My family recently watched the hottest movie in the country, Hunger Games. The movie is based on the first book of a trilogy authored by Suzanne Collins.
The movie is a hit with the younger generation as evidenced by the members of my son's 5th grade class who have previously read the trilogy as part of a class reading program and they could not wait to see the movie. The best-selling trilogy, published by Scholastic has developed a massive global following of all ages. Hunger Games has spent more than 180 consecutive weeks on the New York Times bestseller list since its publication in September 2008, and has also appeared consistently on USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller list.
Collins credits her inspiration for the trilogy to the gladiator games from ancient Rome. However, after viewing the movie for the first 10 minutes, the anti-Agenda 21 themes are both numerous and obvious. Collins is clearly trying to avoid the blacklisting which would follow such an obvious anti-New World Order collectivist theme by solely citing the Romans as her only inspiration.
The movie takes place in a futuristic, fictional country called Panem, that is located in what was once North America (Union) which was destroyed by some unknown apocalyptic event. The country is divided into 12 districts which went into rebellion against the autocratic rule of the central government.
Panem consists of a wealthy Capitol and twelve surrounding, poorer districts. The people of the featured District 12, as well as the other 11 surviving districts live in abject poverty devoid of any semblance of technology. There can be little doubt that the herding of the population into 12 densely populated urban centers, in which the collective carbon footprint of the commoners has been so dramatically reduced, represents the highest goals and ideals of Agenda 21 in a manner which would even serve to satisfy Al "Global Warming" Gore.
As punishment for the previous rebellion against the Capitol, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18, from each district, are selected through an annual lottery to participate in the Hunger Games, an event in which the participants (i.e. so-called "tributes") must fight, to the death, until only one remains alive.
There is a strong mitigating factor which influences the odds for being selected to participate in the games, and that factor is food. It is interesting to note that the areas surrounding the 12 districts are filled with plentiful game to hunt and eat. However, the government expressly forbids venturing into the pristine wilderness (i.e. Wildlands and biodiversity areas) to hunt because the central government wants to utilize food as a population control instrument through the complete management of the distribution of all food. The more food rations a family obtains from the government, the more times the family’s teenage children are entered into the lottery, thereby increasing their teenagers chances for induction into the lethal Hunger Games.
A distinct United Nations Agenda 21 theme is readily portrayed as the viewer quickly learns that Panem is organized into 12 districts which is an ubiquitous parallel reference to the United Nations decree passed, in 1972, which demanded that the United States must reorganize into 10 super regions. Immediately, President Richard Nixon issued Executive Order # 11647 on February 14, 1972, which fulfilled the U.N. order as these 10 regions were created and, today, await activation in which all local governmental control will be rendered obsolete.
The plot centers around the heroine and hero from District 12, Katniss and Peeta, who are taken to the Capitol to compete in the Hunger Games in a high speed bullet train which travels through the utopian Agenda 21 Wildlands consisting of vast expanses of absolutely barren land. The Capitol city is where the elite 1%, with all their wealth and technologically advanced toys, reside. The Hunger Games participants are awestruck at the technological marvels which have been withheld from the masses in the outlying districts in a kind of "rules for thee, but not for me" bifurcated society. The Agenda 21 symbolism is striking and undeniable.
The Hunger Games District 12 representative, Effie Trinket, utters the catch phrase of the movie just before she chooses the unlucky pair to represent their district in the games when she states "May the odds be ever in your favor." This catch phrase is both descriptive and ironic. The lives of the district inhabitants have been reduced to the whim of the state and also to the laws of chance. In Panem, similar to other autocratic regimes, the spirit of self-determination is very limited by design.
In a particularly telling exchange between Seneca, the Hunger Games administrator and Panem's President Snow, played magnificently by Donald Sutherland, the symbol of Panem’s governmental despotism, reveals the true purpose behind the games as he asks Seneca, “Why do you think we have a winner?”
Seneca asks, “What do you mean?”
Snow repeats, “I mean, why do we have a winner?” Snow answers his own question “Hope.”
Expressing bewilderment Seneca says, “Hope?”
Snow declares that “Hope is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective, a lot of hope is dangerous. Spark is good too as long as it is contained.”
Sutherland's character personifies the evil Trojan Horse nature of Agenda 21 as it promises self-preservation through the sublimation of one's own personal goals and desires through the unqualified embracing of the collective, communitarian will of the global masters.
As the Agenda 21 cancer spreads throughout America, it is clear that we are handing to our children a society with very limited hope. In an interview with ABC, Sutherland echoes this sentiment as he states that "Everyone needs to see this film if they have had enough of the oppression...This is the most important script I have ever read...It can be a catalyst for young people. Young people can find themselves in this movie......It is the 99% that needs to see this film because it can be a catalyst for change."
Sutherland is correct in that parents have been provided a rare, mainstream originated opportunity to educate their children on the innate need human beings have to live in freedom. For example, I asked my son what meaning he took from the movie and he stated that "This movie is about the government squeezing the freedom out of the people," and "We need to do something about it."
Hunger Games stands as the third largest opening in movie history. The fact that the movie has appeared in this form, with this message at this time is indeed lucky. Or is luck simply a matter of where effort, action and courage meets opportunity?
When we effectively teach our children that freedom is the space which lies between our prison bars and that we can collectively control how wide the space is between the bars, then we can truly begin the arduous journey back to the point where we force government to honor the precepts of freedom contained in the Bill of Rights. And only then, will Americans force the odds to be ever in our favor.
Dave Hodges
http://www.thecommonsenseshow.weebly.com
