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Today’s Blog Post
The Hunger Games, The Capital and The Internet SOPA and PIPA
I just completed the third book of Suzanne Collins’ – “Mockingjay”. All I can say is that it is great conclusion to the Trilogy of “The Hunger Games”. The visual images in my head and memory now are absolutely etched so deeply that they will never leave! And I mean NEVER LEAVE!!
For those that have not read this Trilogy I will quickly describe the story for you.
It happens in the future when the place called North America now becomes one big country following mankind’s destruction of his earlier world. The whole area was divided into 13 Districts and a Capital Area. The Capital was in charge of everything and depended on all of the 13 Districts to make it possible for the Capital to live very comfortably.
There was an uprising against the Capital at one point. Most of the Districts took part in this. The revolution was put down after District 13 was completely destroyed and everyone was killed.
The story plays out as the horrific excesses and absolutely terrible attitude of the Capital People deeply affect the ordinary people in each District.
This horrific attitude of the Capital is shown once a year in memory of what the Districts tried to do against it.
Once a year there is a “Reaping Day” where all the Citizens of each District gather in the Square at a specific time. All the children’s names of each District are placed in two draw buckets… girl’s names in one… boy’s names in the other.
The whole process is televised for the whole country to see.
One girl’s name and one boy’s name is drawn from each container… in each District – one after another.
It is a moment that every District Family despises and is more than fearful of – it is the day that the President is reminding every District that the Capital is all powerful and that they should never have revolted against the Capital.
From the 12 Districts there is finally 24 names drawn – 12 girls and 12 boys – from the ages between 12 and 18.
The children are then whisked away to the Capital where they are prepared to enter a Games arena. This special arena is prepared differently each year, with different obstacles for the players that enter it.
The players of course are the 24 children from all the Districts.
In the Games arena the children then have to kill each other off until there is only one is still standing alive. That child is the victor of these games.
Their entire world is shown every detail of how they play the game – and especially of how they die. Every detail!!!
None of the Capital Children are ever entered into these terrible games – only kids from the poor Districts. It is the Capital’s way to continually remind the Districts that you should never have opposed the Capital.
At the 74 year of the games one child is chosen in District 12. Her name is Prim – she is 12. Her sister steps forward and rescues her, by taking her place in the draw. Her name is Katniss Everdeen.
Now I stop my description before I spoil the story for those that might read it.
The story is about what happens when the very powerful Government dictates what happens to ordinary people. It shows what can take place when free thought is no longer allowed. It shows how horrific it can be when your children are forced to kill each other – and you are forced to watch every bloody and gory detail… and how each family suffers afterward – forever.
When I researched the background and the story behind this Trilogy I read about Suzanne Collins on Wikipedia, the online, people’s growing encyclopedia.
Suzanne was watching the Reality TV shows like the Survivor series. Then she would flip channels to the War in Iraq, or the War in Afghanistan… and each time she could see the horrible ways the kids of her country were being killed in a War Games arena… that was not a Game anymore.
The kids she (and all of us) watched killing themselves and others wee usually from poor families across the USA… and they were often killing people from very poor places in far away countries – all in the NAME of PEACE!... and Democracy.
And as both Suzanne and all of us watch… the decisions are all coming from a Capital called Washington – with one man in charge of it all – he is called a “President”.
And one man… by the name of Resident George Bush declared war on Iraq and an evil leader after a very evil man called Osama bin Laden had bombed the great financial Capital and its Twin Towers. That man then ordered the kids of the USA into Afghanistan and the ongoing hunt for Osama bin Laden.
The present President has stopped that War after thousands upon thousands of children (adult and actual children) of families were murdered in front of TV Cameras.
With The Hunger Games Trilogy Suzzane Collins, for me, captured the essence of the last ten years of stupidity in the World today!
I will not forget what she wrote and what the story is really about. Nor will any of the parents of the kids that died.
So why write of this today…?
Today has been declared a 24 hour protest on the Internet by some major players across the world. The SOPA and PIPA stuff going on in the Capital is affecting us in Canada as well!
My favorite Wikipedia is now completely gone. It is blacked out today and you cannot get any info from it.
Tucows is also gone with a blackout as well as a number of other Internet companies that I connect with.
Why?
Well in the Capital called Washington the leaders are pushing through orders that will possibly kill much of what is happening on the Internet. People will never be able to share files, read stories, research stories and information again if the Capital makes and passes this new decision and legislation!
It is generally now known as the SOPA and PIPA problem.
This smells way too much like The Hunger Games – or the beginning of the Hunger Games set up.
Why would I care what the Capital says of does. I live in a faraway place called Canada. We are like a District 12 in The Hunger Games. The Capital could care less what we think – as long as we cooperate with them.
Whoa! Does this ever affect YOU and ME! And it has affected us way more than you can possibly imagine.
Talk to the family two doors down from me that lost a WAR HERO in Afghanistan in 2008. Their Canadian son died along with thousands of other sons and daughters from North America – in order that one President`s appetite for revenge would be satisfied.
Am I for Terrorists? Not at all. But in the same light I hate a Capital that make decisions that affect the whole world and kill their children!
For me… the shutting down of the Internet services in this fashion to show “District’s” displeasure… with Capital decisions… in 2012… is way to fresh in my mind after reading this series.
But the absolutely horrific thought is… my grandkids are growing quickly… and could well be drawn into the next Hunger Games – that may come from whatever stupid and powerful President is elected to the Capital!
Is the thinking that I am experiencing real or unreal? Are the nightmares that I am having now – from a Book or Real Life?
And then about now – one or more of my readers will poo poo what I have written here… and declare Lincoln to have lost it.
Well…. Let me ask you… What was life like before September 9, 2001? Has crossing the Border between Canada and the USA been easier? And why is our Prime Minister(President) so close to the Presidents of the Caiptal.
Yikes… this is way too close to home for me! Who am I in this Book?
Naw… – I am not political at all! But I am related to a former President of that good old USA… and that relative of mine lived in that Capital’s Presidential Palace. That relative of mine was severely allergic to lead poisoning… and when they shot him for what he was doing… it was a real story for all my family. He died!
Read the trilogy of The Hunger Games and then tell me what you think.
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Resource:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/01/17/f-sopa-canada.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more
