The cure for Avatar depression

[Mcupobob]

Surival of the fittese, what all the natives who have been destroyed by nations seeking to expanded deserved there fate, did nature protect them? No why? because nature does not give two shits about us and what we do. We need to take what we can then guard it, I bet if the indians knew how to make guns and cultivate like us they would ditch there living in huts and dying ever time a cold snap came by and go for the easier route.

I think you missed what the OP was trying to say. He's essentially saying...sorta...that we're sapping the beauty out of the world through conformity. Go out, do new things, and live life and you will not have depression. He mentioned nothing about the natural theme of Avatar, which I agree is bullshit for us. Humans cannot live effectively in nature.

Ok, I could not get through another "we are killing the earth thread" without snapping, sorry about that. Yes we should go out and live life, but depression is a beauty on its on for it gives makes us relize art and life, happiness is just a noroctic that leaves you hallow but is necessary form time to time.

Anywas thats just my view no need to take any of it into account live happy live free.

 

[nick_knack]

No. Don't you get it? Technological advancement is the purpose of our species, it drives the culture, the outlook. Trying to "Learn how to live" as you so oddly put it, is pointless because culture is driven by adaptation which is in effect, technological advancement. It cant prop itself up. Native societies did not "choose" to do anything they were simply primitive because by whatever twist of fate at the beginning of the world, Eurasia was predisposed to gain the ability to farm sooner and better, which meant advancement, and eventually conquering. You think European barbarians, Greeks, and Native Americans weren't into killing and conquering too? Think again.

Te world is about conquering, taking and destroying. People work together, in order to do that better. "Living in harmony" is stagnation. (not talking about environmental conservation with that one)

So in conclusion: Cool Story Bro!

 

[The Madman]

...It's a rainforest here, and there's nothing quite like hiking in the woods out here. I personally prefer it stoned, so I get my own "Avatar" fix whenever I want it...

...I about geeped at the idiot who said buddhism was about meditating on what you want so you can get it. According to him I could meditate myself a new car. This actually works, by the way...

...If we don't learn how to live first, then the first generational ship we send out will end in insanity as the crew destroys itself...

Totally Groovy Dude, Like, Far Out Man!

And what's 'geeped'?

 

[Allan53]

Christianity was a beautiful thing until Constantine (another fucked up Roman) completely ruined it.

Constantine just stopped the persecution of Christians. How does that ruin it?

NB: Not trolling. Checking my understanding.

 

[Akas]

The world has changed, but it's hardly as bleak as you say it is. While imperialization/colonization/etc. may have destroyed native cultures, this is still a somewhat narrow view on life. Let me give you an example:

50 years ago, imagine that you were suddenly transported halfway around the world to Asia, Africa, etc. You'd try and talk with the people, but you wouldn't be able to communicate. You'd have no common ground, and at best, you'd be able to make it to an embassy and talk with one of your countrymen. There's no way you'd go wandering in the middle of a city in that environment.

Today, do the same, and you'd be able to find people that spoke the same language as you. The people around you might not have the exact stuff that you do, but they have amenities like television and internet, and you might find it easier to talk with them, in fact (since you have some common ground). It's not bad that we all have somewhat common ground to talk to people with: it's good.

Oh, and I don't mean to insult you with this but seriously, you sound like an idealist hippie. Hippies aren't good or bad, but even the most liberal hippies desire things just like everyone else. Hippies trying to get stuff out of supposedly "pure" practices is nothing new. Ask how many male hippies sign up for studying tantric Hinduism for purely spiritual reasons and not to have better sex. Or how many hippies are willing to give away all of their food, possessions, etc. to some random stranger. People are people, you sound like you're blaming them for doing stuff that comes naturally to us.

If you really want to get people "learning how to live" and "learning how to relax instead of physically crushing each other", do something about it. Create a volunteer group that helps out others in the community. Or donate half (or more) of your money to people in third-world countries. Or simply do research on many falsehoods propagated by even the "eco" movement (hint: the "natural" side is not as pristine as you think it is). By doing that, you might just solve this "depression" that comes from a movie and do something that makes an impact on someone's life.

 

[RandV80]

I'm not sure about this whole "Avatar depression" thing, but the basic premise is true and easily observable. Just take some tourists that grew up surrounded by concrete and observe them out in 'nautre'. Those deer or bears or whatever on the side of the road become the most fascinating thing, traffic stops and out comes the camera. For people like myself or the OP who grew up or lived in more natural environments, well it's just dumb deer, nothing special.

Whether the reason for this is because there's some truth to philosiphical Buddhist or Native American type of thinking, or it's just a much more simple matter of the grass being greener on the other side, I really don't know.

 

[Captain Blackout]

I don't see why we should limit the complaints to Western culture (and then mention China as well for some reason). Most cultures are like this, including the ones that the Western and Eastern empires have opressed.

And you mentioned Tibetans. I'm going to go a little off topic now...*Angry hat on*...Funny how they seem to get a free ride, especially when it comes to religion. Before China started slapping tibet around, Tibet was a country ruled not by politicians, but by the religious caste. Tibet relied on serfdom, where only 5% of the population were educated at all, and only the wealthy had any power. I'm not saying that Chinas actions are in any way good, but Tibet is no saint either. It was certainly not the happy, harmless place that pritesters have painted it.

Why is religion and technology being bitched about here? One thing that annoyed me about the film Avatar is the portrayal of the Navi religion. It turns out by the end of the movie that their spiritual beliefs were actually based on a tactile, real, magical understanding of the World and not some distant theological premise based on supernaturalism or superstition. Their religion was portrayed as 100% correct, making it automatically superior to any human religion such as Christianity or Buddhism.

Technology is not a problem either. Where did the Navi get their weapons and building material from? Magic? No, they had to exploit the World around them to some extent. They had to use technology to a limit. Technology itself is a tool, not inately evil in itself. The same can be said of religion.

I said as much in my rant above. I'm a technophile, but I strongly believe in putting technology in it's place, as a tool, and we fucking worship it as a religion in the world today. Maoism was an extension of european imperialism carried across cultures. Tibet had it's problems to be sure BUT: Tibet was learning. Look at the history of Tibet's leaders and you will see a growth in understanding. That's a hell of a lot more than I can say about Maoist China. Free ride my ass, have your country wiped out and see if you feel like it's a free ride. Furthermore, I love religion. I hate what the Hoi Polloi have done to religion. As I said in my rant, Christianity was amazing when it started. Then Constantine came along.

You're right, many wiped out cultures were just as fucked up as the destroyers. However, not all of them were, and to paint them all as such as disingenuous. Remember the main point of my post (if you read it before griping about it) : Our first goal before anything else should be learning how to live. Ancient cultures focused on this because they didn't have the crutch of technology. Some religions were used to further this. Ancient China was working on things like pain management roughly 500 years before Hippocrates. That says something to me. Some native tribes in the US were violent asshats, but not all. Others worked to make the most of what they had for their communities, including using simple tech to help the elderly. Now we shove many of them into nursing homes. That says something to me.

The bottom line? I don't suffer from avatar depression, but I think I understand one of it's major causes. We don't know how to live, and we've wiped out damn near any culture that made that it's primary focus. Technology and religion are tools. We can use them properly, or we can do what we've been doing with them. Even atheists are not exempt from this, thanx to Richard Dawkins: He made his version of condescending trolling into it's own religion and he has his own rabid adherents, and he's trashing every culture that isn't as technologically advanced as possible.

 

[Allan53]

Surival of the fittese

The principle is "survival of the best fitted" not "survival of the fittest". Very different.

 

[Captain Blackout]

Surival of the fittese, what all the natives who have been destroyed by nations seeking to expanded deserved there fate, did nature protect them? No why? because nature does not give two shits about us and what we do. We need to take what we can then guard it, I bet if the indians knew how to make guns and cultivate like us they would ditch there living in huts and dying ever time a cold snap came by and go for the easier route.

Compassion is not in your nature, and I think all beauty has fled your soul.

Compassion for humans is in my souls, yes the world is beautiful I know I live in the middle of a forest partically I enjoy it, What I do remeber though is that nature is power we have no control over and should not even try it is a entity that has no compassion us, and never will. Don't appeal to nature appeal to your species enjoy us while we are still here. The earth is not are mother the earth is a torrotent of emotionless beauty and destrution, It does not care for us and instead fights us, so we have to fight it back.

That is by far the most destructive stance I have ever seen. If you see us needing to fight nature to the bitter end, you will destroy us both. Healthy genetic diversity mean anything to you? Think nature is uncompassionate but we are? Last I checked, we have a capacity for genocide and worse that isn't even remotely seen in nature. Most species live through natural homeostasis. Humans don't. Our closest relatives spiritually? Agent Smith in the Matrix had it right: Viruses. Thanx for showing the world that the viral human is alive and well.

 

[Zetsubou]

Christianity was a beautiful thing until Constantine (another fucked up Roman) completely ruined it.

Constantine just stopped the persecution of Christians. How does that ruin it?

NB: Not trolling. Checking my understanding.

No more feeding Christians to lions, that just softened up the worship base. Only the hardcore were into Christianity before Constantine.

 

[Captain Blackout]

Christianity was a beautiful thing until Constantine (another fucked up Roman) completely ruined it.

Constantine just stopped the persecution of Christians. How does that ruin it?

NB: Not trolling. Checking my understanding.

Right after he stopped persecution of the Christians, he started the campaigns of persecution against pagans. He started small with economic deprivation of pagan temples but we all know how the mess ended in the dark ages with the witch burnings and shit....

 

[nick_knack]

Surival of the fittese, what all the natives who have been destroyed by nations seeking to expanded deserved there fate, did nature protect them? No why? because nature does not give two shits about us and what we do. We need to take what we can then guard it, I bet if the indians knew how to make guns and cultivate like us they would ditch there living in huts and dying ever time a cold snap came by and go for the easier route.

Compassion is not in your nature, and I think all beauty has fled your soul.

Compassion for humans is in my souls, yes the world is beautiful I know I live in the middle of a forest partically I enjoy it, What I do remeber though is that nature is power we have no control over and should not even try it is a entity that has no compassion us, and never will. Don't appeal to nature appeal to your species enjoy us while we are still here. The earth is not are mother the earth is a torrotent of emotionless beauty and destrution, It does not care for us and instead fights us, so we have to fight it back.

That is by far the most destructive stance I have ever seen. If you see us needing to fight nature to the bitter end, you will destroy us both. Healthy genetic diversity mean anything to you? Think nature is uncompassionate but we are? Last I checked, we have a capacity for genocide and worse that isn't even remotely seen in nature. Most species live through natural homeostasis. Humans don't. Our closest relatives spiritually? Agent Smith in the Matrix had it right: Viruses. Thanx for showing the world that the viral human is alive and well.

Sure nature has the capacity for genocide. Species become extinct all the time. (Even before us) I would point to primitive man as part of "Nature" (capitalized for hippies) who happens to be blamed for the extinction of all very large mammals outside of Africa.

 

[Captain Blackout]

The world has changed, but it's hardly as bleak as you say it is. While imperialization/colonization/etc. may have destroyed native cultures, this is still a somewhat narrow view on life. Let me give you an example:

50 years ago, imagine that you were suddenly transported halfway around the world to Asia, Africa, etc. You'd try and talk with the people, but you wouldn't be able to communicate. You'd have no common ground, and at best, you'd be able to make it to an embassy and talk with one of your countrymen. There's no way you'd go wandering in the middle of a city in that environment.

Today, do the same, and you'd be able to find people that spoke the same language as you. The people around you might not have the exact stuff that you do, but they have amenities like television and internet, and you might find it easier to talk with them, in fact (since you have some common ground). It's not bad that we all have somewhat common ground to talk to people with: it's good.

Oh, and I don't mean to insult you with this but seriously, you sound like an idealist hippie. Hippies aren't good or bad, but even the most liberal hippies desire things just like everyone else. Hippies trying to get stuff out of supposedly "pure" practices is nothing new. Ask how many male hippies sign up for studying tantric Hinduism for purely spiritual reasons and not to have better sex. Or how many hippies are willing to give away all of their food, possessions, etc. to some random stranger. People are people, you sound like you're blaming them for doing stuff that comes naturally to us.

If you really want to get people "learning how to live" and "learning how to relax instead of physically crushing each other", do something about it. Create a volunteer group that helps out others in the community. Or donate half (or more) of your money to people in third-world countries. Or simply do research on many falsehoods propagated by even the "eco" movement (hint: the "natural" side is not as pristine as you think it is). By doing that, you might just solve this "depression" that comes from a movie and do something that makes an impact on someone's life.

So I'm supposed to just go my church and do good works there (which I do) instead of voicing a philosophy I've worked my whole life at? How about I do both, that okay with you? Also, I said the tech was just toys. I also admitted in another post in this thread that I'm a technophile, I love the toys. I just don't worship them, they way the culture around me seems to. Finally, I know something about folks who went halfway around the world over 50 years ago and did just fine. They were called explorers and the best of them learned how to learn new languages and live in new enviroments, something we don't teach. Here's a thought, let's take all our tech and build better schools, make as much education as possible available to as many as possible. Here's another thought: Don't peg me as an unrealistic hippie after one post. I am a hippie, but unrealistic? No. I put my lessons to use first and foremost at home for my family and they work.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

either this:

or that:

 

[The Madman]

Right after he stopped persecution of the Christians, he started the campaigns of persecution against pagans. He started small with economic deprivation of pagan temples but we all know how the mess ended in the dark ages with the witch burnings and shit....

So you dislike Christianity post-Constantine because it wasn't indie enough anymore?

Oh man, that's hilarious. What does his persecution of the 'Pagans' which really is just a broad term for 'anything not Christian' at the time have to do with Christianity itself? Religions are always bickering between one another. Even Buddhism has its zealots, a word which funnily enough comes from Jewish rebels during the Roman era.

If there's one thing we humans are better at than killing the world around us, it's killing one another. Personally I can't wait till first-contact with another species, then we'll finally have a chance to flex hundreds of thousands of years practice at killing people on someone else for a change.

 

[Captain Blackout]

Surival of the fittese, what all the natives who have been destroyed by nations seeking to expanded deserved there fate, did nature protect them? No why? because nature does not give two shits about us and what we do. We need to take what we can then guard it, I bet if the indians knew how to make guns and cultivate like us they would ditch there living in huts and dying ever time a cold snap came by and go for the easier route.

Compassion is not in your nature, and I think all beauty has fled your soul.

Compassion for humans is in my souls, yes the world is beautiful I know I live in the middle of a forest partically I enjoy it, What I do remeber though is that nature is power we have no control over and should not even try it is a entity that has no compassion us, and never will. Don't appeal to nature appeal to your species enjoy us while we are still here. The earth is not are mother the earth is a torrotent of emotionless beauty and destrution, It does not care for us and instead fights us, so we have to fight it back.

That is by far the most destructive stance I have ever seen. If you see us needing to fight nature to the bitter end, you will destroy us both. Healthy genetic diversity mean anything to you? Think nature is uncompassionate but we are? Last I checked, we have a capacity for genocide and worse that isn't even remotely seen in nature. Most species live through natural homeostasis. Humans don't. Our closest relatives spiritually? Agent Smith in the Matrix had it right: Viruses. Thanx for showing the world that the viral human is alive and well.

Sure nature has the capacity for genocide. Species become extinct all the time. (Even before us) I would point to primitive man as part of "Nature" (capitalized for hippies) who happens to be blamed for the extinction of all very large mammals outside of Africa.

I didn't say nature doesn't have a capacity for genocide. I just said it doesn't match ours. And we have removed ourselves from nature, at least a bit. Evolution doesn't apply to us today as it did in the past.

(Dear lord, can at least a few more people properly quote me? Too much? ok then *sigh*)

 

[DeadlyYellow]

"Avatar Deppression" is bullcrap

Did you actually read what I wrote before posting? Just curious....

I'm going to agree with Blackout here. The 'phenomenon' can be applied to anything that reminds people of the shallow meaningless life they live.

 

[Gone]

Oh great, another rant about humans and how they are bastards.

I haven't watched avatar and all I really know is that it's "Dances with wolves" with aliens and really good graphics. I wouldn't ever suffer from Avatar depression and I find it a bit sad that people actually do. Also people wouldn't be cured from said depression by reading your post, I think you would make them sadder. I know humans hurt a lot of other humans but can you try and see the good in people? I know that's hard to do but just try?

 

[Captain Blackout]

Right after he stopped persecution of the Christians, he started the campaigns of persecution against pagans. He started small with economic deprivation of pagan temples but we all know how the mess ended in the dark ages with the witch burnings and shit....

So you dislike Christianity post-Constantine because it wasn't indie enough anymore?

Oh man, that's hilarious. What does his persecution of the 'Pagans' which really is just a broad term for 'anything not Christian' at the time have to do with Christianity itself? Religions are always bickering between one another. Even Buddhism has its zealots, a word which funnily enough comes from Jewish rebels during the Roman era.

If there's one thing we humans are better at than killing the world around us, it's killing one another. Personally I can't wait till first-contact with another species, then we'll finally have a chance to flex hundreds of thousands of years practice at killing people on someone else for a change.

It was a quick one-liner. Want the full set of problems with Constantine? I belong to a UU church. We are all heretics, because we believe in choosing our religion. Remember what they did to heretics post-Constantine? Ever wonder why? Know what the Nicine council was? Christianity was dogmatized, heretics were outcast, and compassion, what was supposed to be the absolute central theme was marginalized. Buddhist zealots? Really? I mean, REALLY? Ever see a buddhist zealot commit a campaign of genocide? No? Wonder why that is. Ever see a group of religious people 'bicker' civilly? It does happen, I've seen it first hand. Have you? Have you even looked? No? Then why in the god's names are you slamming me? Keep it up, I have far more examples and can keep them coming all day long.

 

[Mcupobob]

Surival of the fittese, what all the natives who have been destroyed by nations seeking to expanded deserved there fate, did nature protect them? No why? because nature does not give two shits about us and what we do. We need to take what we can then guard it, I bet if the indians knew how to make guns and cultivate like us they would ditch there living in huts and dying ever time a cold snap came by and go for the easier route.

Compassion is not in your nature, and I think all beauty has fled your soul.

Compassion for humans is in my souls, yes the world is beautiful I know I live in the middle of a forest partically I enjoy it, What I do remeber though is that nature is power we have no control over and should not even try it is a entity that has no compassion us, and never will. Don't appeal to nature appeal to your species enjoy us while we are still here. The earth is not are mother the earth is a torrotent of emotionless beauty and destrution, It does not care for us and instead fights us, so we have to fight it back.

That is by far the most destructive stance I have ever seen. If you see us needing to fight nature to the bitter end, you will destroy us both. Healthy genetic diversity mean anything to you? Think nature is uncompassionate but we are? Last I checked, we have a capacity for genocide and worse that isn't even remotely seen in nature. Most species live through natural homeostasis. Humans don't. Our closest relatives spiritually? Agent Smith in the Matrix had it right: Viruses. Thanx for showing the world that the viral human is alive and well.

Sure nature has the capacity for genocide. Species become extinct all the time. (Even before us) I would point to primitive man as part of "Nature" (capitalized for hippies) who happens to be blamed for the extinction of all very large mammals outside of Africa.

I would like to point out, nature does not provide for us, nature just is. We have to go out and grab or own means of survial, that is what I meant by fight it, by going out and taking what you need. Yes humans are a virus all life is, all life is out to reprouduce and take all it can. We just do it better. Of all the things I have seen only Humans are capable for compisson of at all. Nature has no compisson for anything, and animals only have compission for there young and that is just to make sure their genes go on. Yes humans have and show they are capable for destrution but compare it to nature and we are only just Novices compared to its abilities of death.

sorry for grammar and spelling just wrote this in a rush.