Talk:Equalists/@comment-5041889-20120428064431/@comment-68.36.104.132-20120428150815

Its because society as a whole has changed a lot since Aang's time. 70 years ago life was much more communal and though benders were a benefit to the village or town people lived in their lives weren't so different from the non benders because the people in the community had close ties with one another. In Republic City, society has become much more individualistic and those with skills to offer(primarily benders) have a big adventage in obtaining jobs or protecting themselves. Benders also seem to have blatant oppurtunities that are clearly unopen for nonbenders, eg the metal bending police officers and probending. With this the nonbenders probably feel like second class citizens. I can also imagine that people also may learned chi blocking as a mean of self defense against criminals like the triads and benders as a whole might have felt threatened by that ability which would have led to chi blocking being looked down on or possibly banned outright. From their chi blockers would feel as though the benders just want to keep them as subordinate to them and resentment would grow, ultimately spiralling into this movement which I personally feel is good to want equality and fair oppurtunities but that they're going about it too radically.