The Hunger Games

"May the odds be ever in your favour." ...that this doesn't actually happen :S

Let me just start off by saying this is not a post about Team Peeta or Team Gale (Team Peeta) or which district I got placed in on the Capitol website (District 2) or how I can't wait the two weeks until the movie came out (I can't) and how I was so in love with the book I devoured the pages in three days of non-stop reading (More like 2 and a half days.)  This post is about the scarier, deeper meaning behind the book and how as unrealistic as it all may seem...I can't help but seeing this as a completely plausible reality.

But let's back up a little bit.  For those of you that live under a rock and have absolutely no fucking clue what I am talking about....get your head out of your ass.  The Hunger Games are EVERYWHERE right now as it is about to make its big screen debut on March 23rd.  I'm not entirely sure when the books came out as I read them last weekend, and they amazed the shit out of me, but apparently it was quite awhile ago.  I digress, here is the general idea of the books- it is set in the near future of North America...or what is left of North America as much of it was decimated by apocalyptic waves, war and nuclear bombs.  It is over 100+ years after the North America, now one country called Panem had survived the nuclear blast and the world has changed in a dire way...the world seems to have progressed and yet regressed simultaneously.  There are hover crafts, hologram screens, advancements in the world of comestic surgery and general medicinal practice.  There is also a totalitarian regime which executes so much control no one questions it.  Panem is separated by 14 different areas, a "Capitol" and 13 districts.  Each district is responsible for producing a certain good in excess for all other districts, and the capitol to consume, however most districts (with the exception of 2) are faced with starvation and poverty.  The capitol is the center of the regime, with the president calling the shots over everyone and the capitol's residents are wealthy, well-fed and do everything in excess. 

 Districts in Panem...could this be our future?

Where the novel gets its name, "The Hunger Games" comes from an uprising of district 13 (now believed to be decimated) against the capitol's totalitarian regime.  To counter any future attacks or revolutions from the rest of the districts, the capitol enforces the hunger games, a reality show similar to something one would watch in the Colosseum in Rome circa BC where warriors fight to the death for entertainment.  Two "tributes" are chosen from each district, a boy and a girl, from the ages of 12-17 to compete in the hunger games...with only one winner.  

So that is the gist of The Hunger Games.  Now while this all seems so fantastical, and I bet your thinking there is noooooooooo way anyone would ever let their government take such control or want to watch children kill each other as entertainment...let's just have a nice reality check.

Currently, reality TV is bigger than ever and quite possibly the most popular, and most watched shows around.  What shows do we currently have?  American Idol, The Voice, So you think you can Dance, America's got talent...all shows where people vie for fame and fortune (what a tribute will get once they win the Hunger Games).  Shows focusing on excitement, adventure and survival - Survivor, The Amazing Race (The Hunger Games tributes must focus on surviving unknown territories and live off the land)  and shows about people's lives (Teen Mom, Jersey Shore, Big Brother, Sister Wives, 19 Kids and Counting, 16 and Pregnant, My life as Liz...every other motherfucking MTV show in existence).  These three subgroups of reality TV are all joined into one for the Hunger Games...and add in CHILDREN KILLING EACH OTHER and you've got the ultimate form of gross entertainment.

It is not so unfathomable that this would be something that the public as a whole would watch, their eyes glued to the television screens, getting attached to certain tributes, wanting to follow up with the victors lives with every passing hunger games....is it not the same with the Olympics? (at least there is less killing in the literal sense there.)

So, while the Hunger Games aspect is scary enough, the whole idea of the totalitarian regime as a way of controlling the masses and preventing both future revolutions and nuclear wars is really what scares me.  With the world in a constant state of chaos, the media shoving propaganda down our throats about how bad the world is, how society is in such turmoil, how we all need to be protected by the government and need more laws in place for the stupidest of reasons (SOPA, PIPA, the fucking law in Indiana that tries women as murderers if they hurt their fetuses' while pregnant) kind of paints a gruesome picture that....this could happen.  How many laws were passed that infringed on the basic rights of humans after 9-11?  How many more catastrophes need to happen for America to allow their government to pass more asinine laws infringing on their rights...getting closer and closer to a totalitarian state?

Usually I would just sigh with relief that I live in Canada - the greatest country ever in terms of humans rights might I add - but...America is our big brother living just below us...what happens there often has a big chance of happening to us quite shortly.  And with the every increasing westernization of the world, there is no doubt that the world would follow suit.  

Granted that is one thing the Hunger Games novel never makes mention of- the rest of the world outside of Panem (North America).  Panem does not communicate with the other side of the world, or even with South America.  They mention tv's and telephones exist, but very few people save for the rich victors and the people in the capitol ever use a telephone.  Could the internet be a thing of the past??  Could you even IMAGINE THAT?!

I'm getting off topic here...I guess my point is, the Hunger Games may be a fictitious book aimed at young adults (but adored by adults alike) but the future annihilation of a vast majority of population and land and the government uprising in a totalitarian regime to take control....and the use of children fucking killing each other for reality television entertainment quite frankly scares the living fuck out me....mostly because it could actually happen in the future...maybe not when I'm alive, but it is not so farfetched.