James’s Comments (group member since Dec 16, 2013)

James’s comments from the On Tyrants & Tributes : Real World Lessons From The Hunger Games group.

It is a good choice for depicting district 12 because many of todays urbanites fear a loss of electricity, running water, cable tv. To many the way of life chosen by those in the AP is a horror…. choice is the key difference though. Those in district 12 do not have the option to come down the mountain

If asked I think people would say they fear them equally. but in practice many seem unaware that "too much" government is being imposed on them.

Too few see government as the criminal it is, and are too quick to in list one treat to protect them from another

There may be a line, but what does it profit us to avoid it if said avoidance causes us to loose?

History tends to look kindly on those who won, and poorly on those who lost. We have to dig deep into history to learn the sins of American forces during WWI, and the civil war. but the sins of the Germans and Japanese are laid bare for us

The tactics used by George Washington's army, what was to become known as gorilla warfare, were considered by many at the time to be acts of terrorism. But had Swampfox not shot british officers from behind cover and concealment would we not still be british subjects?

Can we really blame weaker oppressed peoples for using any means necessary to overcome more powerful tyrants?

If we reduce it to an individual level, what type of force would we say is to vicious or to brutal for …. say a woman to use in defense of rape? Or a parent in defense of their children?

and if we say they should use any means available to them, then why should it be different for an oppressed group?

Nathaniel wrote: "The theme that caught my eye most dramatically was that of righteous leadership, that is, why does one person have the right to rule another. This theme is also dominant in Game of Thrones and the ..."

Would you say more about how these shows make it clear that some form of leadership and oversight is necessary?

What I took away was evidence that oversight is corrupt, that all government is born of violence and aggression, and that the state is too dangerous to tolerate

the most relevant theme seems to be government's intrusion into our everyday life. we are raised to think that we live in a free country, and in many ways we do live in the freest nation of our time. Yet our freedom has been diminishing generation by generation

In the hunger games the capital uses force and fear to control the residents of the districts. while at the same time they realize complete control is not possible and so they turn a blind eye to a certain amount of deviation. This allows them to use this illusion of freedom as leverage. We see this when the new peacekeepers are brought in and the "black market" which had been previously tolerated was destroyed. It is also shown when Catnis is allowed to sell game to the peace keepers. When the peacekeepers purchase game from the residents they are acknowledging a "crime" they are pretending does not exist

Our own rapidly increasing number of laws and regulations punishable by more than a year in prison is a parallel. the federal government has admitted to have lost count of how many incarceratable offenses there are. This essentially leaves citizens free only at the mercy of state

we see another similarity–and of how peacekeepers are recruited. We are told that peacekeepers are recruited from district two and that varying financial in social incentives are used to coerce them into taking less desirable assignments

in our own society society were seeing of drastic increase in the number of citizens employeed in so called law enforcement. at one time being a police officer was considered a low-paying job. However many law enforcement personnel now earn six-figure incomes. income above what they would otherwise be able to earn with the same level of education along with pensions is used as leverage to coerce the police into performing tasks they would otherwise object to.

another parallel to our own country is the corruption of media by government. at one time it was considered the duty of the press to scrutinize the government, but we've seen a shift and the media has become the propaganda arm of the administration

in the book it's unclear how aware the media is of their role. Are they so supportive because they are as convinced as the rest of the capital or are they knowingly part of the coercion

Learn Liberty Academy wrote: "We would love to hear your first impressions about the most important themes in the Hunger Games series!"

It's great so far! I like the content!

I am a little confused by the interface, and the program. am I supposed to watch all 36 videos today? and then there are more videos tomorrow? or am I to pace my video watching throughout the week?