The Media war, over before it starts.

[exostrike]

In talking about the return of earth/RDA/tesco to Pandora I've realised that they will be able to dominate the flow of information about the events to get public support.

To that the case of the Vietnam war, while there was a growing anti-war movement that viewed the war as barbaric and wrong, the general public while no entirely supporting the war did not what it to end. It was only with the Tet offensive and the resulting television images in American homes that general public perception of the war changed.

But on Pandora there will be no reporters acting independently to view the true face of the war, all you will get is miltary reports, distorting the truth to drum up support. Instead of pictures of the Na'vi acting normally you will be pre-destruction of the hometree recorded footage of Na'vi in war paint snarling, soldiers being torn apart by Viperwolfs and perhaps some edited com chatter from the troops on the ground during the rout caught on an escaping copter computer. If we're lucky perhaps some helmet camera footage from a soldier the Na'vi didn't kill and handed over. All in all just what you need to make people sympathise with the dead soldier and cry out from revenge while dehumanising the Na'vi. All other information, RDA dirty business and the N'avi's postive aspects swept under the carpet and forgotten.

And what will the pro-Na'vi activist crowd have? old stock footage, personnel interviews with dissatisfied RDA employees and a few previous exposes. If thier really luck some smuggled out footage of RDA ecological destruction (evidence of N'avi mistreatment or attacks on , simplely won't to recorded or released). And how is anyone suppost to counter the demand to war with that stuff. To take the example of the intervention in Somalia in the 1990's, pictures of starving babies shock, pictures of dead soldiers shock even more.

[_Omaticaya_]

Nice one Exostrike. I'd never thought about this, you're right.
It would be nice to say: "Uh I wonder what they'll say when they get home?", But uuuh NO. I know exactly what the 'report' from the Pandora 'adventure' will be... Hahaha... What can you expect from a bunch of Dishonest Selfish Murderers? Coming home frustrated from their demolished evil 'Egos', demolished by the Power of Eywa and The Omaticaya People.

They'll Orchestrate the 'report' all through-out the Long journey back to their Dead Planet, losers.

So, Sadly, if they do come back to Pandora in the future, there will probably be even more skypeople then, all Geared up for war, completely unaware of the actual Truth. Completely Fooled, used as tools by the 'First group' thinking Pandora is some kind of Hell full of Evil big Humanoids, that have to be exterminated... Crusade-Type for crying out loud. And the planet has to be 'Purified' and 'taken under control' or some trash like that, same old Imperialism bull****... Idiots...

[ProfoundHeart]

The inevitability of vindictive vengeance is really quite tragic.
None the less, this is undeniably true.

[exostrike]

So, Sadly, if they do come back to Pandora in the future, there will probably be even more skypeople then, all Geared up for war, completely unaware of the actual Truth. Completely Fooled, used as tools by the 'First group' thinking Pandora is some kind of Hell full of Evil big Humanoids, that have to be exterminated... Crusade-Type for crying out loud. And the planet has to be 'Purified' and 'taken under control' or some trash like that, same old Imperialism bull****... Idiots...

This is the big danger with this strategy, if you settle into the long-term 30 year war strategy you'll end up with a entire generation would have grown up on a diet of propaganda that potrays the Na'vi as mindless beasts, ripe for the slaughter.
Genocide and/or slavery would be the most extreme consequences of this.

Luckly such extreme situations would be mitigated by the pre-war generations.

[Tsyal Makto]

And that is the moment that fascism will have had undeniably, and in totality, returned to Earth. The RDA will have found their Goldstein - their nameless, faceless enemy that they can use to manipulate the masses in any way they want, to justify any attrocities they want. Everything we learned in the wake of WWII...gone. But hell, after 209 years I guess people begin to forget their old enemies, anyway?

The only hope in this case would be undercover spies within the RDA, or saboteurs.

[SnowRider]

Well, it depends upon just how much control the RDA has (or does not have) over the flow of information back to Earth and more importantly, to what extent the RDA controls the media on Earth. It also depends upon how well the RDA is able to frame and control the discussion/debate on Earth about what to do in the wake of the RDA's eviction from Pandora. Basically, whether or not the human race should ever return to Pandora or just give up and if the human race should return whether that should be in the form of a peacemaking mission or as an invasion.

The subtext of the Activist Survival Guide suggests that not everyone on Earth has fallen sway to the RDA's influence, that there are people on Earth who are actively resisting the RDA and what they are doing.

And some of us have explored these sorts of questions in our fanfic(s).

[ScottWashburn]

Actually, I felt that was one weakness of the film: the Hell's Gate base seemed to be entirely RDA, and entirely American. There wasn't a single non-American accent to be heard, not a single observer from the UN or anywhere else. It's really hard to believe that the RDA would have that sort of autonomy and independence.

[MarkD]

I wonder if Those on Pandora will see this or see any UN or country state address? For example the State of the Union our president gives each year or so.

[Scott]

Or Eywa, who I believe saw(in the I see you sense)Jake Sully on Earth might send a message to the masses of her own will. Regardless of how good the propoganda is, the humans pulling the on the pocketbook strings have no clue what they are dealing with. It's like a guy who swims upto a 20ft Great White Shark thinking its a Dolphin. He is out of his element and his intelligence and any weapons means absolutely nothing. His only chance is if the shark decides not to strike...that is all he can hope for.

[Theorist]

The inevitability of vindictive vengeance is really quite tragic.
None the less, this is undeniably true.

Oh My God! ProfoundHeart, I haven't seen you here in forever! How've you been?

On topic: Not to mention, there's probably some form of SOPA/PIPA/ACTA during 2154.

[HufweMakto]

In talking about the return of earth/RDA/tesco to Pandora I've realised that they will be able to dominate the flow of information about the events to get public support.

To that the case of the Vietnam war, while there was a growing anti-war movement that viewed the war as barbaric and wrong, the general public while no entirely supporting the war did not what it to end. It was only with the Tet offensive and the resulting television images in American homes that general public perception of the war changed.

But on Pandora there will be no reporters acting independently to view the true face of the war, all you will get is miltary reports, distorting the truth to drum up support. Instead of pictures of the Na'vi acting normally you will be pre-destruction of the hometree recorded footage of Na'vi in war paint snarling, soldiers being torn apart by Viperwolfs and perhaps some edited com chatter from the troops on the ground during the rout caught on an escaping copter computer. If we're lucky perhaps some helmet camera footage from a soldier the Na'vi didn't kill and handed over. All in all just what you need to make people sympathise with the dead soldier and cry out from revenge while dehumanising the Na'vi. All other information, RDA dirty business and the N'avi's postive aspects swept under the carpet and forgotten.

And what will the pro-Na'vi activist crowd have? old stock footage, personnel interviews with dissatisfied RDA employees and a few previous exposes. If thier really luck some smuggled out footage of RDA ecological destruction (evidence of N'avi mistreatment or attacks on , simplely won't to recorded or released). And how is anyone suppost to counter the demand to war with that stuff. To take the example of the intervention in Somalia in the 1990's, pictures of starving babies shock, pictures of dead soldiers shock even more.

I love that a thread like this has started, especially regarding that reference to the Vietnam War in the beginning.

That is, namely because James Cameron, in an interview I once saw of him, actually mentioned watching the news reports of the Vietnam War on the tv when he was a kid. With the environment he grew up in, it's no real surprise that you get that kind of feeling with Avatar.

It kinda may come from the idea that the whole Vietnam War cannot be forgotten; in turn, one person on TvTropes a long while back complained over and over why many movies had to invoke the Vietnam War and why that war has such an impact on people. It may just be that the Vietnam War was such an extensive and costly war and one that doesn't seem to escape our human psyche so easily. It was well televised and many directors come from that era when you could see the war happening on tv. And like it or not, the comparisions will and may never stop, because we end up repeating the same mess over and over again.

This is even reflected in the early scriptment where you had a news reporter who shoots footage of the war happening between the SECorps and the Na'vi. It's even noted near the end that she's smuggling footage that the RDA doesn't want her to show back to Earth, so people will know what happened on Pandora.