The Hunger Games Politics

[sadbear]

This article cites FR:

"Commenters at Free Republic, a message board dedicated to "independent, grass-roots conservatism," argue that the movie is a conservative message. "Those opposing the big-govt are the heros (sp)," one person writes. Another writes, "I would have to say that the books are essentially conservative, whether the author intended them to be or not.""

See for yourself: http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/hunger-games-politics-223719796.html

[lonestarnot]

1. What I've seen of it looks like they overlooked that the government is run by Richie Rich, so sounds

like todays' baggers.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Actually, the Capitol would be representative of the 1%ers.

And, um, the story isn't finished. Major spoilers that you don't learn until the third book.

Let's just say that the warhawks were responsible for the demise of the U.S.A.

[uppityperson]

5. You seem to be proud of your video since have posted it in every post so far.

However, simply posting the same video over and over might be seen as spam. Perhaps include a link in your profile instead as people check profiles. Thank you.

[peterclay]

13. Love the name

Thanks for the guidance. BTW, I love your username!

[Hippo_Tron]

4. It's popular fiction written for pre-teens and teenagers

It's not Brave New World, 1984, or Animal Farm. The intent is to entertain people, not convey a political message.

[sadbear]

6. I haven't read it

But it's very apparent that there is a political message in it, i.e., how the rich and powerful relate to everyone else, how the poor relate to each other, how things become dystopian, etc.

[cali]

10. actually, the author has said that she was inspired to write it due to the Iraq war.

and it's not for pre-teens. I think it was definitely written to convey quite a few messages- about social media, reality tv, and politics.

[obamanut2012]

16. It's written for young adult and adult teaders

And, the series very much has a political -- and moral -- message, even more than the Harry Potter series did.

[Sheepshank]

22. Although I agree it's not intended to be purely political......

......it's difficult in an election year, and certainlyin this political climate, not to see some of the talking points the candidates lob at the public.

Hunger games portrays ways in which the poor are kept poor and attempts to dehumanized them for the entertainment of a few elite. The leader of the elite, works hard to keep the poorer groups from economincally moving ahead and shackled to continuing cycles of repression.

We hear/read it here...the GOP constituency brain washed to vote against their own best interests infavor of propping up the rich and elite.

[Kablooie]

7. Both right and left will claim the H.G world is what the other side will lead us to.

Simply because it's a horrible government will make Republicans claim it's what the Democrats want.

Though the undeniable fact is that in the Hunger Games, government reserves excessive over the top luxury for the 1% and a bare hard scrabble living for everyone else.

It's the world the Wall Street tycoons dream of.

[Brettongarcia]

8. It's another Republican pre-election propaganda movie; just like Independence Day

What is "Hunger Games" really about? My theory, without having seen it? It's just another calculated, pre-election bit of Republican propaganda.

It's a dramatic/propagandistic presentation of Rush Limbaugh-style, Right Wing Myth. The virtuous countryside - read the midwest Red States - are enslaved by the evil capitol - read Washington, and old liberals. J They must pay "tribute" to the old capitol leaders. Just like, Rush says, young people and Republicans are forced to pay Social Security, for old liberals. And a "corrupt" Washington, corrupt old folks. Who are? Just taking young peoples' lives away. By making them pay for Social Security.

In part, to be sure, its about teen rebellion; young people trying to get out from under what Hawthorne called the "dead hand" of their precedessors, the adults, and the Baby Boomers. But more than that, it is political. The author, Collins, was born in 1962. And her story is just repeating the classic Gen X myth, from Rush Limbaugh: that rich trust-fund hippie liberals, the fat cats in Liberal Washington the "capitol" - just don't understand working class whites down in coal town, the "Seam"; don't understand their West Pennsylvania need for a few simple values to guide them, through their poorer lives. Old establishment folks are allegedly, just making the young people work to pay for ... our old folk luxuries, like food and Social Security. While that Social Security - Limbaugh said - won't be there for them, in turn, when this generation is old.

A lot of big movies these days - especially just before elections - are actually, carefully-engineered progaganda. It began when years ago Ronald Reagan - the old actor and former Army/movie propagandist - called republican Hollywood to his office. To see how they could help out the Republican cause. And they helped out, I'd like to note here: with a movie called "Independence Day." Just before the Repubican Party ran two ex- jet fighter pilots for president - George Bush and/or John McCain - Independence Day helpfully presented to the country, the idea that a fighter-pilot President - read Bush, and/or McCain - was what we needed to save our country.

Thanks Ronald, and the RNC, for another one. Another good Republican propaganda movie, just before the 2012 election.

[marions ghost]

11. exactly right

it is propaganda.

[dems_rightnow]

12. If that had any credence at all

It wouldn't have been released in freaking March.

[obamanut2012]

17. You couldn't be more mistaken

It is quite apparent you haven't read the books. The author's impetus to write the books was the snatching away of Americans' civil liberties and privacy after 9/11, including the full-out rush to war.

The books (and movie) denounce control and fascism.

[Bluenorthwest]

21. You are as far off as the person cited in the OP....

Here is how mass media explains who the villains of this story are 'They are the 1%'.

[Bjorn Against]

23. The Hunger Games is not right-wing, in fact it is very anti-fascist

I think you should read the book or watch the movie, I assure you it is nothing like what you describe. It is very much about how the elite control and exploit the poor, it may represent Rush Limbaugh's dream world but it most certainly does not portray that world as a good place to live.

[Volaris]

9. I read the book last week...my sister read and said it was good,

and I figured I was going to see the film anyway, so I read it before the film release...

and as I was reading the book, (it was good, for those who haven't read it) I just KNEW that at least one of the Conservatives I knew would see the film, and get the idea put into their little pea-brain that "THIS is what happens when big government LIBERALISM is allowed to run rampant, the end result is that they have to come and take hard-working peoples kids away and have them murder each other for sport. SEE!!!! What we were telling you dumb tree-huggers all along is TRUE (Hollywood says so)."

The thought struck me as patently absurd, and then I remembered these were conservatives were talking about. You know, FREEPERS.

There aren't a lot of SPECIFIC politics in the first book, except to say that the Government that exists seems to exist mostly to maintain control over the people, so that those people don't get it into their heads that maybe a government that actually gave a damn about them MIGHT not be a government that most of the poor hate and want to overthrow, if they thought they had a real opportunity to ever achieve such an end for themselves. The Government in this book is about CONTROL above all else. Pure and Simple. (that the Freepers and their kin are Projecting again is not surprising to me AT ALL.)

I have NOT read the second or third books yet, that is my task for NEXT week lol.

(on edit) The people in "the Capitol" have everything, mostly due to the labor of the serf-chattel in "the Districts." The above poster is correct, its Wall Streets wet fucking DREAM. If it matters, part of the backstory to this is that the people who lived in the District that STARTED the rebellion were not even allowed to live as serf-labor, THAT district was destroyed as a lesson to those others who might want to rebel in the future.
I would caution against the perception that this is purely a (Republican) Propaganda piece, as MANY who see this film will undoubtedly feel for the films main characters who have NOTHING, and take from it a sense of solidarity for their fellow man, AGAINST those who have money, power, and position, and ABUSE those things in an effort to maintain their own status. Essentially, this is an "underdog" story (those who have seen the film will know EXACTLY what that means=)--) about the power that the weak possess against the strong, about the power that the POOR have against THE RICH, and about how the armed spirit of a few can be leveraged against the armored bodies of the many. Go see the film, if you haven't already. I'll bet you will NOT be disappointed.

(on second edit) the people in the Capitol are not just different form the District-dwellers in that they have every luxury that money and status can afford them, but in that they seem to be completely LACKING in the attainment of any kind of inner, reflective True Self that can VALUE another human being simply AS a human being. I KNOW we all know people like that, don't we? and what do we CALL a person who lacks empathy for anything beyond their OWN self, their OWN gain, or their OWN systems of thought or Belief?

(I call that person Rick Santorum, but as were talking about a work of fiction, I guess that's neither here nor there, now IS it?--Wink, Nod.)
Feel free to post your answers to my question below, I would LOVE to know what YOUR answers are=)

[riderinthestorm]

14. Unless you are going to give away major plot spoilers, Freepers are talking from ignorance

the 2nd and 3rd books blow their theories out of the water.

Until you've read the entire series I strongly suggest anyone commenting on the politics of this single book will be wrong. The series in its entirety covers the whole spectrum from the 1% to socialism, revolution, nuclear holocaust, the stratification of society, class warfare, the role of media in our culture....

The main character is a young woman who reluctantly, almost accidentally, becomes the figurehead for change in this world but she's actually kind of the "tip of the spear" that exposes a LOT of other ugly truths. Other, more powerful figures and forces use her in their own ways as well and it's THOSE entities that bear watching even as we root for her.

[obamanut2012]

18. Point on about Katniss

She has no desire to be a hero, she just wants to save her family, and herself. She is a very reluctant hero, which makes her very interesting, imo, because she keeps her moral base no matter what.

[obamanut2012]

15. If these people read The Hunger Games series and came away with that

They are idiots. They are dystopian books denouncing a fascist, totalitarian system. The name of the country was chosen on purpose -- it's a not-so-subtle play on Bread and Circuses. I think everyone can agree that Rome did not have a socialist, or even liberal, government.

Collins is probably having a fit.

[Strelnikov_]

19. "They are idiots."

No . . right-wingers completely missing the point . . Never!!!

[obamanut2012]

20. lol