The Hunger Games and Covenant

Okay, I admit it.  I haven’t read The Hunger Games.  Nor am I racing out to see the movie tonight.  I do plan on reading them just to try to understand the cultural phenomena they have become.

But in listening to the talk about them something has stuck out for me. The star of the movie, Jennifer Lawrence, playing Katniss, says this:  ”The most important message of this story is how powerful one person can be and the power we have as a people.” Obviously people in general, and the millennial generation in particular, are craving an opportunity for one person to make a difference.

We see the same theme in the sanctification of Steve Jobs that happened after his death.  What was mentioned over and over again was his ability to bring a unique vision and execute it with a reluctant (and mostly, according to him, a “stupid”) band of followers.  After reading half of the Steve Jobs biography I had to stop, so disturbing was his megalomania to me.

But there’s a key difference between the version of individualism of baby boomer Jobs and the millennial followers of The Hunger Games.  You can see it in the last phrase of Jennifer Lawrence’s quote: “the power we have as a people”.  The individualistic emphasis that we see now is not necessarily just about personal achievement.  It’s about personal achievement in pursuit of a larger cause, the ability to make a difference in the world.

In other words, I think there is an assumed covenant in these expressions of desire to do good.  Those that are drawn to this way of thinking presume from the beginning that it is their obligation to do good in the world, that they are part of a larger fabric of being, that part of their role is to talk to others and listen, not to dictate their “rightness”.

Those of us who fear the individualistic tenor of the times would do well to attend to this underlying commitment.