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We all have a favorite show growing up. A show that had such a large impact on our thinking and our actions that even when we get older, it remains in your mind's hall of fame. My hall of fame consists of several series, one such series is Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel Legend of Korra. These shows had so much thought and care put into them that even now, 13 years after it was released, it gives me so much joy watching and thinking about the world that is hidden in this show. As I enter my third year of college and gain more knowledge, I start thinking critically about this hidden world. What about its economy, its religion, and its culture? Suddenly a thought, the stories of these shows are a story of disenchantment, modernization, and secularization. How do these concepts link and how are these series a helpful way of understanding these concepts?​

Modernization, industrialization, and secularization require disenchantment. This is the popular idea for these concepts. However, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra provide a critique on this view. They show that modernization, industrialization, and secularization do not require disenchantment. In fact, re-enchantment can occur and the enchanted can coexist with these concepts. Let's establish the world we will be looking into.

The World of the Avatar​

The Lion Turtles are gods, or so they seem. These giant Lion Turtles, seeming to be the size of a small city are where humans originate in this world. With each Lion Turtle holding on its back what would become a nation. Each Lion Turtle grants the people the ability to bend one element, although it is implied that not everyone receives that gift. Humans spread out after Raava, the spirit who gave the avatar the ability to bend all the elements, bonded with Wan, the first avatar. Thus, ending the age of the Lion Turtle.

The Air Nomads are less of a nation and more of a group of people connected through culture and bending. As the name implies, they are the Airbenders and they live isolated lifestyles, eat off the land, and likely follow the sky bison's migration patterns. In the age of the Lion Turtle, they lived in harmony with spirits in direct contrast to other nations who isolated themselves from spirits. The Air Nomads were spiritual and are almost analogous to Tibetan Monks with hints of other religions present. This group of people are the most spiritual of the five nations and were wiped out in a genocide at the start of the 100 Years war, the end of which is where the first show takes place.

The Earth Kingdom is perhaps the middle child in terms of spirituality. Not quite disenchanted but not inherently spiritual. While a large portion of spiritual encounters appear in this kingdom, for example Hei Bai and Wan Shi Tong, this kingdom is a mixture of modern and traditional. The Earth Kingdom is analogous to warring states China, it is very large and consists of multiple provinces. This makes actual governance very difficult and makes the culture and spirituality differ incredibly based on geography. Outside of Ba Sing Se and Omashu, the Earth Kingdom is in poverty and there is little to no innovation or scientific knowledge. As opposed to Omashu, which has an advanced delivery system using earth bending as a method of transport, and Ba Sing Se, which has trains powered by earth benders.

The Water Tribes, located in the South and North pole, are small. They have each been reduced by Fire Nation raids to a tribal village and small city respectively. These are one of the most spiritual nations in this world, besides the Air Nomads, which as stated above, has since gone extinct barring the protagonist. The Northern water tribe contains the Spirit Oasis which has the pond that contains La and Tui, the Ocean and Moon spirits respectively. These two spirits are the most important parts of Water Tribe culture which is, in part, analogous to the Inuit people.

The Fire Nation is analogous to Imperial Japan after the Meiji restoration. They live on a series of volcanic islands and are industrious, wealthy, and modern. They are the active participants to disenchant the world. One admiral in particular, Zhao, killed Tui to rid the world of water benders, and burnt down a portion of Wan Shi Tong's library.

What is Spirituality?​

The Lion Turtles harken to the Iroquois belief that the Earth rests on the back of the Great Turtle. The world is inhabited by both Humans and Spirits. The Spirits are the ones who cover most of the world while the Humans are contained on the back of the Lion Turtles with few exceptions like the Air Nomads. This was a world in which the spiritual and the mysterious dominated the world. Humans were few and spirits were many.

Fast forward a couple thousand years and you get the opposite. Humans are now all around the world and the Spirits are contained in few areas. Some of these places are traveled to in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Places like: Wan Shi Tong's Library in Book: Earth, Episode 10: The Library, The Spirit Oasis in Book: Water, Episode 19: The Siege of the North: Part 1, Hei Bai's Forest in Book: Water, Episode 7: Winter Solstice, Part 1: The Spirit World, and many others. In addition to this, the world of Avatar has a Spirit World, implying that the Spirits are contained on an entire world. This slow disenchantment continued further in Avatar. Best displayed in the downfall of the Fire Sages from power and influence as shown in Book: Water, Episode 8: Winter Solstice, Part 2: Avatar Roku.

Contrasted to Legend of Korra in which the majority of these spiritual places have disappeared barely 80 years later. The few places that remain are in the Northern and Southern water tribes and in the Air Nomad temple located in Republic City. However, post season 2 of Legend of Korra the spirits come back in full, thanks to the Harmonic Convergence, where the connection between the Spirit World and the Real World opens and the spirit and material worlds combine. The slow disenchantment that had been occurring up until this point has now been completely reversed. Now the world is being re-enchanted.

To be Modern is to be Industrial
​

The Fire Nation was experiencing a golden age, their citizens were gaining wealth and by all measures they were well ahead of their closest competitors. This started sparking some thought in the heads of the Fire Nation government. Sozin started preaching about spreading the glory of the Fire Nation to the savages in the Earth, Water, and Air nations. This may seem familiar in part to some of you. That is because this is orientalist thinking under a colonialist lens.

Orientalism is a creation of Western Europe as a method to justify imperialism and colonialism in which by doing so, even if they cause a large amount of suffering, they are spreading prosperity, wealth, and saving the "savages" from Hell. "The general basis of Orientalist thought is an imaginative geography dividing the world into two unequal parts, the larger and 'different' one called the Orient, the other, also known as our world, called the Occident or the West. Such divisions always take place when one society or culture thinks about another one, different from it,"[1] This creates an interesting perspective as in reality, Orientalism creates a Western versus Eastern set of view, but the Orientalism in Avatar is different as everyone at that point are Asiatic in origin. Therefore, this creates a notion in which the more modern and industrial a country is, the more western it is. But first, what does it mean to be modern?
Modernization is the move from a "traditional" nation to a "modern" nation. What does this mean, traditional versus modern? Modernity is used to describe countries and nations that have moved from older traditions and created newer traditions that are superior to the older ones, through a western lense. "We should in fact consider that it is the interaction between . . . modernity and modernization – that has led to the emergence of the peculiar configuration known as Western modernity. This means that while the proclivity to think that the world could be otherwise has positive effects on scientific development and economic advancement, the accelerating speed at which scientific knowledge changes reinforces the generalized cognitive instability that characterizes modernity."[2] This modernity that is defined by the instability of changing knowledge is precisely what happened after the defeat of the Fire Nation.

After Aang defeated Fire Lord Ozai, the Fire Nation was taken over by Prince Zuko who was supportive of the actions taken by Aang. The actions of the Fire Nation after the war achieved the effect that they were originally going for. Modernization of the rest of the world. The places that showed a major transition would be Makapu and its surrounding areas. Makapu is shown on Episode 14 of Book: Water in Avatar: The Last Airbender as a small village nearby a volcano. In Legend of Korra this village and its surrounding areas became Republic City, which took its design, originally a medieval village, to a steampunk 1920s Shanghai. The areas that were formerly Fire Nation colonies became Republic City and its surrounding area, and as these towns developed into a major city, they had a scientific boom. This boom was what modernized these towns into a city-state.

In contrast, the Water Tribes show little or no industrialization. I think that this was a specific decision made by the authors to show that the Water Tribes, which are analogous to the Inuit and Native American tribes in general, reject industrialization for a more spiritual society.

All of this demonstrates the idea of modernization and industrialization being linked in society. The defeat of the Fire Nation shows that even attempts to stop industrialization will fail as that is the trend of modern societies with few exceptions. Next we will look at what it means to be modern and industrial in terms of disenchantment and secularization.

To be Industrial is to be Disenchanted
​

Disenchantment is the term used by Max Weber that has gained some notoriety as it is not an easy term to understand or use. I will be using this term in a way to show that it is describing the transition from a mystically and spiritually dominated world to a world dominated by logic and calculations. This will be important for readers who are trying to grasp the difficulties of understanding disenchantment. Further, re-enchantment describes the opposite effect occurring, a move from a logically dominated world to a mystical world.

Weber, when speaking about disenchantment, says that "We are not ruled by mysterious, unpredictable forces, but that, on the contrary, we can in principle control everything by means of calculation. That in turn means the disenchantment of the world."[3] Further into this lecture, Weber talks about how only the "savage" has need of the mysterious forces and as we, the civilized people modernize, we gain control over the world by calculation and logic. This can mean many things, but I will be focusing on a particular viewpoint of this topic. As modernization and industrialization progress, disenchantment also progresses. This is the popular view on this topic. Later on in this essay I will give examples as to why this view is the most popular and I will also provide an alternate take on these connections.

In The Vocation Lectures, disenchantment is defined as "the process of intellectual rationalization."[4] This means that "The increasing intellectualization and rationalization do not . . . indicate an increased and general knowledge of the conditions under which one lives. It means . . . the knowledge or belief that if one but wished one could learn it at any time. Hence it means that principally there are no mysterious incalculable forces that come into play, but rather that one can, in principle, master all things by calculation."[5] This differs from how I will be using this term. I will use it to focus on the cultural and spiritual outcomes of a changing world whereas, Weber intended it to be used as a focus on the changing nature of the world caused by entering the Information age. It is a small but important distinction to make, nevertheless, it must be established. Next, we will look at what it means for a place to be disenchanted.

Republic City is the most western place in Legend of Korra, does this mean that it is also the most disenchanted? Yes, and no. In Seasons 1 and 2 of Legend of Korra it is the most disenchanted space in the world of Avatar. This place had become a place of logic and little to no mysteries were relevant. For example, Mako, one of the main characters and a firebender, pulls a shift at the Republic City power plant[6]. This shift, while seeming to be normal at first, displays some of the key trademarks of disenchantment. Firstly, the quantification of lightning. In Avatar: The Last Airbender lightning bending is mysterious and very few can do it. Contrasted to Legend of Korra in which not only is it common, but it is also quantified. Further, in the show, it seems that only Republic City uses this to generate power with little indication of the other nations doing that. This transition from mysterious and spiritual to logical and quantifiable is disenchantment. And while this does show that Republic City was disenchanted, I think that a good focus would be on secularization and its relationship to disenchantment.

Secularization is a term that many people have heard before, but for those who have not. Secularization is the separation of church from state and the separation of religion from culture. Before secularization, not only was religion and government inseparable, but also religion and culture. "The other is the study of religion, since researchers often fail to understand how pervasive religion was in antiquity, and how it encompassed things we now consider separate from religion, such as the household, philosophy, ethics, politics, economics, and culture."[7] Therefore when I am going to speak about culture, I am also simultaneously speaking about religion.

Republic City is, at the time of Legend of Korra, in the process of being secularized. The Non-Bending movement[8] displays similarities to the French revolution. The culture of Republic City displays several trends that push towards the idea of secularism. Specifically with the non-bending movement we suddenly have a group of non-benders who can fight on equal terms with benders. This shifts the position of power from benders to bender and non-benders equally.

In addition, we get the idea of the world not needing the Avatar anymore. This, I think is the largest move towards the secular. The Avatar is, as we see in season 2 of Legend of Korra, a godly spiritual figure. The Avatar is looked to towards solving the problems of the world and has been for a very long time. This trend of looking to the Avatar as a godly figure is almost religious in nature. However, the move towards being self-sufficient that is shown throughout Legend of Korra is, I think, the biggest move towards secularization that occurs in this show.

Technology and Disenchantment vs Re-Enchantment
​

This popular idea of modernization, industrialization, and secularization requiring disenchantment is the most apparent conclusion to make because that is how it is in our world. But these shows provide a counter argument that takes its roots in Donna Haraway's A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.

Instead of modernization, industrialization, and secularization requiring disenchantment. They instead have a correlation with re-enchantment. As technology becomes more advanced, we gain a better understanding of our minds and bodies and become more grounded in our own spirituality. "Late twentieth-century machines have made thoroughly ambiguous the difference between natural and artificial, mind and body, self-developing and externally designed, and many other distinctions that used to apply to organisms and machines."[9] These advancements that create a distinction between artificial and real are what is blurring the line between human and machine. This move from logical to mysterious is re-enchantment.

Ms. Haraway's take on these connections display a not-often talked about possibility. That modernization, industrialization, and secularization do not require disenchantment and can coexist as we become more modern, industrial, and secular.

The Secular and the Spiritual​

This is something that is displayed clearly in post season 2 of Legend of Korra as up until this point disenchantment was advancing at a fast rate. But suddenly with the Harmonic Convergence[10] re-enchantment starts progressing at an incredibly quick place. This event and the aftermath of it shows that modernity, industrialization, and the secular can coexist with spirituality and the re-enchanted.

The popular idea, that spirituality and secularism are mutually exclusive is one that has been thought on for a great many years. Secularism, best understood by its components; modernization and industrialization, posit a disenchanted world. However, these shows, Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel Legend of Korra provide a critique on this view. Not only can secularism and spirituality coexist, but they can also thrive together. Yet even still, modern ideas of power, religion, and government work to make this concept a non-reality.

Secularism posits that politics or government, and religion are separate entities. Yet in more recent times, a shift has occurred, and now large religious organizations are once again a political entity.

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Bibliography
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DiMartino, Michael Dante, and Bryan Konietzko. Avatar: The Last Airbender. Nickelodeon, 2005.
DiMartino, Michael Dante, and Bryan Konietzko. Legend of Korra. Nickelodeon, 2012.
Haraway, Donna Jeanne. Cyborg Manifesto. Victoria, British Columbia: Camas Books, 2018.
Haraway, Donna Jeanne. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016.
HelloFutureMe, "Avatar: A Study in Worldbuilding - the Earth Kingdom [ The Last Airbender | Legend of Korra ]" Youtube. May 16, 2018. Video Essay, 20:08.
HelloFutureMe, "Avatar: A Study in Worldbuilding - the Fire Nation [ The Last Airbender ]" Youtube. October 26, 2019. Video Essay, 19:49.
HelloFutureMe, "Korra"s Worldbuilding: How did technology advance so quickly? [ Avatar: The Last Airbender ]" Youtube. August 10, 2019. Video Essay, 22:16
HelloFutureMe, "Legend of Korra's 'Beginnings' | An Overdue Critique" Youtube. February 6, 2020. Video Essay, 34:06.
HelloFutureMe, The Templin Institute, "Exploring the Fire Nation | Avatar: The Last Airbender feat. The Templin Institute" Youtube. June 10, 2019. Video Essay, 11:35.
HelloFutureMe, "War. Colonialism, and Industrialism | The Worldbuilding of Avatar" Youtube. May 16, 2020. Video Essay, 22:15.
Koshul, Basit Bilal. The Postmodern Significance of Max Weber's Legacy : Disenchanting Disenchantment 1st ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
Owens, David, and Tracy B. Strong, eds. Max Weber: The Vocation Lectures. Translated by Rodney Livingstone. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 2004.
Parks, Sara, Shayna Sheinfeld, and Meredith Warren. Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean. New York: Routledge Press, 2022
Said, Edward W. "Islam through Western Eyes." The Nation, June 29, 2015. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/islam-through-western-eyes/.
Taylor, Mark C., and Gustavo Benavides. "Modernity." Essay. In Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Chicago Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

[1] "Islam Through Western Eyes" By Edward Said
[2] Gustavo Benavides 188
[3] Page 12, 13 of Science as a Vocation
[4] Page 30 Introduction, Section 3: The Disenchantment of the World in The Vocation Lectures
[5] Science as Vocation Page 139
[6] Season 1, Episode 3 of Legend of Korra
[7] Parks, Sara, Shayna Sheinfeld, and Meredith Warren. Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean. New York: Routledge Press, 2022
[8] Season 1 of Legend of Korra
[9] Page 11 of A Cyborg Manifesto
[10] An event in which the gateway between the spirit world and real world becomes open and spirits and humans can travel freely between these realms.