I don’t know Suzanne Collins’ politics, but I am intrigued by her Hunger Games trilogy. Her stories of a dystopian future are entirely relevant to today’s America.
"Hunger Games" is set in Panem, a North American nation in the future. The power, money, and media are controlled by elites in the Capitol, a marvelous and advanced place, far removed from the hardships of life out in the Districts that make up the nation. The people of the Capitol are ridiculously faddish, enjoying a wonderful life of colorful clothing, excellent food, and cosmetic styles that look more like Lady Gaga’s than our world’s day-to-day. Meanwhile, the twelve districts exist as resource providers to the Capitol. Their people are virtual serfs, struggling to get enough to eat, and staying alive through hard work and grudging compliance with the Capitol’s directives.
The Hunger Games were dictated as punishment for a rebellion by the Districts against the Capitol. In the wake of this upheaval the government imposes harsh rule and enforces its agenda by media coercion and by outright terror – those who get crossways with the State have their tongues cut out “or worse.” The ultimate punishment is that each year, a boy and a girl, between the ages of 12 and 18, from each district are chosen by a lottery called the “Reaping” to participate in the Hunger Games as “Tributes.” The event provides a continuing reminder of the power of the Capitol and is an ongoing punishment for the rebellion. At one point, the president tells a confidant that hope is the only thing stronger than fear, so rather than just execute 24 kids at random each year, it is better to make it a contest, so that the Districts are cooperative in the ongoing horror. The media actively promote the Games, as an entertainment for the elite, and the entire nation is commanded to follow. It is televised continuously, the contestants are briefly celebrities, and sponsors are obtained. Then the young people are placed into a high-tech arena that is changed annually – think Survivor and its different locales – where they fight like gladiators, dying in a variety of inventive and terrible ways, manipulated by a game controller who reports to the nation’s president at the Capitol.
The story’s heroine, Katniss, is a girl from District 12, a place that looks a lot like Appalachia. Her father was killed in a coal mine accident and now she poaches small game to make ends meet for her mother and sister. She’s a skillful hunter and trapper, at home in the woods. Apparently nobody in this post-rebellion world has a gun, but she is deadly with bow and arrow. When her 12-year old sister is “reaped,” Katniss volunteers to go in her place.
Aside from the cynical take on our reality shows – the doomed contestants form alliances, use their varying fighting and outdoors skills, and quickly bump off the weak and guileless – why is this relevant?
Because this is the Left’s dream: a statist government and its chosen ones in entertainment cooperating to keep the population in line. It is a horrifying vision of the Left’s ultimate goal, powerful and ruthless government supported by an all-seeing media controlling the masses. Panem, like Washington DC, is a leftist utopia with its ruling class the masters in every way. They and their elite cronies live in beautiful surroundings, with every convenience, enjoying a rich pleasure filled existence, with plenty of leisure time, and having almost no dealings with the poor desperate folks out in the hinterlands.
The elite media in the Capitol mock and patronize the doomed kids, teasing and joking with them in an interview show and providing a pre-game betting line before they’re plunged into the arena. For a few days the Tributes are free of their dreary existence in the Districts, given a comfortable life, and then they are sent to die on television for the entertainment of their betters.
How far are we from this now? Many Americans feel that our leaders and our media elites have no idea how they live, nor do they share the concerns of ordinary people. The difference between those who work hard to provide the things that our nation needs and those who live in luxury and enjoy privilege is great and growing. In our world, between the two, there is a class of government dependent poor, with a living standard that is tolerable but completely reliant on the tax burden levied on the productive class. They will support the governent elites even though they only get the crumbs from the table. You may say, “But Zippy, it’s always been like that.” Maybe so, but it wasn’t in our face before there was such powerful media. And more importantly, such wide gaps have usually been harbingers of revolutionary change.
I have not yet read the other books in the series, but I look forward to seeing how the world of the Hunger Games develops.
No comments:
Post a Comment