Day 24: what the Hunger Games teaches me about fear.

The Hunger Games series has me totally inspired. Talk about a story with fear in it. This story is basically founded on fear. Today I saw Mockingjay, the 3rd of 4. Now I won't give a spoiler and I don't claim to be a movie critic. I am very intrigued, however, at the subtle and overt messages the Hunger Games teaches me about fear. 

Fear and manipulation are very closely linked. Not every type of fear, but the fear I've addressed in previous posts. The kind of fear that suffocates. The kind of fear that thrives in the uncertain, the irrational. The capitol built a system on the very basis of this type of fear- a rat race for power and privilege. By using this kind of fear, they shove people into rigid categories with specific regulations about work and conduct. For years, these categories of people operate inside of a paradigm that many have accepted as normal, unquestioningly. What keeps them there? Manipulation. The assumed belief that as lesser people they cannot amount to more. What's the tool used to accomplish that manipulation? Fear. Tactics that inject panic and brainwash. Fear is powerful and merges effectively with manipulation. 

Fear is the hardest habit to unlearn. Fear runs deep. It goes beyond a feeling or response. It becomes innate and engrained. It can commandeer identity, altering the very fabric of the human character. Once locked behind its iron gates, it becomes hard to imagine life outside. It is destructive. It is the hardest habit to unlearn. Unlearning it takes time, sweat, roll-up-your-sleeves work. Unlearning it takes healing. 

Hope is the only thing stronger than fear. Surprisingly enough the villain is the one who offers these words. Though fear is the hardest to unlearn, it is not impossible. It can only be conquered by a source larger than self, larger than factors that trigger it. People long for a symbol of hope, a symbol pointing to a coming redemption. Those under the oppression of the capitol are inspired to rise up and fight when the Mockingjay is in their midst. It's not the symbol itself or Katniss's story that inspires, but what that symbol represents. A symbol of hope compels people to fight and to fight to the death for a cause that is bigger than themselves. Fear rules when there is no greater cause. Hope, tethered to a symbol of the good that is to come is the only way to unlock the tyranny of fear. Not surprisingly, it seems that every good story points to this symbol of hope. This longing for a coming redemption seems to be woven into the tapestry of the human DNA. This longing is the one breathed into us and fulfilled by the symbol of hope we receive in Christ, the once-for-all hero of all sin.