The
Hunger Games
are far more than a
fictional fantasy. They serve as warnings that illustrate the
corruption of our human nature and the duplicity of today's trusted leaders.
In the first book, the deadly games ended with two winners instead of one: Katniss and Peeta.
They had disobeyed the rules; each refused to kill the other. The masses
loved it, but President Snow was furious. Instead of
building solidarity, the games had fueled a
growing rebellion against the wealthy and well-armed Capitol, the control center
of Panem.
In the third book,[2]
the seventeen-year-old Katniss
becomes the symbol of the rising rebellion. Dressed in her triumphant Mockingjay uniform,
she is televised and celebrated across the country by rebel leaders.
In the end, the rebels win. But it's a sad
victory! Coin, the female rebel leader proves to be more corrupt than
Snow, her predecessor. And when she gains
control of the nation, Katniss is no longer wanted and kept out of sight.
Human history is full of such outcomes. The Soviet Union is a good example. Most of
Lenin's
revolutionaries were eventually killed by Stalin, who tolerated no competition.
In England, where elite financiers funded the Bolshevik revolution,
only a few voices dared speak up in alarm.
George Orwell may have
been one of the most effective critics of Soviet communism and its British
supporters.
Aldous Huxley was
more subtle. The powerful Huxley family had long been steeped in the socialist
vision of a totalitarian world government, and his brother
Julian became the
first head of the
United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Remember,
Alger Hiss,
the communist who advised President Roosevelt to cede eastern Europe to
Stalin (Yalta, February 4-11, 1945). Some months later he presided over the
first gathering of the United
Nations in San Francisco.
Neil Postman, who wrote "Amusing Ourselves to Death",
understood their goals and strategies well. To illustrate brainwashing, he
drew an interesting contrast between Huxley's
Brave New
World and
Orwell's
1984:
"Orwell
feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the
truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would
become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial
culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies....
[In 1984] people are controlled by
inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by
inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will
ruin us. Huxley feared that what we
love will ruin us."[3]
Postman's insights fit our times. Today's spiritual
war against God, His people and their freedom is being waged on both fronts.
The oppressive assaults
on liberty, privacy and traditional values fit Orwell's vision. The flood of images and
suggestions that distort beliefs, twist values and
trivialize Christianity, fit Huxley's vision.
Yet, while Orwellian oppression
intimidates the masses into silence and conformity, its terror also awakens faith and stirs
resistance.
In contrast, Huxley's "feelies" simply dull our thinking
and distract our attention until myth and trivia become the norm, while
Biblical conviction
becomes an intolerable expression of deviance and
extremism.
The Discarded Mockingjay and Her Sad Reflections
Badly burned in a fiery explosion that killed
her sister, Katniss tries to
understand what happened. The final battles between the Rebel forces and the Capitol have blurred
together in her tormented mind. Who did what? Why? Nothing made sense!
She agonizes over the lies and deceptions -- especially the unconscionable killing of countless innocent children:
"That a Capitol hovercraft manned by rebels
bombed the children to bring a
speedy end to the war. But if this was the case, why didn't the Capitol fire on
the enemy? Children are precious to 13, or so
it has always seemed. Well, not me,
maybe. Once I had outlived my usefulness, I was expendable.
"And why would they do it [bomb the
children] knowing their own medics would likely respond and be taken out
by the second blast? They wouldn’t..."[p.359-360]
But that doesn't make sense either! As she keeps seeking answers to the horrible violence, she suddenly realizes the truth.
"...there’s [Snow's]
assessment of [rebel leader] Coin. What’s irrefutable is that she’s done exactly what he said.
Let the Capitol and the districts run one another into the ground and then
sauntered in to take power."
"I recall Boggs’s response when I admitted I hadn’t put much thought into Snow’s
successor. 'If your immediate answer isn't Coin, then you’re a threat. You’re the face of the rebellion....”
"No, now I am going crazy, slipping into some
state of paranoia.... I badly need help working this out, only everyone I trust is dead."[p.360-361]
When Snow is removed,
Coin, the calculating rebel leader, takes over -- but not for long. Though still medicated, Katniss is well enough to attend
the
inauguration of the new president. For her, the war had not yet ended:
"I...grasp the arrow. Position
it....
I release the string. And President Coin
collapses over the side of the balcony and plunges to the ground. Dead."[p.372-373]
No
Hope?
Placed in solitary confinement, Katniss plots her suicide:
"Why am I not dead? I should be dead. It would be
best for everyone if I were dead.... Jumping to my death’s not an option—the window
glass must be a foot thick. I can make an excellent noose, but there’s
nothing to hang myself from. ...I’m sure I’m being watched
round the clock. For all I know, I’m on live television at this very moment....The surveillance makes almost any suicide attempt impossible....
"What if they’re not going to kill me?
What if they have more plans for me? A new way to remake, train, and use me?...
"Snow thought the Hunger Games were
an
efficient means of control. Coin
thought the parachutes [the explosives that killed the children] would expedite the war. But in the end, who does it
benefit? No one." [p.375-377]
A short trial is held, and Katniss is
released to go "home." A plane brings her back to District 12, then she
travels by cart through her devastated home region:
"As I near the ruins of my old house, the road
becomes thick with carts. The Meadow’s gone, or at least dramatically
altered. A deep pit has been dug, and they’re lining it with bones, a mass
grave for my people...
"We learn to keep busy again....A few hundred others
return because, whatever has happened, this is our home. With the mines closed,
they plow the ash into the earth and plant food. Machines from the Capitol break
ground for a new factory where we will make medicines...."[p.385-388]
War is horrible! But that fact is easily
forgotten by those who have spent their lives in the safety of America. In
contrast, Eastern Europeans who suffered through the consecutive reigns of
Hitler and Stalin may never forget!
(See the
Bombing
of Dresden and
Soviet
depravity)
But There Is Still Hope!
How dark and deceptive the world is without God! The people of Panem think and act like
hopeless people today. Those who dare take a stand against evil may win for a
season.
But freedom without genuine faith never lasts long. Today's
battles against Biblical
Christianity illustrate the problem. And the natural result is cultural
corruption and crumbling liberty. If only our leaders would follow these
guidelines:
"Jesus
said... 'If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'"
John 8:31
The world's pagan cultures have always included some
kind of occult or unbiblical worship, but so has Western culture. The historical list of idols is endless: the sun, moon, trees,
rocks, fictional gods, politicians, kings, talented singers, beautiful entertainers,
military leaders... or simply oneself. [Twist
of Faith, chpt.7]
Today's blend of human imagination and digital
communication is fast multiplying that list. Do you
wonder how many hours a week the average teen spends with his mind immersed in
digital fantasy worlds featuring man-made idols that can be manipulated? How
prepared will he or she be to handle the challenges ahead?
Alger
Hiss co-authored of the UN
Charter. The blueprint for America's replacement was
written over sixty years
ago, but few ordinary Americans saw the danger. After all, our media and entertainment
industries are masters at distracting the masses and creating feel-good fantasy
versions of a Brave New World or the more Orwellian Hunger Games.
Huxley and Orwell illustrate two different
kinds of seduction and tyranny. A seducer will blind
and deceive us, while the tyrant may control our bodies but not our minds.
Orwell's totalitarianism may seem more deadly, but Huxley's "feelies"
and trivia is a far greater threat to clear thinking, moral values, biblical
faith and the strength of our nation.
In other words, what Huxley described in Brave New World
laid the foundation for today's amoral choices, sensual
seductions, occult deceptions and rising Orwellian tyranny.
The pattern -- not the details --of
Israel's ancient history (on the right) will continue until the wonderful
moment when our Lord returns.
"Therefore we do not
lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the
inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory..." 2
Corinthians 4:16-18
"For the Lord Himself will
descend from heaven.... And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we
who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the
Lord." 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
1. George Orwell, 1984
[also titled Nineteen Eighty-Four], published in 1949.
www.crossroad.to/Excerpts/books/transformation/orwell.htm
2. Suzanne Collin, Mockingjay
(Scholastic, 2012)
3. Neil Postman, Amusing
Ourselves to Death (NY: Viking Penguin, Inc., 1985), vii-viii.
4.
[See
Spiritual Warfare, Part 3: Hating
Truth and Primed for Deception!]
See also
Hunger Games, Book 1, What's
So Good About Evil?
Book 2, The Orwellian
Theme Behind the Movie
A Chronology of the UN: The
Revolutionary Steps to Global Tyranny
Spiritual Warfare, Part 3: Hating Truth and Primed for Deception
The Armor of God
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© Berit Kjos, 2012 (but feel free to
copy it)
