The Hunger Games and KONY 2012

I'm literally in the middle of reading a scene in Mockingjay, the final book of The Hunger Games, but I had to blog about this.

NOTE: If you haven't finished the series, then I urge you NOT to read the next paragraph, because it may contain spoilers.

So I'm in the part where Katniss, having consented to be the Rebellion's Mockingjay, is being prepped for a propaganda TV spot against the Capitol. Even though she spent the last few weeks holed up in District 13's underground facilities, doing nothing but act moody and confused, the scene calls for her to stand in the middle of a bloody battleground and shout lines to her fellow fighters that they must keep going.

She is supposed to be with the good guys. And yet, they are doing exactly what the Capitol is doing -- brainwashing the masses and justifying their actions through makeup, costumes, fancy film-making and a heart-wrenching (yet staged) storyline.

If this does not sound like KONY 2012 to you, I don't know what does. I'm not saying KONY 2012 is staged, but there is a lot of dramatization involved. And in case you haven't heard, Invisible Children, the creators of the KONY 2012 viral video, has just released a new spot: KONY 2012: Part II - Beyond Famous.

The video is a direct response to accusations that KONY 2012 is nothing short of slacktivism. Now that Kony is famous, it is time to take action.

Can I just share how creeped out I am that Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games world is so strikingly similar to what is happening today? Numerous articles have been written about the series' themes -- dystopia, government control, voyeurism, big-brotherism, desensitization -- but most examples center on reality TV.

However, these themes exist beyond that genre and it doesn't always have to be the government or capitalists who are "controlling" us. Quite different from the Capitol's Hunger Games, KONY 2012 is much more akin to District 13's propaganda video.

And to me, that's scary. Because what if everything we believed in, our values, our morals, were never really ours, but were just handed to us, wrapped in pretty packages that pull our heartstrings and make us think we're doing the right thing? (I'm not even going to start with religion...). Isn't that even more disturbing than loving reality TV?

Anyway, that's it. "Rant" over. I'm gonna go finish that scene now.

xoxo
Mae