By Assaf Ben-Atar
Millions of moviegoers flocked to see the recently released movie
Avatar because of its technical forays into artificial computer
generated animation. The plot surrounds a human named Jake Sully, who
goes to work for a corporate military entity that seeks to mine and
harvest a natural energy resource called “unobtanium.” The resource
is located underneath the home/habitat of the “Na’vi” creatures and
thus Jake is sent, via an avatar system, to embody his own Na’vi and
assist the corporation in removing the natives from their home. In
the process, Jake falls in love with one of the Navi women, and is
forced to choose between his employer’s assignment and his moral
compass.
Despite the generic plotline, the artificially animated imagery that
exists while Jake is his avatar system provides a wonderful visual
contrast that illustrates the “disconnect” between two worlds: the
private-moral and the public-professional. While in an avatar, and
thus encompassing a body of the Na’vi creature, Jake has his own
private world. Jake is essentially a spy, but the corporation he
works for does not supervise or control his actions. During the hours
in which he is in the Avatar system, Jake is free, and develops his
own conclusions regarding the morality of his company’s objective to
mine the unobtanium no matter the consequences to the creatures that
live in their natural habitat. Jake builds personal and private
relationships with the creatures, and decides that the moral course of
conduct is to maintain the happiness of the Na’vis by permitting them
to remain in their homes. Therefore, Jake is unable to detach or
withdraw himself from the consequences.
However, other corporate employees (with specialized specific
jobs/tasks) fail to comprehend the remote consequences of their
professional actions when they engage in a violent act against the
Na’vi creatures. They are desensitized because they perform their
jobs by sitting behind desks and looking at computer screens. This
allows them to avoid personal guilt and participate in the violent
atrocities. Jake, who has a more general employment task, sees the
larger picture, and understands that corporate profits are not worth
the additional consequences. The incredible irony here is that
although Jake is in the artificial avatar setting, the other desk
employees are far more disconnected from the reality of their
employment actions. The dichotomy that exists within the movie Avatar
is analogous to the problematic nature of the modern legal profession:
where professionals specialize in minute detailed matters, and detach
themselves from reality by sitting at a desk all day. By doing so,
lawyers occasionally fail to recognize the greater consequences of
their employment actions. This idea that private-moral life is apart
and split from public-professional life often explains why human
rights violations occur and transpire.
