Excitement! 'The Hunger Games' starts at my local Multiplex this weekend, and from what I've seen, it looks like it's gonna be good. I've not read any of the books mind, and in truth had never heard of it until a couple of months ago, when the promotion machine started to crank up. It kind of got me thinking about what levels we might eventually sink to in the name of entertainment.
Okay, life is still sacred, as far as television programming goes, so we have not yet plummeted to the depths of Gladitorial style combat for prime viewing. But maybe that is only a matter of time. The bulk of TV listings is now dominated by what has been aptly named 'reality television'. This is a convenient tool to save on devising proper concepts, and take us out of our own mundane lives - into someone else's. It's usually ramped up to the hilt with some contrived conflict, but it seems to me that just having the mere ability to peer into some other person's world is enough to keep us glued to the sofa. After all isn't this what the soaps do? Except they're not reality, and we know it. So they can do anything they like, to a point. Interesting though, that two of the major, long standing serial dramas in the UK have both featured murders over the last two weeks.
That never happened years ago. Petty theft - and maybe an armed robbery might have been the worst we could expect in one year of viewing. I don't recall 'homicide on your very doorstep' being a common thread. Granted, we know a close to home murder is about the worst thing a neighborhood could experience, so to use it as a plot too often would be unrealistic, but its the dramatic parallel to reality that is interesting. That's why these events are so shocking, because they disturb our linearity, they make us realise things will eventually change . . . whether we like it or not.
To ponder why we love RT so much is maybe a tough question, because it probably says more about us than the participants on the screen. An age ago a well recognised and advanced for the time empire used the plight of the ill fated and despised to provide entertainment for the masses. The Roman Arenas must truly have been places where the most brutal visual horrors were played out, yet I wonder if Christians being torn limb from limb might have been the normal Saturday afternoon pleasure for many families of the rich and noble. Probably so. It wasn't a problem to them, you see. There was no moral dilemma to address. These filthy creatures were nothing to Rome after all, little better than animals.
These days we are more civilized. We fake and fudge our arena games, water them right down and find some way of making them fully acceptable. Get rid of the blood letting, but use just about every other situation one might face instead: Family feuds, infidelity, kitchen nightmares,weddings, blind dates, hidden cameras . . .
The only problem is, the list of the mundane will eventually burn out - and maybe we'll start to creep back . . .
That will never happen, right? But movies and books do keep on giving us this scenario speculatively. From 'The Running Man' years ago, to 'The Hunger Games' today, we still insist in fiction that the final offspring from this whimsical child might be the age old scenario we all fear. How bad must things get before we find good reason to pull Rome back out of the play box? Unthinkable? I don't know. Nothing surprises me these days. The call for capital punishment to be reinstated in Britain comes up year upon year as crime increases. What about giving the convicted felon a fighting chance for a change? Maybe manipulating a combat handicap for a10% chance of survival if it's an open and shut case - 60% if there's some doubt of guilt? Yes, it is a disgusting premise but some of the stuff in today's arenas dances on the fringes of poor taste. If you can get away with it, bad taste sells - and sells big.
Shows that purport to provide help and support now have a good excuse for their voyeurism. And maybe they do help the poor souls who voluntarily put themselves forward for the 'games'. But there is a price to be paid. Exposure, ridicule, and humiliation in front of a baying crowd is usually a standard, being goaded to the point of violence, before being ushered away by a nightclub bouncer for much needed counseling. Thank you, doctor.
Maybe this is a tried and trusted method of emotional cleansing. But it does boast a nice little bi-product of huge TV ratings, along with celebrity for the host, the heavies hired to protect them, and the counselors who comfort from the back.
Oh yes, we still have our own 'Hunger Games'. Maybe one day ancient Rome might return, to take us that one step further . . .
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