As someone who votes with their money, I don't go to the theater very often. Curious about new advances in animation technology, an illustrator friend of mine convinced me to come along and see Avatar. Wanting to know just who and what my movie dollars would be supporting, I started researching Avatar. Specifically, I wanted to know who funded it. A little over 44 million of the 500 million dollars it took to make the movie was funded by New Zealand taxpayers, with 30 million being funded by American taxpayers in the form of government grants. (I can't help but digress here just long enough to ask "since I contributed to making it with my taxes, where is my cut of the billion dollar profit?") The names of other financiers were not as easily accessible, so if any of you out there have information about this, your contributions would be appreciated. The immoral moral of the story seems to be "All you have to do to receive health care is agree to destroy other civilizations until you find one with superior health care that will allow you to immigrate".
Ultimately, our legless protagonist becomes unwilling to do the bidding of his evil health care providers, and instead commits treason and begins fighting for the other side, thereby becoming a hero. It's like a re-make of American/South American history, but this time, the invaders are unable to divide and conquer and spiritual/ecological/social superiority wins out over greed, superior technology and arms manufacturing.
The natural, in the form of trees and flying creatures, wins out over the unnatural, in the form of robotic body armor and flying machines. I was tempted to feel good about this turn of events until I thought a little more about the fact that the billions of dollars made by this movie will be going straight into the pockets of FOX communications and used to create more propaganda.
The brief fairy-tale respite it provided from the grim reality that the bad guys-- greedy health care providers, the banking industry, arms manufacturers, corrupt governments, are always winning cost the media giants nothing. In fact, their movie allowed us to cheer for their destruction even while providing billions to ensure their continued survival and increase their power.
It is indicative of the current reality that every action intended to increase our freedom somehow contributes to our own slavery and the exploitation of others. It's also indicative of the current reality that many people keep jobs that they find morally reprehensible in exchange for the health care that is being held hostage.