McCarty Princess Mononugent

In both Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa we see worlds where -in an inverse of our own- nature is or has the ability to be dominant over man. In our realm of reality, man is certainly the dominant force over nature: we breed and domesticate animals for food and companionship, we alter the natural course of rivers with dams and levees, we pollute, oh God how we pollute, and we are simply in no way in tune with the natural world. If, somehow, we all woke up one day to find that overnight our world had turned into one like Nausicaa's, the outcome would be far from idyllic: many, many people would die and those who didn't would seek to rebuild the world they had left behind. I know these things. Given our general lack of the knowledge needed to thrive without modern amenities, our lack of respect for nature, and our ceaseless quest for the bigger and the better, it's illogical to think that any majority of mankind would be able form a community like the Valley of the Wind, more likely we would end up like the industrial, squabbling Pejites and Tolmekians.

Ted Nugent would thrive in this world for all the wrong reasons, kind of like he does here.

Nausicaa and Ashitaka each manage to maintain a perfect balance between their ties to humanity and to nature, an incredible feat considering they live in worlds inhabited by animal gods the size of semis and easily irritated, world-leveling insects. And the humans they each deal with are as ignorant and destructive as they come. Also, in Nausicaa's world everything is poison. These kids are awesome. They manage to do for their worlds what we fail to do for ours, and they do it in the face of extreme odds that often call for a great amount of self-sacrifice, such as when Nausicaa placed herself in the path of the unstoppable Ohm stampede, or any time Ashitaka did anything.

Especially things like this.

While I do love to bemoan the idea of the McDonald's eating, gun toting, Humvee driving soccer mom, I do understand that there are good people in this world. For all the Eboshis and Kushanas we certainly have Ashitakas and Mononokes and even Sans. These mediators and advocates of natural order are certainly the few, though, and that's why it's so easy to be prospectively grim for the potential of our people. 

Also, this.