Abstract

In this chapter, the author argues that Avatar: the Last Airbender ( ATLA ) actually provides us with what the he will call an abolitionist philosophical account. Abolitionism is a theory of justice – derived primarily from the work of Black radicals – built on claims that global and local injustices can be explained by evil institutions or ways of life that cannot be reformed or changed, but that must be abolished. The world of ATLA is built on a very specific metaphysical picture, the idea that the world is made up of the four elements. The natural causes the social, and so the latter ends up taking the shape of the former. The connection between the nations and the elements is deeper than production design. The swamp is not just an entire ecosystem, consisting of varied and distinct elements, but is in fact “one big, living organism”, a unity.