The Hunger Games and Societal Collapse as a Strategy
The moral case for wanting to destroy society at its core.
Everything collapses eventually.
No matter what you do or how hard you try, everything comes apart on a long enough timeline. Even something as powerful as a country or entire society. There are whole books on the subject of things like Easter Island, the Roman Empire, the British Empire, and other real world civilizations. People spend their whole lives studying it, trying to understand how and why it happened. Usually, the reason why is because they're concerned that the society they're currently living in is on the brink of collapse. They worry about losing everything they have and what the consequences might be.
It's a fundamental fear that everyone has very much on par with a fear of death.
Yet the other side of the attempt to understand how societies collapse is not to avoid it, but to bring it about. For those who are at the bottom end of society and sometimes those who are at the top, the current way they're living is seen as unsustainable. Something about it is worthy of destruction. Whether it's inequality or racism or political divisions, they have their reasons for wanting to see it come to an end. Those who do will often work towards such a goal with the belief that they are helping make the world a better place.
The Hunger Games is fundamentally about people with such a mindset. Whether it's The Capital and President Snow who profited from the collapse of the previous civilization, or the rebels and their attempt to bring down the power of The Capital and the 13 Districts, and even the Game Master and those who run the titular games. They all have something to gain from destroying the system they currently live under. For many, it's a strategy they've implemented with specific goals in mind. Of course, the problem is that none of them really know what's going to come afterwards.
Some do have designs on simply replacing the old system with a very similar one, all that changes is the people who are in charge of the new system. Others want to believe that a better system can be put into place. Perhaps a democratic system if not a somewhat problematic one. What they might not understand is that for such a system to function, people have to buy into the new system. And many of them are heavily invested in the one currently in place. They don't have a reason to buy into a new system. At least not yet. They need to be convinced.
However, many don't really know what the new system they're trying to implement will look like. They just want to tear down no matter what comes next. So it's hard to convince people to get on board with a new system if they've learned to function in the current one.
The question is, what system do you want to live under? The new one or the old one?
Take the time to figure out what type of system you believe in and check out The Hunger Games series on Netflix or on Amazon.
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