If somebody put real Hunger Games on tv or a webcast, would you watch it? Would you feed the monster and help it grow?
Suzanne Collins put, in my opinion, an allegory to our time in a book and on a screen. Ironically, it may only be lost in the mix of media messages for most people.I offer some thoughts on how the world of The Hunger Games is really parallel to our own. There are a lot of questions here to ask yourself, I am not really looking for people to give me their answers, some of these are quite personal. Just answer them to your God and yourself.
How many in our society can relate to Heymitch? What does he do with his life? To save his life, he sends kids like he once was to their death every year. All the money/winnings he has came from killing other kids, back when he was a kid. He does something that he doesn't believe in to survive. Within that system, he does his best to try to help, but more often than not they still die.
Before we go off on Heymitch for what he does, remember he grew up with it. When he was a kid he probably had some amount of expectations and hoped for how his life might go. Now, he hides in his alcohol and does his best to stay alive. He feels he has no control over the situation. Something that has not changed for him since he was sent to the hunger games, is he just tries to stay alive. He dares not bond with his charges, since they will probably die. Meanwhile, he is not really living, he lives to escape from his life with booze. There are many people who do that in our society, either through substances, or media, or other activities that takeover and become their consolation prize for perpetually surrendered hopes, dreams, or ideals.
The lesson: Sometimes people become - or believe they've become- trapped in circumstances that force them to participate in what they know is wrong. Pharmacists who do not believe in abortion go through this because the laws now force them to carry abortion drugs, at least in Illinois. Many trafficking victims may go through this as well. This is a terrible thing to experience and a terrible thing to do to other people. It is a sign that something is horribly wrong in the society, or with the laws thereof.
Sponsors – Create a demand that tributes kiss-butt and be someone else in order to please, so that they might be given some necessities for survival.
The corporate world – Expectations for how to dress, and how to talk and the impression you must give. Why? Essentially, in order to literally stay alive. How is “I will take your livelihood away from you, or not give it to you in the first place,” that much less severe than “I will beat you up, or shoot you”? The whole, “I will not allow you any of the wherewithal you need to survive, no matter how hard you work, or what you do, unless you impress me. Most grounds I expect to be impressed on do not relate to what anybody even needs from you, and I am also looking for reasons not to be impressed.” Sounds a lot like a job interview to me. “Pretend you are passionate about this company and everything we do and stand for, or else you have no reason to exist.” Why do employers do that? To survive. Just like the sponsors. They adapt to their environment without really changing it the ways that it needs. Perhaps they do not know how, or perhaps they also have surrendered.
The system becomes very complicated, very dishonest, and very self-serving and all the while, the idea is to look like you are not self-serving, complicated, or dishonest.
The lesson: life in a system that forces everybody to lie, or to refuse to face some truth, in order to get by is a system that requires change.
Godspeed.
~Mother Star
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