion is wrong.  There is no doubt that if our species is to survive, we must have land to till, water to drink, atmosphere to breathe.

The earth, unless some cosmological cataclysm destroys it, will survive.  Our paleontological and geological evidence tells us however, that species come and go.  We must, of necessity,  be stewards of our planet.  Liberal ideology does not own the idea of stewardship or ecological friendliness.  Nor does this idea preclude resource utilization.

With regard to the second major theme of the film, that of personal liberty, and  as a libertarian, this is a fundamental principle necessary for not only good governance, but for the attainment of the “good life” itself.

Throughout human history, the strong have lorded it over those less strong.    The insatiable hunger of our species for territory, for power, for resources has led the strong to impose their will on the weak.  This has led to the destruction of peoples and indeed, entire civilizations.  This sort of behavior is counter to the ideas of libertarian thought.  If one believes in the fundamental principle of personal liberty, war, with the exception of in the protection of personal liberty,  is inconsistent with this principle.

In the film, the advanced civilization, in their greed for a mineral resource, seek to destroy the  Navi and their homeland.  A very un-libertarian action.  The Navi embark on a “just war” against their oppressors to protect their property and their person as is their right as holders of  “personal liberty.”

In summation, if there is propaganda here, it is a propaganda with which I am much in agreement with.  It is a propaganda that is fundamentally libertarian in nature, and I believe a libertarian world would be a better world for all.