I mean, is there really a reason for the police to be comprised solely of metalbenders? Is it a meritocracy when the government is actually appointed by foreigners, with the local populace having no representation? When the national sport itself is a bender-only establishment? I should think not.

This is further exacerbated because bending as a functional ability has become superseded by technology, making benders useful but not quite so necessary as in earlier times. Even the successes of regular chi-blockers against benders show that in a straight fight, training can indeed trump inborn powers. But see this – chi-blocking training has been made illegal, and practitioners are round up as terrorist supporters. Now why would that be, eh?

The actions of Amon and the equalists may be considered wrong, but they are in lieu of any that are right. In all honesty, what are they supposed to do? Who can a bullied non-bender turn to, with any confidence that they will receive help? Neither the police nor the government have any personal feel of their plight. No civil action can pass mustard against an all-bender city council. The martial art that would give them a fighting chance is prohibited, making them criminals should they wish to pursue it. And the Avatar herself, upon arrival, is far too quick to pass her own verdict: “You’re oppressing yourselves!” Thus, with all fair and civil options exhausted, their only choice is to become uncivil. Amon really becomes *the* solution.

The similarity with the Sneetches lies exactly in the fact that bending, on its own, is not that much of an advantage, but that the laws of the city enable it to be. Laws that are far from meritocratic. Laws that indeed limit barbecues and marshmallow roasts to the Star-bearing Sneetches, by virtue of the star alone.

Bending, on the other hand, is a functional ability.

The reason Benders are largely in positions of power and authority is because their society is, to some degree, a meritocracy. No matter how you dice it a Bender is going to be more capable than a non-Bender at many things, ranging from manual labor to armed combat to healing. In given the choice between an armed guard who can wield a sword and one who can fling fire from his hands or send boulders hurtling at his foes, which would you hire?

Unfair? Yes, life is unfair. Each person will always be more or less capable than the next of one thing or another.

McBean’s de-starifier/star-applier did nothing to the capacities of the Sneeches as individuals or to the Sneech race as a whole. Amon’s tearing away of Bending powers robbed the individual Benders and society as a whole— of healers, artists and artisans, soldiers, architects… it is the difference between the color blindness of Martin Luther King Jr and the crab-bucket philosophy of Harrison Bergeron.

I greatly doubt that Dr. Seuss would ever approve of Amon. He was a fairly intelligent man and I am quite certain he understood that you cannot lift yourself up by tearing another man down.

Racism is a false claim of hereditary superior abilities. If bending existed and were hereditary, it would be a true claim of superior abilities. It would not be racism, nor would it be inequality, but rather an actual biological superiority. Non-benders would be analogous to, say, if cripples were a numeric majority in a world where running is a necessary social function. A better question is whether bending is a random congenital condition or a dominant or recessive hereditary trait?

Bending doesn’t seem to be a hereditary ability. Non-benders have bending children and vice versa, on a pretty regular basis. The most you could say is that type of bending is hereditary, but personally, I suspect that it’s location-based. (The Four Nations weren’t completely isolated, esp. in the more distant past, you’d expect at least some diversity if it was just genetic.)

Furthermore, a physical advantage is not the same thing as inherent ‘superiority’ on an existential level – it’s just that – an advantage or ‘super-ability’, just as a disability is not an inherent ‘inferiority’ on an existential level. Yes, Benders have a super-ability compared to non-Benders, but that does not make them better. There is no legitimate reason for the government to consist primarily/entirely of Benders (Bending is awesome, but it doesn’t make one any better at politics), especially as they are a minority of the population, and more than it would make sense for our government to consist only of those who can benchpress more than 200 pounds.

Amon is the only person capable of removing one’s bending, and when he is no longer around the new regime will start to use more permanent ways of removing benders

Perhaps. However, I can suspect Amon’s ability to be some variation of ‘Chi Blocking’ (e.g. Ty Lee), so it’s *possible* that scientific advances will reach the point at which a permanent non-Amon limiter can be found. Surgical, perhaps. Still a Very Bad Thing.

While a surface comparison can be drawn, there are many big differences here, which should be obvious. First is that Bending is an actual ability that confers real advantages on both a personal and societal level. It’s not a precise analogy, but it’s like being a talented athlete, or a gymnast (because sheer effort matters more than innate nature in the real world). Heck, Nzba jnf bayl noyr gb qb gur guvatf ur qvq orpnhfr bs uvf bja Jngreoraqvat. To tear that away makes a real, negative difference in the victim’s life, quite apart from the privilege granted Benders. The star or absence thereof, meanwhile, is more comparable to hair color – or skin color. Something that has almost nothing to do with actual ability – a star grants privilege, but not power.

Second, and this is probably more important, is that McBean was offering the non-starred Sneetches a way to imitate the star-bellied Sneetches. It was A: Optional, and B: A way of uplifting the underprivileged class (a comparison can probably be drawn to ‘passing’, but let’s not get into that…). In contrast, Amon was kidnapping Benders and taking away their abilities by force. He didn’t offer anyone any choice, and he wasn’t so much fixing the system as trying to tear it down to the ‘common level’. It is as if instead McBean assaulted the Star-Bellied Sneetches and cut off their stars. His motivation may have been quite real, but he was nevertheless a terrorist.

Third and last, there’s the fact that The Sneetches is a somewhat simplistic examination of racism and prejudice – which is just fine, it’s intended for young children, but pretending that it offers a realistic solution is nonsensical. The Avatar Series is also intended for children and often veers into the fantastic, but it is nevertheless a more mature and less whimsical treatment. The point of LoK Season One is not in any way that ‘Prejudice is good’, but rather ‘trying to fix prejudice by taking away what makes people unique is the wrong way to go about things’.

Through no merit of my own, I was born with a pretty sharp mind. I adapt well to various areas of study and have always enjoyed learning. Certain problems that trip up a lot of students (such as the nuances of punctuation and grammar) have never been a problem for me. If I were less lazy this would’ve drastically increased my chances of getting a darn good job – and even without a job, I’ve still got an above-average chance of leaving a mark on society/history (thanks in no small part to the Age of the Internet).

Can you say that the world would be a better place if people as intelligent as I am were brought down to average – rather than, say, encouraged to use our talents for the benefit of all, and to try to find ways to help the less fortunate navigate the waters that we found an easy path through?