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>I never personally understood the fascination 'Panem et circenses'

• kijin 14y ago
  And Panem is the name of the fictional country where The Hunger Games takes place. A country where people turn so irrational over a game of teenage kids knocking one another over ... fatally. We, too, used to do this not so long ago. The stadiums are still around if you visit Rome.
  • pyre 14y ago
    The Hunger Games were instituted by the central controlling authority (the Capitol) as punishment to the worker castes (Districts 1-12) for their failed rebellion. Some of the Districts celebrated the games, but mostly because the winning District was given perks over the other Districts (extra food, etc), so rooting for your 'team' was also rooting for your community to get extra supplies rather than going without. This also pits the Districts against each other, making it more difficult for them to band together to stand against the controlling authority again. On the other hand, football in small-town America contains none of this. They don't get anything other than bragging rights when Smalltown 1 beats Smalltown 2 for some sort of football championship. The individual players might get scholarship money for university to play college ball, but that's about it.