Sunday, March 25, 2012

Hunger Games and Mockingjays.

his face is earnest, smiling but intense. he sips his tea quickly and checks me into the hotel. something's off, though.

he wants to say something. he nervously shifts.

is he searching for the words? no, I don't think so. he knows the words, but he's cautious. a lifetime of knowing the walls have ears will breed cautiousness.

finally, it comes:

"we would have freedom, one day. as you have."

a Rebellion was growing. Syria, 2009, and he couldn't have been a day over 20. but he was not alone. in my short 2 week stay, i met man after man, all college age or slightly older, who at any opportunity would speak of what i had, and what they wanted to share.

i had no way of knowing what was growing, what resolve was coursing through their veins, their anger at an oppressive man and his government ready to spill over into the streets.

i could not visit my young friend now if i wanted - yet i think often of that place, and of those men.

i do not pretend to know Suzanne Collins' inspirations in writing her Hunger Games trilogy. i very much should like to someday. finishing the 2nd book this afternoon, Catching Fire, i realize that the horror of the Hunger Games has been repeated time and again.

In Real Life.

for example, how could Mrs. Collins' choices in naming key Capitol residents of Panem not be coincidental? Seneca. Cinna. Octavia. these are classic Roman names, from the days of the Emperors.

in 1st century Rome, gladiators were corralled from all corners and provinces of the Empire. some were violent criminals, though many more were unwilling participants in the cruel spectacle of Imperial might. it is well-attested, for example, that Christians who refused to worship the Emperor found themselves in the arena, fighting off wild animals or, perhaps worse, each other, in a Battle Royale. all this to satiate the bloodlust of the citizens in the stands.

the worst, most exploitative reality TV has nothing on the gruesomeness of the Gladiatorial Games.

Panem, the wealthy and oppressive power centre of the Hunger Games, has existed many times over. Rome is but one example. human sacrifice has often been used as a method of control over a populace, to manipulate would-be insurgents into submission.

a spectacle, a reminder of the powerlessness of the people, and the might of Empire.

bread and circuses - keep the populace barely above starving, give them spectacle. give them blood. give them distraction as they are oppressed.

yet, the Mockingjays always surface, don't they? (my apologies to those not yet ingratiated to the Hunger Games mythology. go do yourself a favour, grab the book, and clear your schedule.) in Rome, they surfaced many times. Spartacus rallied his fellow slaves, escaped from captivity, and led an insurrection thousands strong. his story has been a rallying point for countless uprisings since. or think of Leonidas, who led his 300 Spartans against the might of the Persian Empire, sacrificing every last man on the beaches of Thermopalaye as an affront against Empire. or the account of Daniel and his 3 friends, thrown to the fire when they stood against a tyrannical command.

and today...we have the Arab Spring. Egypt, Tunisia, Syria. our own country, the U.S.A., of course had its very beginnings as Mockingjays tossed tea from British ships and penned the framework of a new civilization deep into the night.

stay with me - this is going somewhere.

i submit that our common consciousness has the blueprint of the Mockingjay written upon it. Mrs. Collins' story, her themes, for all their entertainment value are hardly original. rather, I believe she gives us a version of an Eternal Burning which each of us is stamped with.

what other of our stories tell us of unlikely heroes or heroines, rising from obscurity or powerlessness to take on Empire? to give injustice and tyranny a run for their money. Star Wars (the good ones), Braveheart, Gladiator, 300, The Princess Bride, The Matrix, Lord of the Rings...perhaps you've heard of these.

and go back thousands of years through our collective literature, our common stories...this story in particular is told again and again.

to be sure, not every revolution is noble. not all rallying cries are as well thought-out as some. revolution often fails, or morphs into something less than its potential. but we are pre-programmed.

we come out of the box, some assembly required, but ready to fight tyranny and to stand for the oppressed. if we obey the deep calling within, our wiring, our imprint. we are born ready.

if we pay attention to our stories, we are ready.

to be sure, there will always be evil - until there isn't. there will, also, always be those who would grab power for their own and twist those under their "control" with their own version of the Hunger Games. until there aren't.

but there will also, always, be those like my young friend in a shelled, bullet-ridden, terrifying province of Empire. those who see what is on the horizon and decide before it happens to be ready to stand.

may this brief media sensation, Mrs. Collins' books, the movie, be a reminder for us all. to search for the Mockingjays in our midst and to push them forward, to encourage them with bringing Heaven to Earth by ending oppression and giving a voice to the voiceless.

this Eternal Burning is sometimes accomplished through violence - only a fool would ignore this. but, far more often as the true stories are told, the pen indeed is victorious. wit, courage, and resolve often succeed where threats would fail. a small gesture may contain the spark that ignites an unstoppable change towards redemption.

long after the book is closed, and the movie comes out on DVD - i for one am thankful for the reminder to tend to our Mockingjays.