Still, just do something to change your life for the better, bring yourself a little closer to Pandora, anything. If living the way of modern society is the worst, it can only get better from here, if only a little.

The news is selective, designed to provoke fear so that people keep coming back for more. "If it bleeds, it leads." It distorts our view of the world; you will not see articles like "Thirty thousand flights completed today without accident or hijacking;" "No oil spilled on Great Barrier Reef in the last year;" "War didn't break out in Denmark for last fifty years," or about the vast majority of simple acts of kindness performed daily.

It's hard to get an accurate picture because the seduction in the news is that everything that's reported is (more or less) true; so there. But it's not the whole truth. One way to get a handle on it is to go to other countries, and discover that things there are not like the impression you'd gotten from the news. Sure, you can see what they were talking about, but it's not as important as they made out.

Yeah that is so true. News are scary. And I have to admit, that I buy a bit into the scare when it comes to environmentalism news, but only becauseof a couple of things. For once, these often affect large areas, not just a few people. Secondly, they often take years to pass. And most importantly - they are inflicted by human civilization on other beeings that would not have to suffer in that particular way if it was not for human civilization. To put it in a bit of a misanthopik way: I care about humans crashing in a car they built or falling from the sky in an airplane they constructed - but I care maybe even more about whole species going extinct or vast coral reefs dying off. Sure there are people living happy or content, and there are places that are green and have many plants growing - but the wild parts are diminishing rapidly. It is not a singular event like a hijacking of a plane. It is a hijacking that lasts for about 10000 years now and is continuing...

On other countries, I have to say you are so right. I went to Iran some years ago and despite the news and the prejudices people tell, I have seen it differently... yes, in some towns you better not leave the bus as a visitor, but in other parts people can be firendly, relaxed, sitting in a living room with a family without any burkas or therelike around talking about science. Women are >50% of the science students in the universities. People sit outside, smoking waterpipes and so on - Of course we also met a Taxi driver that greeted us with a Nazi Greeting, we had to cover up in public and could not jump into the ocean to swim for that reason. Its not great, but it is not the land of the evil people either.

The news always has an agenda. I only ever read it keeping in mind what their benefit form it is. Ironically, as a result, the most trustworthy sources are the 'less serious' ones, like The Register.

As for "No oil spilled on Great Barrier Reef in the last year;" - yet it was the year before. Why should people take the red pill and say 'well, it's OK, it didn't happen this year, even though decades worth of damage was done the year before'.

None of this gets me any closer to Pandora though... :'(

One of the reasons we connected with Jake so well is because we are in the same position as he was in the very beginning - we want something in our lives, something worth fighting for. And we wanted adventure, in replace of the previous life of demands. And we wanted a group of people we could call family, in a setting full of nature and simplistic living. We liked how he had a genuine heart, a strong heart, and an overall sense of confidence as well as eagerness.

Now, maybe we can't get closer to Pandora, but maybe we can become more like Jake.

I just said that we don't get that news item reported, not that people should make any false assumptions about the environment if it were.

It is possible to feel positive and at the same time take action to correct a wrong situation. In fact, there's more energy available to do so when feeling positive. Nowhere is it written as a natural law that one has to feel bad in order to make a difference, only that one should be motivated.

This. We don't have Pandora itself now, maybe in the next life, but we do have everything Pandora has (if that makes sense). Wanna have what Jake has? Fight for it.

Right on, brother. I like that better than "Never surrender."

This a good, yes. I think that is so. And as Jake, when we start out with this, we dont even know what we want, or maybe even that there is something we want. We just feel a pull towards something, and then - if we open up to it - we may see some possibilities. It is these "meta"-things that make Jake someone to identify with. The adventure, the thing to fight for, the freedom - then the NA'Vi, their way of life, the sense of community and belonging. All good reasons to long for "becoming more like Jake" (though for us fangirls here there is a bit of a hickup in that sentence ;) ).

But I know there is something missing, and HNM will keep saying that and I know what he means - by all means we have here, we cannot be on Pandora, we cannot be blue beeings and sit on top of floating mountains and look at a sky with a red planet filling the horizon (ever since I had that image in my head some years ago I could not let go and Avatar made it just stronger). And of course we cannot have a pristine natural Earth anymore. Maybe we can find some corners that are less touched, but of course it will not be miles and miles of natural forest and prairie.

So the things we want divide actually into three:
The individual and social aspects (community, adventure, fighting for a cause) are tangible and one can strive for them (but nobody say it is easy).
The nature and wildness of it is more difficult on a degrading planet, but still tangible at least for a while (which plays into the thing to fight for).
The special characteristics, the floating rocks, skyscape, glowplants, tsaheylu - these are intangible, sadly - restricted to our dreams for the time of us beeing on Earth (well maybe some could be realized with enough bioscience but going there kind of goes against the second part).

Parts of it are. A real question is, if you're in such a part, do you feel it is inadequate because you know that much of the rest of the Earth is not so pristine, even if you can't see it? Or do you feel that it doesn't count because the forces of destruction could still show up in this neighborhood? What is the horizon that you need to feel this part of nature is safe? Because in the movie, even being 4.25 light years away isn't good enough, it's still threatened by people from Earth. The home side won in the end, but do they now feel safe or do they feel in peril of more humans showing up?

Hey guys, some of you know me from AF, I've heard there's some good discussion here so I've decided to drop in...I'm a huge fan of intellectual discussions haha! I've posted on this thread because this is the thread I started on on AF. In fact, for old times sake, I've copied my first post I made back in May when I joined AF...maybe like 4 people will see it and be affected by it or something (I hope). Hey, one person helped is totally worth all the trouble in the world though!!!:

"I hate to disrupt the flow of the thread but this is my first post here and I thought if I could post something helpful for at least one person afflicted by this depression that I would be doing our society good. First off, I too was affected deeply by the movie when I watched it a month or so ago, and felt the blues for about a week after. However, after that I feel like the movie has helped my life tremendously. I found this forum and saw how a movie was able to tie a group of people that didn't even know each other together and realized that it was "more" than just a movie. This movie is a GREAT opportunity for anyone to take an inward look at their own life and see how they can improve it. I can't even begin to describe how much better off we would be as a society if everyone truly follows the messages set forth by this movie. Anyway, I'm posting here to give a few steps to anyone who still feels down to help them get back up and feel better than ever. You'll see that this advice doesn't just apply to Avatar as any single human being could follow this and be better off. I'll start with the least "important" and move on to more important steps. Believe me, if you follow only one of these steps you'll be that much better off than you were before.

1) What can I do to get into shape if I'm not already? We all know that with being in shape comes greater self-confidence, and besides, I didn't see one na'vi that wasn't absolutely ripped. Many people already know this but after working out your body releases endorphins which causes a great feeling.

2) What can I do to be a "better" member of society? Holding doors open and "ladies first" are givens, but what people don't realize is that by doing one good deed for someone else you're literally paying it forward. You never know, doing one nice thing for one person could lead to a massive chain of nice things done for other people that was all caused by your inherent good nature. Doing small things for others isn't all though. The next time you're in conversation, try genuinely listening to others as well as understanding others perspectives. This sounds pretty cliche, but most of the time in conversation many of us pretend to listen and/or fail to understand the perspective of the people you're talking to. Don't be so quick to argue, put yourself in others shoes and see why they think the way they do. (This step is definitely one I need to work hard on).

3) Just like the na'vi, we could all get a little closer to our environment. Now I'm not saying turn into an all out "tree-hugger", but instead of grabbing that bag of chips and watching your favorite TV show, a walk through the wilderness is definitely a better alternative, physically and mentally.

4) What can I do to be more aware of what my brain, body, heart and soul need? For one, I know meditating has helped me to be sharper and more introspective. Keeping a journal is also a great way to get in touch with what your innermost self needs. I know that some of you have listened to the Avatar soundtrack and I thought that was a great idea seeing as the songs are mostly happy and uplifting. I can't even tell you how much keeping a positive attitude helped me out of my "Avatar Blues" and on to better, happier thoughts. Just remember, before you can seek to help the rest of society, you HAVE to be able to help yourself first.

5) What can I do to get into the HABIT of doing all these things without even thinking about it? As we all know there are good habits and bad habits. A good habit might be brushing your teeth every morning and a bad one might be picking your nose in public (A lame one I know but it's all I could think of). If you can get into the habit of doing any one of these things among many more, you will be that far ahead of where you were before you watched this movie. Plus you won't feel like you have to go back to the movie again and again to realize what you've already known.

I tried my best, and I hope that this helps anyone still feeling a little down. Please don't hesitate to message me because I'd love to get to know any one of you, because I already know there's something we can both relate to. Personally, after watching the movie, I sat down and read "The 7 Habits of the Highly Effective People" which helped me tremendously and influenced me enough to write this post. I recommend the book to anyone that found any of these steps helpful, and there is also "The 7 Habits of the Highly Effective Teens" which is basically the same thing. These steps came from me, not the book, although step 5 is pretty close to what the book is all about. I guarantee if you can relate to this, then have no fear you will be on to bigger, better things in no time!"

There he is! Welcome to the (other) forums friend!

It's good advice, but I've tried it all... especially trying to get into nature a bit, there isn't anywhere around me really :'(

NHM, have you considered possibly moving? :)

I can't... I'm still at university :(
Ironically, I do like it here, most of the time... it's just there isn't any forest or anything around here.
Maybe when I can afford a car then it will be better because there is some around, it's just way too far to realistically walk.

I just want to be able to be free... :(