Stay Alive: Surviving Capitalism's Coming Hunger Games

by Michael Harris

When The Hunger Games series began in 2008, many commentators lumped it in with other young adult genre fiction. But The Hunger Games was always more political. It's since become the defining story for a generation that's grown up with economic crisis and never ending war. An uber-rich ruling class gorge themselves in their gleaming high-tech Capitol, while working people are left behind to survive in exploited districts. Revolution is a forgotten hope kept at bay by brutal policing, aching poverty, and rigid class segregation. Suzanne Collins' dark vision has only become more relevant as The Hunger Games generation are thrown into an arena of increasingly brutal competition from which it seems like there is no escape, amid the climate crisis, global pandemics, rampant inequality, authoritarianism, media misinformation, and violence and cruelty as TV spectacle. It's no wonder the story continues to resonate. Stay Alive uses the story to shed light on our own age of extreme inequalities and climate collapse, in which elites use state power, compliant media, and violent spectacle to pacify their populations. The elite endgame is leading us towards our own version of Panem, an authoritarian state order we'll call Capitolism. The world is catching fire. Elites have no intention of burning with us. And yet there is hope, which Michael Harris finds for his readers in revolution and radical solidarity, in the anti-authoritarian, empathetic, cooperative politics of a generation that has no choice but to rebel.

216 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2021

About the author

Michael Harris is an independent writer and researcher who has worked in numerous sectors including education, technology, innovation, government, public services and urban planning. Most recently he has focused on planning for future trends, such as climate change, population growth, economic and technological disruption, and the collapse in trust in political institutions.

Michael's first book, on planning for today's biggest social challenges, was published by Routledge in May 2019. His second book, about political hope in the twenty-first century, was published by Zero Books in June 2020. His third book, about survival in turbulent times, also with Zero Books, came out in May 2021. His most recent book, on how science fiction has predicted the future we're increasingly living in, is out in November 2023 with Lexington Books.

Reviews

[Timothee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is my first to focus reading a non-fiction book! It was just so captivating and the theme of the book is timely though it's based on the hunger games film.

I love the ability of the author to question my political senses and also allow me to question what it means to be young in this generation. While the choice of words in this is (imo) scholarly and somehow one cannot fully grasp if you won't look for the meaning of it or maybe it's just me, but definitely, the lesson learned from this book is something I will hold on dearly.

This is a good read for all the young ones, curious about how to define revolution in our own ways.