“Sadism dominates the culture. It runs like an electric current through reality television and trash-talk programs...

Washington has become our Versailles. We are ruled, entertained, and informed by courtiers -- and the media has evolved into a class of courtiers. The Democrats, like the Republicans, are mostly courtiers.

Our pundits and experts, at least those with prominent public platforms, are courtiers. We are captivated by the hollow stagecraft of political theater as we are ruthlessly stripped of power. It is smoke and mirrors, tricks and con games, and the purpose behind it is deception...

A culture that does not grasp the vital interplay between morality and power, which mistakes management techniques for wisdom, and fails to understand that the measure of a civilization is its compassion, not its speed or ability to consume, condemns itself to death.”

Chris Hedges, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle


"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, They kill us for their sport."

William Shakespeare, King Lear

They would be as gods, and so revel in violence and death which, unable to create life, is their greatest power.   These will live and prosper, and those will live miserably, and die.  They seek to master death with their illusions.  The prospect of their own death drives their fears into madness.

And they hide their nakedness with spectacle, and fill their empty being with excess, fads, and distractions.

Welcome to the Hunger Games. And may the odds be ever in your favor.

“Why do you think we have a winner?,” Snow asks while cutting a white rose.

"What do you mean?,” Seneca asks. “I mean, why do we have a winner?,” Snow repeats, before pausing. “Hope.”

“Hope?,” Seneca replies slightly bewildered.

“Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective, a lot of hope is dangerous,” Snow declares.

“A spark is fine, as long as it’s contained. So, contain it,” Snow warns.

Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games