Avatar and the Archimidean Point

Its been mentioned, that the success in battle of the Navi against the Technological invaders, was implausible at best. But why is that? First of all there some specific things like arrows penetrating what I would assume to be bulletproof glass. I mean maybe it wasn't inteneded to be bulletproof, but you would think that these aircraft should be able to sustain attacks from stone aged weapons.

But I think what people were getting at was the historical accounts of how stone age indigenous societies fared against invading technological societies.

The indiginous people seem to pretty much always lose. Here is what I think it is:

The biggest critique of Modern life has got to be the pervading sense of alienation. But its also a strength. It would seem to me that an indigenous society would be so connected to nature as to render it invisible, like a fish in water. I also sense that indigenous people would lack a certian degree of self awareness because of this. They would not have the ability to see outside themselves and their environment. Themselves and their environment would be too interconnected and would appear to be one and the same. There are very fuzzy borders in these cultures, like for example the borders between life and death, dreaming and wakefulness and even the sea and the sky. They think Magically.

It reminds me of the book "Flatland" where a 2 dimensional civilization encounters a Three dimensional one and are unable to concieve of it. That's the experience of Primitive hunter gatherer societies encountering technologically advanced societies.

Technological Society has a perspective of being outside nature, opposed to nature, seeking to conquer nature. There is this dichotomy. That is the reason why people are often so dissatisfied with modern life. But this does offer a type of Archimidean point with which to lift the World that Stone age people would lack, having no place to stand.

Having a place to stand outside of nature, however, is experienced as a loss. That's what causes this type of longing modern people have for cultures such as the fictional one portrayed in "Avatar"