On Tyrants & Tributes : Real World Lessons From The Hunger Games discussion

This shouldn't be a platform to pick apart each others' philosophical views, however if you're curious as to why someone holds a certain ideology or interpretation than we encourage you to ask :)

If you'd like to debate the merits and shortcomings of your philosophical views, feel free to start a "Philosophical Debate" thread.

I'm not sure if this counts as my "political philosophy" or if it just points to my conspiracy theorist leanings, but I think of both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire in light of the culmination of Mockingjay; I found the entire thing to be a commentary of how our current government system and culture "uses" youth to manipulate us. I finished reading the series around the time of the Newtown tragedy, and the way that tragedy was used by figures on both sides of the gun control/rights argument immediately made me think of what I had read, especially the latter part of Mockingjay. (Those of you who have read the whole series will likely know what I'm speaking of, but I'll refrain from spelling it out in case of spoilers for those who have not.)

I am very close to libertarian views so I am for limited government and civil liberties. When I saw the Hunger Games movie I was extremely interested because of the constant surveillance. I wanted to know in detail what happened in the during the war before everyone moved into those districts to cause such a horrid practice of the Hunger Games.

I tend to hold libertarian/classical liberal views as I believe that any government's purpose is to protect the citizens' rights above all else. I tend to lead toward a Constitutional republican form of government to protect those rights. So that's the viewpoint I saw the Hunger Games from.
SPOILER ALERT: What really made me think was that in the overbearing tyranny of Panem, the people didn't try uprising again after the years of their children being slaughtered on national TV, until two kids decided to rebel on TV. It just shows how much people will bear before taking action.

We tend to be too much looking at politics, we let politicians and political parties lead our life.

So instead to be serve by government and administration we are rule by them.
In some point we stop to be free citizens to become vassals of our rulers.

I think we need less rules, less State and take over the steering wheel of our destiny and do and then live and let live.

I am only in high school, so I am not even old enough to vote yet, but I do try to keep up with todays politics. But with the book, I think the government rein over the districts is pretty harsh. I'm so glad we don't have to live like that...but wait...where are we going...the government listens to all our conversations, reads all our texts, facebook and twitter posts. Honestly, facts show, in some ways our government is heading toward the government expressed in the Hunger Games novels and I don't like it at all.

But honestly, it didn't affect my interpretation of the book, because when I read the story, I didn't know a whole lot about government and I didn't keep up with the latest information like I do now, so it was really just another book to read for me. Except for the fact that it is my favorite book. :)

I've always leaned toward republican but lately have incorporated a lot of democratic beliefs. In general, I feel the government should protect its citizen's and their basic rights. I'm willing to sacrifice some of my liberty for protection. There is a fine line and I do see the government stepping in too much in different areas. For example, everyone should have equal opportunities to learn and work; however, it shouldn't be shoved down their throats. We should get to choose our path to whatever our definition of success is. The control in the book was a bit too strong yet I didn't feel motivated to respond or do anything about it just yet.

I tend more to the left than to the right. If you were to ask me I would say that I am a liberal. However I have to clarify because of the problems in mainstream liberalism (which all mainstream philosophies have I think). I agree with liberalism insofar as it is anti- imperialistic, intersectional, inclusive of all (meaning not white supremacist and not blinded by US- centrism) and feminist. Feminism is important to me - because as is shared in the book Half the Sky there is a Chinese saying that states “Women hold up half the sky.” We are half of humanity.
On an "isidewith" survey my results were something like 97% Green Party, ~70-80% for democrat and socialist, 50% Libertarian and 0% Republican. This was a survey on 2013 current issues.
The events and issues of the Hunger Games trilogy surely do resonate with my politics. I think I expressed some of my thoughts on this in the “Themes” thread but to avoid getting into the specifics of politics I just wanted to take this moment to express a thought Iʼve had. Many people of many different political persuasions have found things in the books to hold on to. I think this indicates that we have many more goals in common than we would realize. I think we donʼt always agree on the how, but I think we do agree on the what, and most of the why.
I think this is an important step toward progress, and shows that even though we disagree we can come together and find common ground.