Upcoming and highly anticipated hunger Games prefix Song of songbirds and snakes It couldn’t come at a more poignant time in the world. Social media has opened the doors to more free conversations and safe, open thought than at any time in history.
like hunger Games They enjoyed a brief stint on Netflix in March, during which they dominated the platform’s top ten films; Longtime fans have rekindled interest in the books and movies, diving deep into the complex and thoughtful world-building of Suzanne Collins. These thought-provoking analyzes have helped bring to light more than just the layers of the fictional world, but how that world functions as a mirror to our reality.
Despair over capitalist systems, frustration with the worldwide cost of living, and growing opposition toward overconsumption all create important debates among activists around the world. Ideas that might once have been shut down by conspiracy theory nonsense or inappropriate extremism are quickly gaining traction amid open conversation on platforms like TikTok, through which growing numbers of anti-capitalists and advocates are able to organize with a previously unimaginable vision.
Whereas in the past activists could be shut down before their messages spread to the masses, now ideas can wrap around the world many times in the space of a few hours. Being openly anti-capitalist in the US just a few decades ago would have raised an immediate red flag not only to the authorities but to your community as well.
While social ostracism was expected, in extreme cases it could have resulted in your arrest or at least an investigation. However, the Internet cannot be monitored as easily as multi-tiered media, and figures show that this has turned some important political tides. This article by Business Insider India delves a little deeper into some examples of anti-capitalist content on TikTok, but much of the content on the platform goes further than these videos in scrutinizing every aspect of what we’ve accepted as normal life.
Confronted with companies marketing masses of products to consumers in order to homogenize different aspects of their existence into a brandable lifestyle (always stylized with the ‘core’ suffix – cottagecore, angelcore, fairycore, royalcore, etc.), some TikTok users have responded with “corecore”.
It seems silly at first, and admittedly, many of the trends and formats on TikTok don’t translate well to anyone who isn’t well versed in the app’s language, language structure, and subcultures. The so-called “corecore” should not be dismissed in haste, however, because its content has been successful in inspiring disillusionment with the state of having someone constantly trying to sell you something everywhere you go. As these videos point out, seemingly independent choices still often lead to someone selling you something — whether it’s a product, lifestyle, or idea.
For every strict, calorie-restricting fitness creator out there, there’s one who’s body-positive and moderate; For every account that curates its feed to fit the old money aesthetic, there’s another that gives you minimalist vibes, ultimate luxury, sultry bohemian, or modern and chic. Corecore videos, with their fast-paced visuals and often energetic music, capture this information overload in a visual context as consumers are constantly drawn in one direction or another, to this fad or that — and how it’s all too easy to get sucked into.
Intertwining these kinds of images that highlight unremitting rapid social propaganda with contrasting images of major global events such as protests, military conflicts, labor exploitation and the often-ignored grinding poverty around the world highlight just how lost many of us are in commercial distractions. This new awareness causes many young viewers to see more than a reflection of their reality in a fantasy hunger Games films. With the upcoming prequel detailing, the games have evolved from straightforward sadism to a contest of excess and absurdity paired with occasional violence.
The horrors of children being forced to fight to the death on television are transformed into high-octane entertainment for the citizens of the Capitol when it presents itself with style, glow, anticipation, and most of all, opportunities for audience participation. when hunger Games The trilogy debuted on the big screen, perhaps it seemed such a fumble Elusive, but it never was.
In fact, we are already ignoring the deaths of children every day for our own pleasure when we choose to consume immoral commodities that have been produced using child labor in underdeveloped regions. A child whose life is stolen from working in an H&M sweatshop is as abstract to a consumer who has just bought a nice pair of jeans as the life of a neighborhood kid is to the citizens of the Capitol.
Parallels with history
the hunger Games is an absolute masterclass in drawing historical parallels in a work of fiction. Suzanne Collins weaves hidden meanings into the names of several characters, asserting that every bit of harsh social commentary made in the series is entirely intentional. Collins draws on the mistreatment of the poor in ancient Rome, even with the name of the fictional country Panem.
Panem is Latin for “bread and circuses,” a term attributed to the Roman poet Juvenal, which refers to the superficial appeasement offered by an authoritarian government to its citizens to distract them from political wrongs and systemic failures. The idea of bagels and circuses is just as relevant today as it was in Juvenal’s time, when arguably our own form of bagel circuses are reality TV slicks, celebrity gossip, and fast-paced commercial trends.
There is indeed an unsettling similarity between the children of Panem fighting to the death with the reward of feeding their community if they win, and the unsettling kind of poignant videos in which money is given to the poor only after making them play foolish games that highlight their financial desperation (eg, Mr. Beast).
One of the biggest similarities between the world of the hunger Games And current world events, however, are the environmental cautionary tale woven into the story. The formation of Panem as a state is described as resulting from an ecological crisis that led to the decline and eventual collapse of powerful communities.
As rising sea levels cut into the American coasts leaving what Collins imagines as the Panem frontier, authoritarianism has filled the power vacuum left by what was assumed to be a climate catastrophe. With scientists estimating that we have about a decade or less to work together to prevent climate catastrophe, fans are seeing a renewed interest in the hunger Games As a harbinger of the kind of dystopia we could find ourselves in not too far in the future.
What a dystopia would really look like
All this being said, will the dystopian near future really look anything like horrors Panem? If it seems too far-fetched, it may be because there is a severe lack of social mobility—except for what already exists within our society. With the cost of living higher than ever and inflation soaring while paychecks never seem to be quite in line, social mobility is already becoming steadily more difficult. If forced labor is unlikely to return, it is important to note that it never really went away.
While slavery was abolished in America in 1863, there were approximately 50 million slaves worldwide, according to Antislavery International and World Estimates of Modern Slavery. This slavery is more hidden than the dehumanization of forced laborers, which we read about in history books, but which is more present and sinister than ever. Indeed, there is something to be said for American slavery and whether it was truly abolished, or reimagined in the contemporary penal system. With almost every other aspect of Panem society that seems so far removed from where we are today, there are current parallels.
Notably, the most obvious of these is the killing of children on television for sport. Sure, this kind of graphic violence hardly sounds like something we’ll be encouraging en masse soon, but aren’t we really ready on some level to be able to internalize the concept? Our entertainment is often gratuitously violent, and the constant news of mass shootings, massacres, and disasters made the concept of innocent deaths less shocking with every headline.
When the massacre of twenty children in their classrooms can be used as fodder for arguments about gun control and allowed to fade from the conversation amid the persistence of gun violence, we are no longer a society at all remote from harming children for the sake of vested interests. The truth is that the collapse of Western society will not necessarily evolve into something reminiscent of a post-apocalyptic survival movie. Apocalypse can simply mean the end of the world as we know it, and it does not have to be through categorical destruction giving way to a rebirth that creates distinct eras.
History shows us that tyranny is often the product of slowly introducing certain conditions so that people never come to the painful conclusion that things are not as they should be. Too often, people perceive themselves to be the least fortunate among us while the privileged (and thus the people with the power to make a difference) passively accept the way things are – just as the citizens of the hinterland stir up rebellion while the professional regions staunchly support the capital, though. Although the children of the two regions are victims of the games.
It’s the slow, creepy nature of how authoritarianism takes over our lives that makes movies like it hunger Games And Song of songbirds and snakes very important. These types of films can hold a mirror to our society and invite us to examine our tolerance before it is too late. The renewed interest in the trilogy and the upcoming prequel is a timely reflection of a world slowly learning to ask questions and see things for what they are for all of us.
