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=)
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