POLITICAL THEORY AND THE HUNGER GAMES WE LIVE IN AND WATCH.

DECONSTRUCT… EVERYTHING. ASK MORE QUESTIONS. ASSUME THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW, ACTUALLY, MUCH. MAKE - WHY WHY WHY - A MANTRA.

Life has been a lot lately.

Bone-heavy, tumultuous, kaleidoscopic in its way of breaking and expanding my heart.

I, the constant questioner, and little renegade, am unravelling further by the day.

This process began for me as a child. I have always been curious, I have questioned the status quo of culture and society since I was old enough to form the simple word - why?

Why?

My cousin always reminds me of how when we watched the film Pearl Harbour when I was little, perhaps aged seven-eleven, I asked so many questions, that she ended up having to explain to me all of the history of the twentieth-century World Wars, and the events that preceded such devastating and globally-altering events.

My family are mostly questioners too. Long before I studied Political Science or Cultural Anthropology, I always asked thousands of questions - WHY.

WHY, WHY, WHY?

Political and philosophical debate was always encouraged in my family system; we are all ruthless debaters. Debate was a love language of my family system, for better and for worse. I am only now learning to discern when and with whom I give my energy for political conversations - I used to unravel anyone who uttered a statement I deemed inhumane. I was constantly challenging and debating people on racist remarks, or why they viewed warfare as an acceptable method for navigating conflict.

As aforementioned, I have ALWAYS asked questions, darling.

Why do humans go to war? Why do some trees shed their leaves, and others are evergreen? Why are some humans homeless, while others live in mansions and castles? Why are millions, if not billions, hungry, and struggling to make ends meet, while others have and hoard more money than they could ever physically spend, or need?

WHY, WHY, WHY?

If it is not abundantly clear, my heart has always been moved by injustice, inequality, inequity and oppression. “Moved” is in fact, an understatement. I am riled by injustice, enraged by it.

I could tell you that justice is a huge part of my astrological birth chart, in the same way that art, poetry, psychology and philosophy are my natural homes. In the same way that others are innately practical, or even entrepreneurial. Perhaps I am destined to be a rebel and renegade, and thus cultural critic.

Or, truly, who fucking knows!

Long ago, I remember studying John Rawls’ “Veil of Ignorance” in one of my favourite papers - Political Philosophy (I just adore theory and philosophy - it would be a self-indulgent dream to be a lifelong scholar, truly).

The concept is so simple, it defines my worldview in terms of politics, philosophy, and spirituality if you will. John Rawls, in arguing for a more egalitarian society (and for taxes and redistribution of wealth and resources, practically speaking), asks a simple question.

If you could be born in any place within society, how would you like society to be?

I paraphrase here, but the Veil of Ignorance is not a difficult idea to grasp. It is a simple question invoking a simple tenet of our humanity - empathy.

If the dice was rolled, and you were born in Palestine - how would you want the world to be? If you were born as a refugee or a homeless person on the street of a rich society - how would you want society to be structured?

If you were stripped of your identity - your sex, gender, culture, religion, nationality, etc - how would you envision the world? Would anybody advocate for the current capitalist system, with all of its guises of meritocracy, “manifestation” (in certain scenes), and the “you-get-what-you-work-for” beliefs?

The neoliberal “Pull Up Your Bootstraps, Fix Your Attitude, Make Better Choices, And Work Hard Till You’re On Top” pervasive belief system is so tired. It’s so dated. It’s so delusional. It’s so entitled. It’s so cold, so non-compassionate to the nuances of humanity… or of life.

It is very convenient, for many of us. We like to claim that we are deserving of the “good” in our lives. But doesn’t that infer that some are deserving of the “bad/miserable/awful” circumstances of theirs? (I will write another essay on my thoughts around ideas like “manifestation” another day).

What I am truly pointing to, here, is the age-old question -

“Why do bad things happen to good people?”

WHY, WHY WHY?

As humans, a species brilliant at creating elaborate stories, mythologies, and meanings for everything we may never truly understand - we have created entire religions and philosophies in our attempts to answer such a question.

Some speak of past lives, of karma, of a universe which keeps everything in balance and in check, by some invisible accounting system. Others speak of a judgmental God who will put “bad” people in Hell, and “good” people in Heaven. I am being facetious here, in my oversimplification of complex and elaborate religious belief systems.

I’m not God, I’m not another planet observing the chaos of Earth with detachment and curiosity. (I like to personify things, an extremely human trait, as we have created Gods in our likeness).

In truth: I don’t know why bad things happen to innocent humans.

It’s beginning to irritate me more and more with age as I observe the unquestioning self-assuredness of other humans’ attempts to explain to me why awful things happen to “good” humans. Or to any humans.

Does any child in Gaza deserve genocide? No. Do you deserve your current comfort? Not anymore than the child in Gaza deserves genocide.

Life isn’t as simple as reductive, stupid sayings like “you get what you work for”. How arrogant of a statement. I wish our Western culture could unlearn this entitled and problematic belief system, along with its hatred of “the victim”.

Everybody IS, to some fucking degree, a victim of their circumstances! You did not choose where you were born in the world, to which family, how much or how little trauma you will experience in this life, or have so far, your sensitivity, your natural talents, your natural disposition, your genes, your gender, sex, ethnicity, nationality… etc, etc.

(Yes I am aware that certain belief systems do assert that we chose our circumstances as a soul, but I take everything with a grain, nay, bucket, of salt… if these beliefs help us navigate our lives, great, but if we weaponise these beliefs to judge others for their failings and sit smugly on our high horses, judging others for their individual choices instead of looking at the wider systems that created the circumstances of so many… then I say - red flag, check yourself).

…You do your best, with the cards you are dealt… None of us are in control of the great Dice of Death/Life, which also deals its doses of atrocity or ease…

Privilege is a nuanced term, to be unpacked another day (I am writing this from my phone, as there is no wifi on my laptop today).

Maybe, we are all just doing our best!

A certain type of person, of course, will flourish in this system. Certain types of people, in fact. It is not an original thought for me to point out, frankly, that those with more narcissistic personalities, do better in this system, than those with higher empathy.

By “do better”, I mean, earn more money, “achieve more”,and enjoy fame, power, status… social capital. Same with more psychopathic and sociopathic personalities.

These personality types dominate this world order, and hold enormous power - at the level of running countries, and multinational corporations. The most humane people, from my twenty-eight years of observation, do not seek glitter and dollars, but serve from their hearts quietly.

Lately, I’ve seen brilliant comparisons online, juxtaposing the glitter and dazzling distraction of Western society’s reigning royalty at the very top (celebrity culture) with the brutality of the plight of Gaza.

Our darling celebrities, exalted to God-like status, crowned with insane amounts of wealth, fame and power, for their ordinary talents. I say ordinary because these same talents exist everywhere around the globe.

There are beautiful people everywhere. There are talented artists everywhere. But we do not live in a society of equal access, honey. Celebrity culture exists because we continue to view some humans as “more special” than others, God-like in their talent, and somehow, “more deserving of success” than our neighbourhood brothers and sisters.

WHY, WHY, WHY?

As a species, we seem to have an innate need to pedestal some, whom we crown as more God-like, more knowing than us, more talented, more beautiful, more intelligent, more… (fill in the blank with as many other adjectives as you like). More worthy of “success”? Are any of us, truly, more worthy than others?

Aren’t we all wanting the same damn thing - beyond survival - to be loved?

Perhaps I am wrong here, perhaps some truly do desire power above all else, and perhaps some are driven by greed, over empathy and love. I have been rather idealistic in my view of humans thus far, refusing to believe in the overly simplistic realist political theories that assert that human beings are all innately self-centred, greedy and competitive creatures, which justifies a “Survivial-Of-The-Fittest” worldview. It also justifies warfare, and all kinds of cruelty.

Whilst I think that this assumption of humanity is too reductive, and incomplete in its lack of acknowledgement of contradiction, nuance and multitude within each and every human being… (and the fact that we are also wired to love and care for one another too, and that is what has helped us evolve as a species) perhaps there is a stronger antagonistic force within some of us.

Since the beginning of time, art and myth have been made about this so-called battle of “good” and “evil” within mankind, or within the world at large - personified by God and the Devil. I consciously try to avoid such reductive and binary terms like “good” and “bad”, in my experience and judgment of people. However, I will and can judge behaviour that is cruel, inhumane, or kind, and loving.

Back to celebrity culture… and the Hunger Games we are watching, and living in.

I have always despised celebrity culture, in that I see through it. I don’t think that the most famous artists are better than non-famous artists. Popularity and status do not equate to talent or so-called deservedness. Of course, I was still raised in a culture that deifies celebrities, and I still have to catch myself often, as I find myself pedestaling some, as I put myself down, as somehow “less worthy”, because I am not rich, “successful”, by western materialistic standards, or famous.

I am choosing to employ the audacity to call myself a writer, with a small Substack followed by mostly family and friends, that I hope to grow. Because - I am a writer in that, I write. I have always written. I have always wanted to be a writer, as my profession in this life. And I have always had things to say - to the point where my friends used to tell me I needed to become a politician. HA.

Now, I would rather write about the world I see, and do my best to live authentically, shedding myself of conditioning that truly, does not serve me. I would rather write political and cultural essays, and share poetry, in the hope that my thoughts and ideas stir questions, self-reflection, and empathy.

Ideas are my currency.

Questions are my currency.

Empathy is my currency.

Observation is my currency.

As aforementioned, I recently saw a chilling viral reel of celebrities dressed to the nines in diamonds and bespoke, couture outfits, worth more than most of our homes at the 2024 annual Met Gala, contrasting horrific scenes of bombs, blood, ruin, devastation and death in Gaza. The reel was overlaid with the song The Hanging Tree from the popular dystopian film/book/franchise The Hunger Games.

We are watching The Hunger Games, friends.

I wish I had a convenient eight-step method to soothe your soul, if it is as disturbed as my own, by the state of the world. If I were a self-help entrepreneur, I would sell you a course on how to exist better in this chaotic world. (I am truly being facetious today - there is something in the air.)

This essay jumped from my fingertips onto the page, I have literally typed it all from my phone.

Forgive me for my cynicism. The world has made me weary. I truly care, so much, hence why I am so moved by injustice. Even if I can’t be at a protest right now in person, this is my protest.

There is power in the pen.

There is power in unravelling.

There is power in asking questions.

I know that it is easier to disassociate in these times we are living in. I know that it is easier to not know, to not care. I know that we’re all just trying to survive. I know that not all of us have the time to unravel as I have been forced to (by life). I know not all of us are innate questioners - but is that true? (I don’t know actually, you tell me in the comments).

I don’t know… I don’t know… I am observing though. And asking questions. Always.

It would appear that the world is changing.

And I know that many of us are TIRED. Tired of living in oppressive systems, that privilege some, and subject others to cruelty, tyranny, to genocide. Tired of watching state-sponsored genocide, tired of the veils of ignorance - of vapid, superficial and self-indulgent high-celebrity or elite culture, existing as a simple distraction.

I love artists, but I will never give the Kardashians, or reality TV stars, for example, my time or attention. If you enjoy these puppets and clowns for escapism - that’s also fine. Just know that you are watching a show, designed to detract your attention from truth.

I will leave you today with John Rawls’ famous thought experiment:

If you did not know where you would be born into society - how would you want society to be structured?

In all this tyranny, can we dream a better dream?!

If this essay resonated in any way, or even triggered you, I would love to hear and read your comments below. Let’s share ideas. If this essay resonates with you strongly, feel free to share it around, it would be immensely supportive of my work, as I am growing this Substack. In fact if you have made it here, please comment, and let me know - I appreciate your time and energy and engagement with my work!

*35mm film photo above taken at Teotihuacán, in Mexico, of the Aztec Pyramid of the Sun in 2018. It is one of my favourite film photos of mine to date, exhibited back in 2020.