We Are Evolving?

The Hunger Games, the movie, opens today to huge crowds of teens and preteens. It promises to be one of the largest grossing movies of the year – If not forever. Kids stood in line for hours to attend a midnight showing. This is big.

I have read the book and I wonder why the movie and the book are such a big deal. It is an engaging and well written book. But the story line is more than just a little disturbing. Basically it is about a post-apocalyptic America that has a strong, high tech government overseeing an impoverished population that is controlled through hunger. In this situation it is a regular occurrence for people to die of starvation. The main character has learned, in order to support her widowed mother and younger sister, to sneak out of their government controlled enclosure and hunt and fish. She is, of course, chosen to participate in the annual "Hunger Games." If she weren't the book would only be about 40 pages long. The hunger game is a yearly event in which two teenagers are selected from each district to participate in a televised reality program in which they are required to fight until only one survives. The winner is awarded a nice home and life-long government support.

It is easy to figure out why children like the books. (The Hunger Games is one of a trilogy.) It has all of the elements that are attractive to teens. The authority figures are shallow, hypocritical, bad people. The kids are the good guys. The children outwit the adults. There is a love interest. There are elements of fear and lots of gore. Perfect! What is there for kids not to like?

I find it interesting how closely the hunger games mirror the games in the coliseum of ancient Rome. Huge numbers of people assembled to watch other human beings battle to the death. It would seem that there is still a great appeal to our human nature to participate in much the same "entertainment" as the ancients.

For years I have watched church leaders wring their hands and bemoan the fact that when many young people leave the home of their birth, they also leave the church. Articles are written enumerating the reasons young people lose interest in the church and stray from the religion of their parents. Each time these articles appear the authors seem to believe they have discovered some radical new truth. The reality is that this phenomenon is not new. In fact, children have been displaying this same behavior for decades. And each new generation has been doing it for much the same reasons as those who have gone before them. Unfortunately, we have a difficult time seeing the sameness the generations share because of short memories and a profound egotism that causes us to believe we are unique.

I bring these to seemingly different phenomenon together to make a point. I believe it is a basic truth that we like to believe we are evolving. But we are not. We keep repeating behaviors and even making the same mistakes over and over and over again. Human nature is a powerful thing.

Copyright © 2012, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved