What Dystopian Literature Can Teach Us

I just finished reading The Hunger Games trilogy and I'll be processing it for awhile. I'm sorry in one way that I pursued an advanced degree in government and management instead of English literature, my true love. Two college course ideas fascinate me: 1) propaganda in literature and film. (Philadelphia was a classic example of gay propaganda and would certainly feature in the course.) and 2) dystopian literature.

Here's an observation about dystopian literature. Check it out by reading:

1984 by George Orwell 

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 

That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis 

Lord of the World by Hugh Benson

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

All of the governments are strong centralized regimes that treat their citizens as cogs in their well-oiled machine. Freedom is severely limited. An elite class runs everything.  The people are expendable and pragmatism rules. Morality is whatever advances the agenda of the dystopian government.

Sound familiar? We are moving ever more rapidly toward totalitarianism. When Bishop Jenky warned about the historical reality of the attack on religious rights during Hitler's rise to power, he was vilified. But he's absolutely right. The warning signs are everywhere. The gun confiscation from citizens in New Orleans after Katrina. The demonizing and scapegoating of certain groups of people. (In Germany it was the Jews; now it's people of faith and successful businessmen.) The continuous fomenting of mobs like the occupy groups and union thugs. It's happened before.

Sometimes it's hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys which is why I'll stick close the Jesus Christ and his Church. Meanwhile, do you think the liberal young people gobbling up The Hunger Games get it? We're a lot like Panem which is a lot like ancient Rome  which is a lot like Hitler's Germany which is a lot like Stalin's Russia which is a lot like Turkish Armenia.