The verb avenge is to
inflict harm in return for an injury to oneself or another. America, as self
appointed world police, would see themselves as avenging the wrongs done to
others by invading middle eastern countries and imposing more favourable governments.
This is of course all done with what would be considered strong neo
conservatives ideologies such as that to control the flow of oil. This is not
avenging. This is politically motivated aggression.
Mainstream American
cinema has found a way to reinforce neo conservatism in a manner that disguises
this harmful message in subtle and damaging ways (American Sniper was damaging without the subtlety). Slavoj Zizek
discuss similar ideas in length regarding the Nolan Dark Knight trilogy, specifically the middle and latter
instalments. Marvel is equally guilty.
Avengers Assemble follows self appointed world police officers,
using their superior technology and strength to muscle the rest of the world
into giving them what they want. They are incredibly damaging, causing mayhem
and casualties on a mass scale both at home and abroad. When a foreign ‘bad
guy’ gets hold of a powerful material that can be used to destroy the world
(let’s call it nuclear, just for the sake of it), the Avengers swoop in to
reclaim it, despite having no claim on it to begin with.
When other individuals
show up with similar powers, they are given two options: join us or die. An
offer the everyday, ‘normal’ residents that are innocently caught up and
killed, were never given. Being a part of a world police is for a select few
only. A wealthy, white few.
Cinema, being an art
form, is typically left, yet there is a right wing cinematic movement that
wears a cape and reinforces an ideology that is ruinous to a socialist,
inclusive society. But, it makes lot of noise and has fancy CGI, so who cares...
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