"The Hunger Games": Authority & Victims

The Hunger Games is out, and pretty freaking good. 

Who’s really in charge, here…?

From The Filmblog at The Guardian (UK):

Our version of Big Brother, unlike Orwell’s, is the product of the free choice of both its viewers and participants. It wasn’t created by corporate monsters or the military-industrial complex to keep us in our place. If, as The Hunger Games seems to imply, reality TV is an evil opiate for the masses, we’re eagerly doping ourselves. Panem’s problem is straightforward compared with our own: sadly, the failings of our free society are our own fault, and can only be addressed on that basis.

Nonetheless, the film sticks to the comforting message that misery stems from the actions of the authorities. Its protagonists are the innocent victims of a system that they’re powerless to influence. Its target audience, the young, are invited to pride themselves on the blameless nobility of their age-group, but not expected to interrogate the realities of their world, or question their own passion for The X Factor.

The anonymous blogger here points out an artistic / philosophical weakness in the film (and the book, I think): the picture of tyranny in it is vastly oversimplified.

“Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to…to show the Capitol they don’t own me. That I’m more than just a piece in their Games,” says Peeta Mellamark.   This is the struggle of the victim against the system, truly enough. 

But the blogger doesn’t go far enough:

“It says here that ‘religion is the opiate of the masses.’ What do you suppose that means?” ‘it means that Karl Marx hadn’t seen anything yet.”If you reflect for any time at all on entertainment in history, there’s a complex relationship between tyranny and victims.  We collude with authorities, yes…. but are we really growing unaware that the authorities have a vested interest in keeping the population passive? 

Did anybody fail to notice that our collusion in our own inactivity serves somebody very powerful?

Newtonian History

Updated on Monday, January 30, 2012 at 11:59AM by Otter

Let me begin with this:

Unnamed conservative relative compared Newt Gingrich to Churchill.OwOwOw! #MakeItStop

— Riparian Church (@RiparianChurch) January 30, 2012

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Jesus Responds to Rick Perry

Jesus Responds to Rick Perry's "Strong" Ad from DC Pierson

News-Notes: Kim Jong Il, Drew Brees, & Other Apotheoses

Drew Brees looking invincible during a game against the RamsKim Jong Il with his son and heir-apparent, Kim Jong Un, guiding the backward Hermit Kingdom to glorious victory

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Capital Punishment: Troy Davis

I'm a long time vigorous opponent of the death penalty. 

I grew up in a family of lawyers, and one thing that will teach you is that justice is essentially a human instutitution, constructed out of flypaper and chewing-gum wrappers by people who drink too much and have unhappy marriages, or whose romantic natures cloud their judgment. 

Nothing wrong with that.  Best we've got.

But it's nothing to hang a human life on.

Troy Davis: what to say about him?   The best and worst cases have been presented against the state of Georgia.  What ultimately remains to be said is that a government that can't balance its own budget, that can't establish order in a backwoods Middle Eastern region, that can't finally settle its own debt ceiling has permitted a state to end the life of a human being.

So it goes, man.

So it goes.

Just stop it.

Perry and His Religion (or, How To Crucify The Texts Along With Jesus)

Perry Perry SuspiciousPastor Jim Rigby of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas, nails Rick Perry to the wall for his gross exploitation of Christianity.

He points out that the texts that Perry's Right Wing collaborators venerate condemn his prayer event.

Pastor Rigby gets it right.

Perry is not praying to the Christian God for America.  He's praying to a pagan god made in his own image, one that needs Rick Perry to lead America into a bright new day where (coincidentally) God's power will endorse Rick Perry's power. 

Well.

Fuck that noise.

If you pray to God, you need half as many amplifiers, and none of the media.

When you pray to the people to acknowledge and endorse you, well, yeah.  You do like Perry.

Norway Massacre and Reactions To It

I've been following the Norway massacres from a respectful distance: I'm not terribly well-read in Norwegian politics or social currents, and I suspect that a lot of people that have a lot to say on Facebook and Twitter know less than they let on.

But I thought it worth linking this article in Slate on the knee-jerk reactions assuming Islam was beneath it.  There are lots of filthy rooms in other houses.

Money quote:

Now you know how it feels, Ms. Geller. When the terrorist is a Christian—in his own words, a "Crusader" for "Christendom"—and when the preacher to whom he has been linked is you, you suddenly discover the injustice of group blame and guilt by association. The citations you didn't create, the intermediaries you didn't recognize, the transactions you didn't know about, the violent interpretations you didn't condone—these exonerating facts suddenly matter.

Bachmann Of Borg: Prepare To Be Assimilated.

Imagine talking to your friends and spouses that way: "I just want to ask you, Ted, *tsk* that you be Ted in my life.  And I want to tell you *tsk*, Ted, that we give you, Dear Ted, just *tsk* all the glory..."

Personally, if one of my friends talked to me that way, I'd deck them after five minutes.  Die, you son of a whore.

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The Hungary Heart

98 at his death: Archduke Otto of Austria. In fantasy politics, he's the most powerful might-have-been: he would have had the longest reign of any monarch in history had his empire not disintegrated after WW I, and probably been the Holy Roman Emperor if that Empire hadn't been abolished in 1806. Full Name: Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xavier Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius. His heart is Hungarian.As a medievalist, I know too much about European royalty to be overly sentimental about it.  But I think that there's a time and place to tip our hats to the passing of time.  Otto von Habsburg, the last heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, who, having been dispossessed when his empire broke up after World War One, worked hard for a united Europe, died on July 4... perhaps an auspicious (or ironic) day to die.  

The river flows on, but I wish him well on his journey. 

His heart, in accordance with Imperial habit, has been buried separately, in Hungary.

I know.  People have the weirdest ideas, but the symbolism is lovely and ancient if you think about it.

His opposition to both Nazism and Communism might well have been motivated by his belief in the legitimacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire... he certainly was no friend to Nationalism.  But there is a case to be made (and I will not be the one to make it) that the affected nations were more happily situated under Habsburg protection.

Nevertheless: stand down, Watchman.

Jesus And The Republicans

In the mood for your morning truth? 

You can be a Republican and get all this right (I know some who do), but everybody has to start clearing out the delusions in their own house.

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