Though the liberal media and leftist Hollywood are wrapping themselves in The Hunger Games, the book series' pro-individualism, anti-socialist/communist/totalitarianism message has thus far eluded them -- but the legions of children reading the books are getting the message.

When I learned that my teenage sons -- macho young lads, to be sure -- were suddenly captivated by a book series featuring a 16-year-old female protagonist, I was intrigued, to say the least -- intrigued enough to read the books myself. As I progressed through the story, I found myself checking and re-checking the cover several times to make sure the author wasn't Ayn Rand.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, it chronicles a futuristic American society which has fallen under the grip of a brutal totalitarian communist government. Those connected with government live a life of wasteful opulence at the expense of the population, which has been sectioned off into impoverished fenced-in districts charged with producing the raw materials to sustain the capital. When children reach working age, their jobs are assigned to them, and compliance is enforced through the withholding of food rations and, ultimately, the hangman's noose. Ever-present are government "peacekeepers" charged with the surveillance of the people in an constant search for seditionists.

The author is starkly clear in this anti-oppressive government premise, and at no time during the reading of the books are you left with any sense this is a greedy rich vs. righteous poor tale. No, this series is about the children of a once-free American culture wrestling their own destiny back from the iron grip of government totalitarianism.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/the_unseen_message_of_the_hunger_games.html#ixzz1qa9Ekel5