INTRODUCTION

James Cameron's Avatar depicts the invasion of a planet called Pandora by human forces in search of a rare mineral called ‘unobtainium’. The native inhabitants of Pandora, the Na‘vi, are part of a primal culture that has no modern technology, worships nature and lives in mystical interconnectedness with all other things on their planet. They initially are no match for the human invaders, who mobilise a powerful, modern, mechanised, paramilitary force, which is used to attack the Na‘vi, destroy their home and uproot them from their territory. However, when one of the human characters named Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) becomes disillusioned with his mission, he joins the Na‘vi and leads them in a successful war against the human invaders.

Conservative American critics have united in attacking James Cameron's blockbuster for its ‘liberal’ political message since Avatar clearly is intended as an allegory highly critical of imperialism, militarism, corporate greed, exploi-tation of the environment and capitalism (Khan 2010). The overall, manifest message of Avatar appears to be that primal, organic cultures, with their lack of technology and harmonious attitude toward nature, are morally praisewor-thy while modern, mechanical cultures (like the US), with their aggressive technological development, dominating attitudes toward nature and capital-ist motives, are fanatic and corrupt. It's no wonder that conservatives have become so upset with this movie.

But underneath all of the manifest liberalism of Avatar there is also a latent message, no doubt unintended by Cameron, and yet still lurking in the shadows nonetheless. In his valorisation of the organic, primal, intercon-nectedness of Na‘vi culture and his denigration of the mechanical, modern, disconnectedness of human culture, Cameron comes very close to advocating a form of fascism.

The term ‘fascism’ is normally used today as a derisive label; a way of dis-crediting governments, policies or personality types that are considered to be overly authoritarian and aggressive. In what follows, I will steer clear of this evaluative usage of the term and attempt simply to describe the philosophy of fascism in order to understand the world view that it promotes.