MOCKINGJAY INSPIRES THAI PROTESTERS Last year, actor Donald Sutherland, who plays the role of President Snow in the Hunger Games movies, remarked that he wanted the Hunger Games film series to inspire a kind of revolt here in the United States. His wish has recently come true...but, perhaps more appropriately for the theme of the series, in the impoverished nation of Thailand rather than in the wealthy United States: https://youtube/watch?v=8JPAubYRLHQ I wanted to post this in part to highlight the positive social impact that film CAN have, and also to respond to those who in the past have said that the Hunger Games books and movies have a negative social impact. Here is a tangible example to the contrary: inspiring an oppressed people to rise up in political action against a military dictatorship! (These same Thai protesters, incidentally, were the ones who in 2010 launched the global squares occupation movement that later moved to Middle East, where it became known as the Arab Spring, and then to the Western world, where it became known as the Occupy movement.) I think the growing influence of fiction amongst left wing protesters worldwide is an interesting development that might merit discussion as well. The anarchist cyber-guerilla group Anonymous has become famous worldwide for its use of the Guy Fawkes mask from the V for Vendetta comic books and 2005 movie by the Wachowski brothers (who were also responsible for the Matrix Trilogy). But since Anonymous has opted to take the side of the reactionary (anti-democracy, pro-king/military) yellow shirts vis-a-vis Thai events, the progressive red shirts (pro-democracy economic populists) have found themselves in need of a different source of inspiration. It looks like they have chosen Katniss Everdeens three-finger salute from the Hunger Games books and movies. Where past generations of leftists might have brandished symbols of real-world inspirational revolutionaries (e.g. Che Guevara, Mao Zedong), the current, Internet-raised generation seems to find greater inspiration from the world of fiction. I think thats interesting. I wonder of it symbolizes their more fully egalitarian views or whether its symptomatic of a lack of inspiring, contemporary real-world examples of what we seek or both.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 17:59:30 +0000
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