"This is the Reason We're Here"

The scene in which Parker Selfridge, the "company man" and the chief of all mining operations on Pandora, explains the actual goal of the military's operation stands out to me. It opens up showing what looks like a communication center for the military forces, giving a quick, panoramic view of people that are directing the flow of traffic and clearing requests to advance forward in Pandora. The camera then focuses on Selfridge, who, in the midst of all the operations and havoc going on around him, puts all his focus into playing golf, using his favorite putter, a patch of artificial grass, and a coffee mug on its side. After he sinks a putt, he asks a nearby worker if he saw it go in, the worker replies "Yes, sir," and Selfridge then says "No, you didn't. You were too busy looking at the monitor," seemingly mocking him and letting us know that he is the boss. His lack of worry and complete disregard for everything around him also makes it seem as if he's the leader of operations. Then, when Grace walks in and starts to complain about the new, paraplegic addition to her team, he picks up his coffee mug, walks to a control center, and starts pressing buttons as if he doesn't want to pay her any attention whatsoever. He brings up the fact that after several years, relations with the indigenous people of Pandora have only gotten worse, and she retorts "Yeah, that tends to happen when you use machine guns on them," insinuating that her idea is much better than brute force. He must have gotten that hint, because he goes on to show her the "only reason they're on Pandora"— a rare and valuable mineral called unobtanium. The metal sells for $20 million per kilo, and would greatly aid in stimulating the crumbling American economy. It then all clicked; the Americans were there solely for monetary purposes, and they wouldn't stop at anything to get what they came to Pandora for (this "juggernaut mentality" is mainly radiating from Colonel Miles Quaritch, especially after the scene in which he's giving the briefing to all the new soldiers). Befriending the Navi of Pandora was never on the agenda; as long as the science department was bringing back the information the military needed, they could stay up and running. Any other goals of the science department were disregarded, as the military obviously neglected any relations built with the Navi later in the film. This brings me to believe that the message behind this scene is “money makes the world go ‘round.” Regardless of any relations made with the Navi, or the discovery that everything in Pandora is linked together, the only thing the military or Selfridge cares about is the unobtanium that will bring the economy back to normal (or maybe he doesn’t care about restoring the economy and wants the mineral for his own personal gain). All of this brings the idea of the White Messiah back into play, which is what he wants the science department to play out until the unobtanium is finally...well, obtained.